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May 04, 2020‘It was a Blessing’
Cierra Bickel is director of sales at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Cincinnati NE Redbank. She was behind the front desk in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when a man, a woman and their son came in to book 26 rooms for two nights. Overjoyed at having unexpected business, Bickel was in read more
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May 04, 2020Stepping Up
Sawan Patel is a second-generation hotelier and managing partner of Unity Hotels Group, a company his father, Hasu, founded in Houston, Texas. His fiancé works in the health care field and Patel heard at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S. how difficult it was for hospitals to obtain personal protection equipment such read more
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May 04, 2020Special Touch
Prakash Saraf was raised in Nepal, India, by parents who taught him the value of caring for the less fortunate. As a hotelier in Baltimore, Saraf sees firsthand how people struggle to survive. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it even harder for the poor and disenfranchised to stay safe. Saraf’s non-profit called Friends of Sparsh read more
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May 04, 2020It’s About Serving Others
Tejal Patel is founder of her own hotel company called Neem Tree Hospitality in Texas. At the beginning of the year, she began to help her family market its Fairfield Inn & Suites under construction in League City, Texas. As the coronavirus crisis took over the industry, Patel switched gears to focus on how best read more
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May 04, 2020Give Them Shelter
Kal Patel is founder and CEO of Crestpoint Companies in Mason, Ohio. He owns and operates hotels in Ohio and Kentucky. Two are under construction and the others are operating at 5 to 10 percent occupancy since the crisis struck in mid-March. A few properties are housing homeless and dislocated residents as well as serving read more
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May 04, 2020A New Balance
Davonne Reaves owns and operates The Vonne Group, a hospitality advisory and consulting venture in Atlanta. A people-person, Reaves has found herself conducting business from home, deploying technology to hold meetings while caring for her 1-year-old son, who can’t attend day care during the COVID-19 crisis. Reaves believes the workplace and expectations of employers and read more
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May 04, 2020Changing Comfort Levels
Lisbeth Ceballos is vice president of housekeeping at G6 Hospitality. A native of Venezuela, Ceballos came to the U.S. at the age of 17 with a plan to build a career in the hospitality industry. As a trailblazer, Ceballos is used to navigating through uncomfortable situations, but she’s never faced anything as complex and uncertain read more
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August 21, 2019Master Story Teller
Historic hotels have years and years of stories to tell. A challenge faced by owners and operators of America’s landmark hotels is to educate the staff on the property’s history and train them to embody the hotel’s culture. One employee who doesn’t have to be schooled is Susan Stein. She’s the official historian at Grand read more
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June 12, 2019Secret of a Healthy Chef
Ryan Ellis is familiar with the adage, “Never trust a skinny chef,” but for the executive chef at Fit Farm, it works the opposite. Ellis, 32, joined the fitness and wellness retreat in Castalian Springs, Tennessee, about a year ago. He said he’s learned about the significance of portion control in meals – for Fit read more
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May 01, 2019From Bellman to GM
Juan Mera is general manager of North Point Hospitality Group’s tri-brand Marriott hotel in downtown Nashville. Taking the job was a challenge that Mera knew was a rare career opportunity. And it made him break a promise to his wife. Mera is a native of Lima, Peru. He came to the U.S. nearly 30 years read more
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March 13, 2019
‘It’s All I Know’
Lisbeth Ceballos is an accomplished expert in hospitality management. She leads at G6 Hospitality as vice president of housekeeping operation and services. Ceballos, a native of Venezuela, has overcome many challenges in her upward climb to success. Few people know the adversity she has faced and continues to deal with because Ceballos puts others before read more
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March 06, 2019On the Front Line of the Sex-Trafficking Battleground
Vipul Dayal is an hotelier in San Diego, California. More importantly, he is a husband and father of three children. He strives to protect his family from the type of childhood he experienced growing up in a small motel along a street rampant with sex crime. When he was a youngster helping his father run read more
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February 27, 2019‘This is my baby’
Ashley Ewing Parrott lives and breathes her job at Vision Hospitality Group. Like a new mother, Ashley dotes over The Edwin, Vision Hospitality’s new boutique hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She pays attention to every detail as if the creation is a reflection of herself. During an interview in the lobby of The Edwin about two read more