Check out the latest Suite Spot episode featuring SVP and CMO at Best Western Hotels, Joelle Park! Joelle joins the Suite Spot to discuss the incredible BWH portfolio, their Life’s a Trip campaign, marketing to different traveler segments, and much more.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, here for another special edition of The Suite Spot. I am so excited to bring in our guest today. We're gonna be talking about everything, the Best Western Hotels and Resorts brand, but also marketing that is, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Joelle Park. Thank you so much, Joelle, for being on the Suite Spot with me today.
Joelle Park:
Thank you for having me, Ryan.
Ryan Embree:
We're gonna have a great conversation about marketing, about your wonderful brand. Some of the recognitions that the brand has seen recently. And we're gonna talk about some industries trends as well. But as per tradition here at the Suite Spot and really hospitality, we love to hear everyone's kind of journey story that led you in. You know, sometimes we have people just fall into the industry, but at the end of the day, a lot of people fall in love with our industry 'cause hospitality is one of the, if not best industries to work in. Talk to us a little bit about your story, Joelle, and what led you to SVP and CMO at Best Western Hotel and Resorts.
Joelle Park:
Thanks, Ryan. Well, I'm really excited to be here and it sounds like many others. I have fallen into hospitality and fallen in love. I've spent over two decades in marketing overall working across brand strategy, customer experience, communications, and on every project, every account, it's about driving results through innovative marketing. Early in my career, I started agency site and I partnered up some incredible brands in retail, entertainment, technology, and my last client was hospitality. And that's where I fell in love with the industry. And now I've spent really more than 16 years in hospitality telling compelling stories. I have a love of travel personally, but I also just believe in the power of travel to make the world a better place. So I've been fortunate to take on some leadership roles spanning across loyalty. Now product development and something I'm especially passionate about is culture and customer experience, because the most powerful form of advertising really is the customer experience here at BWH Hotels. I have the privilege of leading our marketing, communications, loyalty and partnerships teams, and that's encompassing of Best Western rewards and Worlds Hotels rewards. So excited to share more about what we're up to.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, it's exciting to hear and it's interesting because hospitality, you talk to a lot of hoteliers in the hospitality world, and they say, although it's a massive industry, right, it's a very small world. You run into people that you know all the time. Sometimes you're working with one brand, then you go to another brand. But I always find it fascinating to find stories like yours, Joelle, where you start outside of hospitality maybe, and then find your way into it. Because I do think that really does show the passion and love that people have towards our industry because once that bug, you know, and it happens to travel too, it grabs a hold of you. It's hard to let go. And here you are. And a lot of the hospitality professionals that I have spoken to they've had that exposure to other industries. And there's just something about hospitality that is so special. And I think you nailed it on the head about talking about the power that travel has. And one of the things within travel is storytelling. And I've heard you in other interviews talk about your passion and storytelling, especially,
