Tripadvisor Success Story, Craig Poole, AHLA General Manager of the Year
- S1E19
- 40:23
- June 25th 2021
I have a great story for you today! If you want a fantastic example of how leadership and the highest standards for guest experience excellence can produce more revenue, more return visits, and more five-star reviews, you won’t find a better example than in the story of Craig Poole, AHLA General Manager of the year and President of Reading Hospitality Management - Doubletree by Hilton.
Hear how Craig took a distressed hotel in one of the poorest, most crime-filled cities in Pennsylvania, hired nearly 200 people, many with no experience and no exposure to what service and hospitality looks like. He looked for people who felt hope for the city and the joy of hospitality in their hearts and gave them a chance to build something amazing together that would change people’s lives in the city of Reading. Even ex-felons were given a second chance to turn their lives around for themselves, their families, and their community.
Now The Doubletree by Hilton in Reading, Pennsylvania is not only the top-rated Doubletree in the world with a perfect 5-Bubble review score on Tripadvisor, but it also is one of the highest-rated hotels on Tripadvisor in the entire state, and comfortably selling at rates $50 a night its competition.
Mr. Poole says that he and his team accomplished this extraordinary level of guest satisfaction, completely aligned with the culture and values of Hilton and Doubletree. Indeed, if everyone at the brand actually embraced the well documented values of Hilton, the entire company would see it’s guest satisfaction scores rise significantly along with revenues and shareholder returns.
If you want to hear what might be stopping other GM’s from embracing this more joyful and effective leadership style, you’ll just have to listen.
Here are some other great podcasts made by my friends which I am sure you will enjoy:
Toni Reese and Craig Poole: Humanize Profit
Loren Gray’s Hospitality Marketing Podcast.
Lily Mockerman’s Hospitality Revenue Management Podcast:
Holly Zoba’s Hospitality Sales Podcast
Dean Schmit’s Hospitality Meta Search Podcast:
And you can see many of us together on Fridays at 11:30 AM Eastern on
This Week in Hospitality Marketing
or find us on the Hospitality Marketing Club on Clubhouse!
Do you have any questions about how to rank #1 in your market on Tripadvisor, Google my Business, and other Review Sites?
Please be sure to send me a comment or message via adelegutman.com and we will be happy to help!
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Get Great Reviews! The Hospitality Reputation Marketing Podcast
Welcome to the Hospitality Reputation Marketing Podcast: Get Great Reviews! with Adele Gutman
Adele Gutman's mission is to help hotels, restaurants, and all businesses leverage guest feedback to optimize team performance, create true loyalty, and drive revenue.
A stellar online reputation should never be a footnote to a marketing plan, but should instead take the lead as the foundation of all sales, marketing, and revenue success.
Each week or two, we will spend 20 minutes or more exploring proven best practices, mindsets, techniques, tips, and tools that drive revenue and loyalty businesses, by consistently inspiring 5-Star reviews.
Great reviews are simply an indicator of an agile, guest-centric, well-run business, so we will meet with an array of successful hospitality leaders as we delve into a wide range of topics including:
- Leadership
- Branding
- Culture
- Communication
- Compassion
- Embracing Feedback
- Entrepreneurial Mindset
- Empowerment
- Teamwork
- Creative Problem Solving
- Coaching
- Hiring
- Inspiring
- Training
- Humility
- Authenticity
- Service Innovation
- Product Innovation
- Process Innovation
- Social Media
- Websites
- Booking Engine
- Email Communications
- Reservations
- Responding to Reviews and so much more!
Please join us, subscribe, and share so that we may reach more people and help everyone GET GREAT REVIEWS!
Adele Gutman has been honored as one of the Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales & Marketing by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International for achieving exceptional results, driving revenue through Guest Experience and Reputation Cultivation. Adele is also a former HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board Member.
During her tenure as Vice President of the Library Hotel Collection, the brand astonished the hotel industry by repeatedly earning the #1 highest guest satisfaction rating of any luxury hotel brand in the world, receiving a 96.1% Guest Satisfaction rating on the Luxury Brand Report, a ReviewPro survey of 2.7 million annual online reviews.
Every property Adele worked with rose to the top of their market for guest satisfaction on review sites like Tripadvisor, including the Aria Hotel Budapest who was named the #1 Hotel in the World on the 2017 Tripadvisor Travelers Choice Awards.
Now, Adele is happily helping more business managers from all industries from hospitality to healthcare to implement the award-winning, proven methodology she developed over decades, the Five Star Review System.
In this podcast, we will explore together how business leaders from around the world have successfully empowered their teams to deliver the 5-Star service which consistently inspires 5-Star reviews. @inspirefivestars
