After having success at various hotels throughout my career, I was fortunate to get an opportunity to work for what I believe is the best hotel company in the country - Loews Hotels.
Loews Hotels are about making a Four Diamond experience for each guest that walks in the door. We are about person- alized service, making people feel com- fortable, and about providing what we call the "And More.” What's more, Loews is a unique collection of luxury hotels that are not cookie cutter, as each of our hotels provides an environment for guests that are unique to the regions they are in. We pride ourselves on the experience, not just a "clean room" or a certain amenity.
Joining Loews Hotels has brought me back to my roots and reminded me that, at the end of the day, making a guest feel like that they are at home is what's most important.
Under the direction of Loews" new CEO, Paul Whetsell, we are looking to expand our brand and share more Loews expe- riences across the country and, maybe someday, internationally. Our company is looking to expand into key markets like Chicago, Washington, DC, San Francisco and many more. It is a very exciting time for Loews Hotels, and I am very proud to be a part of it.
When it comes to association involve- ment, as I mentioned earlier, there hasn't been a chicken dinner that I haven't attended. At one point in my career I was very involved with several industry partner organizations, having served in varying capacities with MPI, PASAE, SGMP - to name just a few.
The relationships forged and the learning I gained over the years from being a part of these organizations has been price- less. Years later I still bump into friends from these organization and we pick up
as if we saw just saw each other yester- day.
In the beginning I didn't fully understand the importance of developing friendships in this industry. In fact, on the day after my first association meeting I proudly told Rich McLaughlin, my director of sales at the time, how many business cards I collected the night before. He told me to come into his office and he shut the door.
As I sat there proudly, he told me that it isn't the amount of business cards I col- lected, but rather how many friends I had made. He asked me if I could call any of those people whose business cards I had collected and ask them to lunch, and if I was confident that they would say yes.
I understood his message and learned another life lesson. It isn't how many business cards you collect, it is about making a new friend at each and every meeting you attend. Think about it. Over the years and through all the events we go to as sales people, making one new friend adds up to a lot of real business partners - and you can count on them when you need them the most. If you are fortunate enough, some even become lifelong friends.
I hope that - in this digital age - both suppliers and planners can find ways to use technology and combine it with the personal interaction and development of relationships that is so important. I see it sometimes in the faces of salespeople when you ask them who the end user is, what are the clients needs are, and all they can do is speak to what they are being told via computer. I fear that, at some level, personal engagement could be a lost part of the process in the future.
When it comes to associations and organizations, we need to stay focused
on always allowing for quality personal engagement. After all, it’s not how many business cards we collect; it’s about the friends we make along the way.
The hotel and meetings industry are a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work. Nothing is easy. And as much as we may believe that we know what we are doing, there are always life lessons to be learned - and those life lessons teach us the real ways to achieve success.
Earlier, I mentioned my appreciation for my father. I had the pleasure to work for him for two years at one point in my career as a salesperson. These were two of the best years of my career, yet they were also the two most challenging. At work, he wasn't "Dad,” he was Mr. O'Boyle. Some of his coworkers got to call him Bill, but for me he was Mr. O'Boyle.
Helping to guide me along the way over the years, my father has offered some advice that I have found to be invalu- able.
"Ed, it is hard getting to the top of the mountain, but easy to fall to the bot- tom,” he told me. "Ed, failing to plan is planning to fail,” is another of his sage favorites.
And then there’s one that he shared with me recently: "Ed, you may be someone important at work, but don't ever forget, you still have to take out the garbage when you go home.”
I've heard that my mother told him that after he became a general manager for the first time.
At the end of the day, what's important is to have fun, work hard and always remember - it is the friendships that you make along the way that will mean the most when all is said and done.
“His message was always simple: Be nice, take care of the little things and the big things will happen. Everything else is just details.”
Mid-Atlantic EVENTS Magazine 71
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