Luxury Hoteliers Magazine 3rd Quarter 2019 | Page 7

SPOTLIGHT Deborah joined the Acqualina pre-opening team in 2004 and in 2011 she became a partner in the hotel with ownership interest. She has been the driving force behind their Forbes Five Star Award and AAA Five Diamond award, and heads the hotel’s Executive Committee, seeing the brands long term strategies through from conception to execution. TRIPADVISOR AND U.S. NEWS HAVE BOTH NAMED ACQUALINA RESORT BEST LUXURY BEACHFRONT HOTEL AND NUMBER ONE RESORT IN THE UNITED STATES FOR 2019, WHICH IS AN INCREDIBLE FEAT. WHAT DO YOU THINK SETS YOU APART FROM THE REST? At Acqualina our mission is to have happy dedicated team members who deliver exceptional guest experiences while constantly striving to do better. Passion, curiosity and technology are integral in our strategic business plan. Our passionate team members deliver guests dreams. We teach team members to be curious and challenge the status quo, this is key to improving what we do daily. Follow through on training sessions to help our managers practice “critical thinking” helps us look for what does not make sense and helps us change our point of view to ensure that we are customer centric. Using technology to improve our efficiency and allow our team members to be more effective with their duties creates a winning solution not only benefiting our hotel guests but also benefiting our team members and ultimately our business. ILHA 7