For over 40 years, Linda Hayes has been creating experiences for others. Schooled as an interior designer, her career includes working in corporate America as a designer, facility manager, and market sales manager for a Fortune 500 in southern Florida and the Caribbean, all before creating a successful lodging property and restaurant in SW Virginia. Those previous years of interactions with clients and guests are the basis for Hayes’ consulting work over these past ten years. Her business acumen, lodging, food and beverage experience, and insightful vision make her a great asset as a business consultant to her clients, focusing on the final results which shorten the process involved in analyzing and growing their business. Hayes’ clients stretch across the United States and Mexico and range from owner-operated limited services properties to larger full-service properties with event venues and restaurants. In March 2016, Hayes launched The Future Innkeeper Hands-On Workshop, a 4-day "boot camp" allowing attendees to truly experience all aspects of operating a small lodging property with a behind-the-scenes opportunity to work in all areas of a small lodging property. Twenty-six attendees now own and operate their properties. Much of Hayes' knowledge of the hospitality industry originates from her personal properties, having designed, built, and successfully operated a Select Registry seven-room inn overlooking the Appalachian Mountains and the oldest US river, the New, in SW Virginia. Owned and operated starting in 2003, Hayes transferred ownership and moved just eight miles away in late 2010. During that time frame, Hayes was also the owner of a historic building in the downtown area, and together with chefs who leased the space, created The Bank Food and Drink. In 2011, Hayes took over the ownership and operation of the restaurant until selling the building in the spring of 2015.As a long-time member of small lodging professional associations, Hayes' involvement over the past five years includes being a sponsor, speaker, conference organizer and chair, and a member of the education committee. She currently serves on the ALP Fund Board of Directors, having completed a term on the Association of Lodging Professionals (merger of AIHP and PAII) first Board of Directors. At the 2022 ALP Conference, Hayes was recognized with the Visionary Award, as a driving force behind the foundation of the ALP Fund, a 501(c)3 non-profit fund, providing scholarships and grants to aspiring and new small lodging professionals.
Listed skills include Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Planning, Business Development, and 46 others.
