Her Story
About Courtney
I was mentored into hospitality after originally earning a theater degree. I was working as a host at a restaurant when my salesperson noticed that I was really good at communicating with clients and customers and knew the whole menu, so she mentored me into becoming her sales coordinator. After that role ended, I found myself with La Quinta in a position where I got into sales with lead coordination, working with some sales programs, and helping our team members be able to be more in the field selling while I was more in the background looking for new business and filtering that out. I also worked with hotels to figure out how they can bring in more business to their hotels through a program that we produced. La Quinta was acquired by Wyndham a few months into my time with them, and I've been part of the Wyndham team ever since, having had multiple roles within this organization over my 8 years in the business. My current role is Programs and Products Specialist, where I help all our commercial operations team in the sales part and assist sellers with different needs for their clients. I work a lot with our Wyndham Direct billing program that we just introduced, and we are ongoing making improvements and seeing the needs of our clients and meeting those needs as we see them incoming. I'm very much a really good juggler in my role, and I take pride in that. In sales operations, we're behind the scenes, not always in front of clients selling, but we are there to ensure that the account managers and the clients are able to sell, as well as get into the hotels with ease. It's very similar to my theater background, where I also worked behind the scenes, making sure that the actors were able to do what they're able to do.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Courtney
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the way that our team is structured. It doesn't feel like I am just working for a hospitality company. It feels like I'm always going in knowing who I'm working with and being part of a team culture, no matter who I'm speaking with. In Wyndham, whether it's one of our sales team members, an account manager, or even somebody in our legal team, everything is such a smooth and easy process and such an open and welcoming environment at Wyndham. I also attribute a lot to one of my mentors, Natalie Lewis. I've been working with her for 7 years now, and she's always teaching me something new.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
If you have a goal, start acting on that goal right away in order to achieve success, instead of waiting on someone to give you the green light. Just go for it.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't shy away from introducing yourself to anyone you meet. I was very introverted whenever I started in sales, and every year, I am more and more confident in who I am as a person, and it really attributes to just going up and introducing yourself and starting a conversation, or seeing a conversation that you can be a part of and contribute to, and just speaking up.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
There are always challenges and opportunities, especially when it comes to ownership. We have a program at Wyndham called Women Own the Room, and it's all about focusing on female and women ownership of hotels. I think that that's extremely important. I think there's always room for more equality for women in leadership and leader roles, and opening up mentorships to other women in the industry who might be at a starting point, because we all began somewhere. I think that there's always possibility for more equality for women, especially in the hospitality industry.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Flexibility and organization are most important to me. I know those seem like complete opposites, but being organized for my day is extremely important, and then being flexible to whatever comes my way, whether that's something in my personal life or something that's going on in the industry. We deal with a lot of catastrophic business, especially during hurricane season, so being flexible to that is always important. I have my day organized, but if something happens in my personal life, Wyndham is extremely flexible to something happening and being able to take care of family first and then coming back for the workday.
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