San Diego’s historic The Lafayette Hotel is slated to reopen this month following a $30 million overhaul by Consortium Holdings, and the property hired MarQuies Willis as its new director of sales and marketing for oversight of all sales and marketing efforts for the property and its seven food and beverage concepts.
Prior to joining The Lafayette Hotel team, Willis served as director of sales and marketing at the Carté Hotel, where he managed all marketing efforts and sales for property venues. Willis also served at the Kimpton Solamar Hotel as associate director of sales as well as an area sales manager at Kimpton’s Rouge, Topaz and DC Palomar. Overall, Willis brings more than a decade of sales and marketing experience to his new role.
As The Lafayette Hotel’s director of sales and marketing, Willis will be responsible for developing and executing sales and marketing methods to drive revenue and promote the hotel. He will also be tasked with the overview of the hotel’s public relation efforts and facilitating relationships with key accounts.
“This is our first hotel, and I've always operated more on instinct than technical prowess. But also being self-aware enough to know that passion, heart and soul are not enough to effectively manage a complex organizational structure that is a great hotel,” said Arsalun Tafazoli, founder of Consortium Holdings. “We hope that with MarQuies's background we will be able to import a knowledge base and skill set that will be key to managing the inevitable tension between art and commerce.”
This information is based on a press release from The Lafayette Hotel.
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