NATIONAL REPORT—Whether it’s celebrating an anniversary, receiving an award, earning a certification, debuting a new product or expanding the business, hotel companies and vendors achieve new milestones on a daily basis. Here’s a look at recent accomplishments:
Cendyn Names COO
Cendyn has appointed Donna Goudie as COO. Goudie, a hospitality technology industry veteran with more than 25 years’ experience, is responsible for leading operations and services, accelerating excellence in key areas like account management, project management, customer success, solution delivery and implementation for Cendyn and the company’s thousands of hotel clients across the globe.
She was most recently at Amadeus, where she spent the last 20 years in leadership positions spanning global learning, project management, research and development and operations, with prior roles at American Express and Carlson Travel Network.
Hotelsigns.com Reveals Winner of Charity Contest
Hotelsigns.com’s third annual Charity Voting Contest had a solid turnout, with 2,095 votes cast between Nov. 5th-Dec. 18th, 2019. Voters were asked to select their favorite charity out of five nominees. Amassing 46% of the vote, The HealthWell Foundation will receive a $5,000 donation.
The HealthWell Foundation, based in Germantown, MD, is a nationally recognized non-profit that provides financial assistance to underinsured Americans living with chronic and life-altering conditions, such as cancer, ALS and Hepatitis C. The nonprofit offers grants that provide a financial lifeline to adults and children who desperately need critical medical treatments but can’t afford them.
The other participating charities were National Pediatric Cancer Foundation, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Wounded Warrior Project and Prevent Blindness—each to also receive a $1,000 donation.
Verdant ZX Thermostat Recognized for Design
Verdant was recently awarded the Good Design 2019 award in the building products category for its Verdant ZX thermostat.
The award, which recognizes products with cutting-edge design and innovation around the world, was bestowed by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd.
Since 1950, the Good Design program has rewarded pioneering design from the likes of 3M Company, Apple Computer Inc., Coca-Cola Co., General Electric Co., LG Electronics Inc., Microsoft Corp., Samsung Electronics, United Technologies, and hundreds of other companies.
Alto Design of Montreal was involved with the conceptualizing the design.
Marcus Hotels & Resorts VP Named HSMAI Top 25 in 2019
Linda Gulrajani, VP of revenue strategy and distribution for Marcus Hotels & Resorts, has been recognized as part of Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI) “Top 25: Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality Sales, Marketing, Revenue Optimization” for 2019.
The 17th annual list recognizes the “best of the best” in the hospitality, travel and tourism industries. Each selected recipient is judged by a panel of senior industry executives for his or her recent work based on the following criteria: creativity and innovation, cutting edge sales or marketing campaigns, triumph in challenging situations, and/or sales efforts that resulted in dramatic gains.
“Linda has been a key member of our team and has created a strong revenue management culture within our organization,” said Greg Marcus, president/CEO, The Marcus Corporation. “With her passion and experience in the revenue management industry, it is no surprise that she would achieve this recognition. We are very proud of her accomplishment and all that she has done for our company and the revenue management community.”
Gulrajani joined Marcus Hotels & Resorts in 2009 and has held several positions within the its revenue team. She was promoted to VP of revenue strategy and distribution in 2014 and is responsible for leading the development and implementation of revenue management and distribution activities and strategies for all hotels in the company’s portfolio. In addition, she oversees the Marcus Reservations and Customer Care Center, which manages reservation calls for the Marcus Hotels portfolio as well as external hotel customers.
Prior to joining Marcus Hotels & Resorts, Gulrajani served in a variety of revenue management and sales roles at hospitality companies including TravelClick, Walt Disney World, Marriott, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Loews Hotels.
Tripleseat Celebrates Strong Year
Tripleseat had 1,900 customers joined the hospitality software platform over the course of this past year, and added 28 employees to its team.
In 2019, the software platform accepted 10 awards varying in categories from best places to work to fastest-growing technology companies, introduced 400 updates and upgrades to customers and enrolled more than 1,000 new students into Tripleseat University. In addition, Tripleseat accomplished the following:
- Welcomed 250 hospitality industry professionals to its annual EventCamp in Nashville, TN—its biggest conference yet
- Held 27 customer-focused Party People and education events in 17 different cities
- Hosted more than 200 webinars and reached over 2,000 customers
Earlier this year, Tripleseat was awarded by The Boston Globe and Boston Business Journal for being one of the best workplaces in the city. Additionally, the company was named one of Inc. magazine‘s Best Workplaces for 2019, in the fast-growing private company sector, listed for the second year in a row on the Inc. 5000 and among many private technology companies to appear on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500.
