Alyssa Townsend, the Director of Social Media at Bee Loud, has been selected as one of the Inweekly Rising Stars for 2018. Inweekly’s Rising Stars list spotlights young professionals under the age of 35 who are excelling in their respective fields.

Hailing from San Jose, California, Alyssa began her academic quest in Chapel Hill at the University of North Carolina. She obtained her undergraduate degree in journalism with a specialization in public relations.

In 2015, Alyssa packed her bags and headed down to Pensacola for a job as a Communications Specialist at the University of West Florida. A year and a half later, she met Jill Thomas, Chief Marketing Officer of Innisfree Hotels, and was offered a job. We asked Alyssa what stood out to her most about Innisfree.

“Corporate social responsibility,” she says. “Specifically that Bee Loud is so involved with The Hive, Innisfree’s corporate social responsibility program. I believe in giving back and serving the community, so being able to do that as part of my job is the golden ticket.”

And if the job description was the golden ticket, being selected as a Rising Star was the key to the factory.

“It feels awesome,” she says. “Since I first came to Pensacola, Inweekly was one of the publications that I always read. I would see the Rising Stars and it was a personal and professional goal of mine to end up on that list.”

Alyssa considers herself in good company amongst other Rising Stars.

“With all of the young professionals and movers and shakers in our community, it’s an honor to be listed among them. It gives me validation that I’m heading in the right direction and doing some good things.”

According to Alyssa, Pensacola is also heading in the right direction. We asked her what she thought about Pensacola becoming a destination for young professionals to grow and stay.

“I think Pensacola is well on its way,” she says. “There are a lot of initiatives that have come up that are helping the area — and specifically the companies and workplaces in the area — move in that direction.”

As Pensacola continues to grow, Alyssa hopes to do the same.

“I want to keep growing and learning,” she says. “The amount that I have grown in just this past year has been ridiculous. If that’s what I had in a year, I can’t wait to see what the next one brings.”

Alyssa has some parting thoughts and wisdom for her peers and the next generation of up and coming young professionals.

“You never know what you can do until you do it,” she says. “If you see something, go for it. Even if you don’t get it, you’ll learn something in the process. It might not always be a ‘yes,’ but the ‘yes’ will come.”

We are thrilled to announce that Olivia Hoblit, the General Manager at Seaside Amelia Inn, has been selected as one of the Top Women in Lodging Leaders with the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association.

Olivia has been General Manager at the Seaside Amelia Inn since 2014, but her entrance into the hospitality world happened much earlier. Her reason for choosing hospitality was simple enough.

“My love and passion for service and people,” she says.

With a love and passion for people, Olivia gets to see the fruits of her labor on a daily basis at Seaside.

“My favorite part about working in hospitality is creating memories for our guests,” she says. “Hearing their laughter and seeing their smiles warms my heart.”

But Olivia recognizes that the hospitality world is not without its challenges.

“As a manager, recruiting people that care is a challenge,” she says. “Because you can’t teach people to care.”

The hospitality world is one that only succeeds with a lot of teamwork and mentorship. Olivia was able to point out some folks who were instrumental in her success.

“I am thankful for this recognition, but I owe my success to Susan & David Caples, the previous owners of Elizabeth Pointe Lodge and James McManeman, General Manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island for their continued support & guidance in my career path.”

As someone who is being recognized as a top woman in hospitality leadership, Olivia is a wealth of knowledge and information. We wanted to know if she had any tips or insight that lead her to this point.

“Be sincere and flexible,” she says. “Think like a guest and go the extra mile. Take care of your team and they will take care of you.”

And lastly, but certainly not least, Olivia has one more method that never seems to fail.

“SMILE,” she says.

Olivia is one of only 20 women selected in the state of Florida for this award. If you want to keep up to date, look out for the April publication of the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association magazine.

Please help us in congratulating Olivia on this wonderful achievement!

We would like to formally introduce Dr. Lusharon Wiley, our newest Director of Culture here at Innisfree Hotels.

Lusharon comes to us from the University of West Florida, where she was not only the Director of Case Management Services and Senior Associate Dean of Students, but also instrumental in multiple inclusion and diversity groups and programs on campus.

“I worked in both Academic Affairs and Student Affairs at the University of West Florida,” says Lusharon. “I had worked in the TRiO programs for 11 years and when the Dean of Students position was brought back to the university, I was asked if I would be interested in being Assistant Dean.”

And Lusharon was also the first Director of Case Management Services at the University of West Florida, where she worked with students who had numerous problems including mental or physical health issues. She also was on the Medical Withdrawal Review Committee, which evaluated whether students were eligible for a medical withdrawal based on health conditions.

Being an effective mediator, a big part of our Director of Culture position here at Innisfree, was a skill Lusharon honed as Student Ombudsperson.

“As Ombudsperson, I would often have to facilitate discussions between faculty and students as well as student-to-student,” she says.

Lusharon became aware of Innisfree Hotels’ community involvement and outreach shortly before the Director of Culture job opening.

“When I saw the Director of Culture position open, it was as if it was magnified on my screen,” she says. “I read the job description and I was sold on it. It was because of what I knew about Innisfree, their culture and the feedback from the community that made this position attractive to me.”

Lusharon finds herself working with our current Director of Culture, Jack Guillebeaux.

“I see Jack as the guru for Innisfree,” she says. “I’m growing and learning and so happy to be working with him.”

As someone who is new to the hospitality world, Lusharon finds herself coming to Innisfree from a different angle.

“I think I bring simply a new perspective, never having been in the hotel industry nor the service industry,” she says. “I’m looking forward to expanding the conversation beyond Innisfree to let the greater Pensacola community know what it is that Innisfree does in terms of its connectedness and care. At a minimum, I would like to be a person that is willing to listen.”

Lusharon is eager to start her new chapter with Innisfree Hotels.

“I am so excited to be a member of the Innisfree family and look forward to growing together.”

Hotel Business, the number one hotel industry source for information according to Harvey Research, released the 2017 rankings for Top Management Companies and Top Owners & Developers. Innisfree Hotels continues to climb higher into the limelight. Hotel Business ranks Innisfree Hotels as 66th in Management Companies and 49th in Owners & Developers.

Since humble beginnings in 1985, Innisfree Hotels has made its mark all along the Gulf Coast and as far away as Vermont. Julian MacQueen, Founder and CEO of Innisfree Hotels, reminisced on the journey.

“I feel like we have moved out of a mom and pop mentality and into a scalable, nationally recognized hotel company,” he says. “And although we struggle with those challenges, I’m convinced we have the right people in the room to make that transition sustainable.”

MacQueen attributes this current ranking to the hard work and contributions made by everyone company-wide.

“To see something like that in the context of a national ranking is a bit of a wake-up call,” he says. “To know that the scale of what we do is not insignificant.”

Innisfree Hotels has not been immune to the constant changes and challenges facing the hospitality industry. However, MacQueen believes that the fundamental foundations of hospitality remain fixed.

“Two of the fundamentals are genuine hospitality and creating experiences that are fun and memorable,” he says. “But one of the biggest changes in the last five years is the role of marketing and the democratization of revenue channels, putting into question traditional ways of market placements and messaging.”

In its major market debut in 2017, Innisfree Hotels purchased a hotel in New Orleans called The Mercantile Hotel. The acquisition and branding of this independent boutique marks a major milestone for both Innisfree Hotels and MacQueen.

“We have specialized in tertiary markets for most of our career as Innisfree Hotels,” he says. “Not only did we enter a major market, but we did it without the benefit of a brand. I am very excited about watching the ramp-up of this independent hotel in a major market to see if our investment in digital media has the strength to gain more than our fair share of the market.”

MacQueen is also confident that Innisfree Hotels will continue to climb the rankings in 2018.

“Our pipeline of deals, assuming everything is static, will push us up a few more places in 2018,” he says. “And the exciting part to me is that we have made good on our pledge to not put growth in front of culture.”

Innisfree Hotels witnessed a 44% growth in 2017 and is poised to grow by another 10% in 2018. You can visit the Innisfree Hotels website to keep track of their new and exciting projects on the Gulf Coast and around the United States.