Karen Downing Email & Phone Number

St. Lucia

• Managed partnership with the Top Luxury Travel Advisors and Tour Operators in the US and throughout the World with American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts, Virtuoso, Signature, SELECT, Serandipians, Classic Vacations, Island Destinations & Delta Vacations. Managed partnerships with OTAs.• Successfully managed partnership with and secured #1 Rating in Saint Lucia for Condé Nast Reader’s Choice Awards, Top 100 Best in the World with Travel + Leisure and more. Managed partnership with Condé Nast Johansen• Secured membership in American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts.• Success in creating a vision for a new luxury to sell the “Open Wall” Design without a 4th Wall with sustainability, farm-to-table, wellness and the UNESCO World Heritage Site at the forefront. Continued to market the luxury honeymoon, romance and wedding market, winning many awards.• Implemented a budget and successful strategies needed to identify, prospect, cultivate, negotiate, and close business to drive, achieve and exceed goals, maintain #1 in a comp set and maximize the ROI. Increased revenue and ADR by almost 50%.• Managed Trip Advisor and increased rating to #1.• Shifted strategy quickly to adapt to COVID to focus on retaining business on the books from cancelling and created motivational strategy for the team.• Attended numerous trade shows, showcases and roadshows through the year to include Virtuoso Travel Week, Virtuoso Symposium, ILTM Americas, ILTM Cannes, Signature, SELECT, Pure Experiences, Classic Vacations, Delta Vacations, JMAK Hospitality and a variety of luxury travel agency showcases.• Oversaw social media to increase and maximize marketing and for new client development. • Performed a comprehensive analysis to identify key client experience improvement opportunities by Identifying key quality assurance and customer service issues and developed solutions to maintain the resort and work toward the Forbes 5-star award.• Increased direct business to the resort to over 75%.

West Palm Beach, Florida Area

•Participated in the rebranding for the resort and created SOPs for reservations and front desk. •Created production reports and SOPs to establish a tracking system for transient business.•Attended a series of new branding and a sales training program.•Responsible for Northeast and West Coast Travel Industry Market.•Completed presentations to all American Express FH&R call centers in the USA, Paris, London and Frankfurt. Attended Virtuoso Northeast Regional trade show, Tour Connection East Coast and West Coast and Leading Hotels of the World showcases in NY, LA and SF. •Completed sales calls to top luxury travel agents in NY, NJ, PA., and CA. Completed phone calls to top luxury agencies in Boston, CT, DC/VA and San Francisco.•Managed relationship with Travel Industry contacts for Preferred Hotels & Resorts•Managed Marketing Partner relationships and RFPs with American Express FH&R, Virtuoso, Signature, Altour, Travelleaders Select and other luxury travel and corporate accounts.•Worked with top luxury agencies on placement in their newsletters.•Created the Entertainment Market and SOPs to handle the market.•Created Sales Action Plan for Travel Industry•Completed Hotelligence report analysis weekly and used as a tool for prospecting.

Philadelphia, Pa Usa

•Managed hotel strategies to drive revenue and ADR to reach and maintain #1 position in Philadelphia, with highest ADR and occupancy in the city•Ensured hotel met and exceeded the overall room revenue and ADR goals,over $8.5 Million. Also achieved personal production goal over 50% of the sales team production for the hotel•Exceeded personal production goals for group and transient for Entertainment, Film, Sports, American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts, Virtuoso, Signature, Altour and FIT for the entire US and International•Exceeded personal production goals for group and transient for East Coast, West Coast and International, to include finance, law, pharmaceutical, association, real estate, consulting, and universities•Attended Virtuoso Travel Week, Tour Connection, Virtuoso regional trade shows, Leading Hotels of the World Showcases, and completed sales calls at American Express FH&R call centers, and in specified territories•Managed relationship with Leading Hotels of the World, American Express FH&R Program, Virtuoso, Signature, Altour and Ovations•Managed website, social media and PR•Managed CVENT, Starcite and Hotel Planner and RFP process for BT, consortia and FITs•Created a family program which increased leisure production•Managed Trip Advisor to reach #1 hotel in Philadelphia •Maximized catering revenue potential from sales groups as well as analyzed and authorized space releases to maximize production for sales and catering •Excellent leadership to recruit, hire, mentor and manage sales team of 4, to include two conference service managers•As member of the Executive Planning Committee, directed and participated in the design of overall development, planning, and policies for the hotel and the annual hotel budget• Strong knowledge of Delphi and Opera and quick at adapting to other software programs

196 guestrooms/ 12,000 sq ft function space (AAA Five Diamond/Mobil Five Star)•Market/Territory: Group - East Coast and West Coast•Completed the Four Seasons training program.

353 guestrooms/14,000 sq ft space (AAA Four Diamond/Mobil Four Star)•Market/Territory: Consortia, Group, Entertainment and Japanese markets - East Coast, West Coast, London, and Tokyo.

350 guestrooms/17,000 sq ft function space (AAA 3 Diamond/Mobil 3 Star)•Markets/Territory: Association and Group – Washington, DC, MD and VA (Responsible for creating all new business.)