Hilton Aruba is excited to announce that four key-team members of its Commercial Services team are the proud recipients of the highest commendations awarded by Hilton Worldwide – Circle of Excellence and the Summit Award.
Circle of Excellence represents the pinnacle of sales achievement across Hilton’s network. Winners are selected annually based on individual performance against the award criteria and his/her goals. The Commercial Services Summit Awards represent the apex of achievement across Hilton’s Commercial Services organization. The winners of this award excel in creating value for customers and are representative of the Hilton’s ONE TEAM culture, contributing to the commercial success of the organization as a whole.
Winners include: Jennifer Bolstad, awarded Commercial Director of the Year 2021, Jeanine Gilchrist, Lisa Dammerman, and Margo Esposito, awarded with the Circle of Excellence Individual Sales Excellence award 2021.
Jennifer Bolstad: Commercial Director of the year, 2021
Jennifer outshined all other nominees in the Commercial Director of the Year category and has been driving the commercial strategy of the resort, year after year for the past five years. Leading the Commercial team, including Sales & Marketing, Revenue, Reservations and Catering departments, Jennifer has played a pivotal role in the successful and speedy recovery of the resort through the highs and lows of demand, post pandemic.
She is a big contributor to the measurable commercial success of the property, deploying innovative solutions, and leading game-changing strategies, to benefit both customers and the organization, while empowering her team, sharing her knowledge, and grooming the next generation of leaders, so they can grow and thrive in their roles. Jennifer re-envisioned executional and operational strategies, post pandemic, that drove efficiency and effectiveness of activities to optimal highs.
Jeanine Gilchrist: Individual Sales Excellence
Jeanine expanded her strategies in 2021, driving and developing the lucrative and important travel agent direct business. She put on the first trip for luxury agents since the pandemic began and agents were elated to be out in the world, experiencing hotels and destinations, once again. With over 20 years of experience, Jeanine is an expert at building personal relationships with a highly demanding clientele, providing personalized, customized and caring service to each individual. With excellent follow-up through their reservation booking-journey to the arrival at the resort, she leverages her personal touch and rapport with each travel professional to maximize service, thus building loyalty and trust throughout the customer experience.
As a nominee in the Sales, Catering and Events Criteria, Jeanine outperformed the set goals of annualized booking goals and was evaluated along with her strengths in the areas of her portfolio, such as new account growth, customer relationship skills, and more.
Lisa Dammerman: Individual Sales Excellence
Landing the pinnacle of sales achievement across the Hilton network, Lisa demonstrated her strength as the Hilton’s Award Winning Bridal Specialist for 13 years before she was promoted to Resort Experience Manager, in 2022. When it comes to weddings, Lisa is the Queen. Her name and reputation in the wedding market are exceptional, earning her the WeddingWire Couples Choice Award for three consecutive years. Guests inquire about weddings, based on Lisa’s reputation, service delivery, and attention to detail.
Lisa shows an extraordinary commitment to helping couples achieve a perfect, highly personalized, wedding day. From a guest’s perspective, destination weddings can be very stressful and difficult to manage, but Lisa makes sure worries fade away. She answers every question in detail and has as many conference calls as a bride or groom may need. She provides all possible options to ensure the couple is happy and confident. Despite being miles away, on Aruba, Lisa makes her guests, overseas, feel that she is right at their side to guide them at every step.
As a Circle of Excellence winner, Lisa was selected based on individual performance against the award criteria and her individual goals. She excelled in creating value for resort customers, and elevated her performance, while driving dominant market share, in her respective areas.
Margo Esposito: Individual Sales Excellence
Margo represents the Hilton values while contributing to the commercial success of her resorts. With over 20 years of experience, she pushed strong industry and travel account relations as she consistently stayed on top of Hilton partnerships. Margo is an expert at filling occupancy gaps by activating her account portfolio to deliver volume throughout need-periods, securing key market opportunities.
Margo is in frequent contact with her accounts and has built long lasting trust and stability by identifying solutions rather than problems, and ensuring the mutual growth of client businesses and her organization. She is a timely communicator both internal and external. The success of Hilton Aruba this year was strongly impacted by Margo’s contributions and here ability to activate accounts.
As a nominee in the Sales, Catering and Events General Criteria, Margo also outperformed her annual set goals significantly, and was evaluated for her strengths in relevant areas, similar to Gilchrist.
General Manager Vasco Baselli reports it is an honor to be working with such a decorated team, making up a group of fantastic colleagues, dedicated and determined to do what it takes to work on behalf of One Happy Island, and the Grande Dame of Palm Beach, a bastion of exceptional hospitality.
