There Is No Offseason

As the Director of Sales for four busy hotels, I spend the majority of my day on the phone. For the better part of the year, a large percentage of my phone conversations are with sports teams looking for hotel accommodations. Our area is home to several annual sports tournaments many of which can be found under the events listing sections of our hotels’ websites. 

With seven hotels in the Burlington area alone, I typically have plenty of rooms for teams that meet both their needs and budget.  On rare occasions, teams playing in exceptionally large tournaments will call late in the game and we are unable to house them.  In these events, I take tremendous pride in being willing and able to share clear and solid area information to assist in helping them find lodging elsewhere in town.  I have even directed groups to neighboring towns and to spectacular, hidden gems where demand may be less overwhelming, but amenities and natural beauty are plentiful.

I routinely share industry tips with these teams to not only help them find suitable housing presently, but to help them plan ahead for the next year or tournament, because  I feel one of our cornerstones has to be educating the guest on not only our area, but also on our industry. Many of these teams travel all year long, spend a fortune on travel, and bear the burden of collecting hotel information, disseminating it among team members and then following through to be sure all families on their rosters have booked. In providing these teams and parents with more than just the bare, essential details pertinent to their current booking needs, they’re better served in all their travel endeavors in the future and are able to make more informed decisions, saving them money and, more importantly, saving them time.

I’ve made it one of my highest priorities to make that entire process as easy as possible for them and, while most of the time I am able to accommodate them, when I am unable to, I take pride in knowing they leave the experience better armed for future success.  I understand firsthand how expensive sports travel can be and, at the same time, I also understand how valuable their tournaments are to our area, both fiscally and culturally, so making the process less stressful is always a top priority of mine.  In the end, I suppose I could spend less time on the phone were I not to put the guest experience first, but that is never an option here in the Larkin Hospitality Family. When you call upon us, you expect the best, and we take pride in knowing that is exactly what you’ll get. 

Dina Townsend

Larkin Hospitality Group