Jeffrey G. Saunders: the natural host. (president of Copley Square Hotel)

Jeffrey Saunders was born to be a hotelier. His is the third generation of a family business that has maintained the regal traditions of the great old Boston hotel properties.

What his grandfather, Irving Saunders, began with the purchase of the Broadway Hotel in 1930 and the Copley Square Hotel in 1948, and his father, Roger Saunders, continued with the addition of the Lenox Hotel in 1963 and the Park Plaza (formerly the Statler Hilton) in 1976, Jeffrey and his brothers carry on today.

To say that Jeffrey Saunders grew up in hotels would not be an exaggeration, but it would not describe a transient or lonely childhood. The second of four sons, Jeffrey was raised in Brookline with his three brothers, all of whom now work in the family company or in hotel consulting.

Saunders recalls regular Saturday morning trips downtown with his father to check up on operations at the family properties.

"I grew up here even before I started working," said Saunders in an interview from his office at the Lenox Hotel on Boylston Street. "Coming in on Saturdays and on weekends with my dad, I just had …