Her Story
About Reina
Reina Morales is an accomplished hospitality and human resources leader with more than three decades of experience in hotel operations, team development, and organizational leadership. Currently serving as Director of Human Resources at The Westin Los Angeles Airport, she oversees all aspects of human resources for one of Southern California’s largest full-service hotels, featuring 740 guest rooms and more than 53,000 square feet of meeting and event space. Fluent in both English and Spanish, Reina has built a reputation for creating inclusive workplace cultures, developing high-performing teams, and ensuring employees have the resources and support they need to succeed.
Throughout her distinguished career, Reina has held senior leadership positions with respected hospitality organizations, including The Beverly Hilton, Davidson Hotel Company, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, and Ramada Hotels. Her expertise spans hotel operations, talent acquisition, employee relations, training and development, compliance, and performance management. Drawing from extensive hands-on operational experience, she understands the critical connection between engaged employees and exceptional guest experiences. Her bilingual communication skills have been particularly valuable in supporting diverse workforces and ensuring that training, safety procedures, and organizational initiatives are accessible and effective for all team members.
Passionate about mentoring and leadership development, Reina is committed to helping hospitality professionals grow their careers while fostering environments where employees feel valued, respected, and empowered. Inspired by mentors who shaped her own leadership journey, she dedicates time to coaching emerging leaders and building strong, collaborative teams. Known for her people-first approach and commitment to service excellence, Reina continues to make a lasting impact on both the employees she leads and the guests they serve, while pursuing her long-term goal of advancing to a General Manager role within the hospitality industry.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Reina
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to having a positive attitude and being bilingual. Being able to speak both English and Spanish has helped my guests, my team, and the company I work for. I help with translations and documents, and that's why I'm involved in the orientation part of our operations. We prepare PowerPoint presentations in Spanish so that we can have orientation in Spanish and orientation in English. The Spanish orientation gives team members the same information as the English one, because some members of the team speak English, but it's not really fluid English. For safety information, they need to really understand critical things like don't open the doors, take care of your key, and what are the steps in situations like fires or other emergencies. Being able to provide that clarity and understanding has been my contribution to my company and my team, and I believe that positive attitude combined with being able to serve everyone effectively is what has made me successful.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to take the day as it comes and be prepared for unexpected situations. In business and hospitality, you expect that the day is going to be one way, but when you're there, the day is totally different. You have to be very patient and make your team comfortable, even when any unexpected situation happens. Sometimes your expectation is, okay, tomorrow will be like this, this, this, and when you're there to open the day, it's totally different. You have to be calm, you have to be polite to everybody, so that your team is good and your guest is good, and everything finishes the day the correct way and everybody's not nervous. Our hotel is close to the airport, so we deal with flight cancellations and unhappy guests, so I mentally prepare all the time for anything that can happen.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women entering this industry is to have passion for what you do. This job is hard and stressful, so you need passion. I have passion for everything I do because I'm enjoying it, and you also need patience. Those two words, passion and patience, almost sound similar, but for me, they are the most important. If we work with passion, everything works better. You have to love what you're doing because hospitality is demanding, but when you bring passion to it, it makes all the difference.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important value to me is that women should take care of each other and help each other. We are strong and we can multitask in multiple situations. We can influence other women and show them that they can go after their dreams, whatever dream they have, they can do it. I have my own dreams, both personal dreams that have already come through and professional dreams like wanting to grow up to be a GM one day. What's important is that we influence and take care of each other. Don't let another woman down. Just help each other, it doesn't matter who you are. If you see a lady, a woman, who wants to dream, help them. We need to help each other, whatever dream it is, professional or personal. We need to stick together.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · North Carolina
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.