Hampton's Craig Marshall is Living the Dream
Hampton's Craig Marshall is Living the Dream
(Note - Tourism is one of Memphis' major industries - we've got loads of things to do and see. Since this week is national tourism week, I'm profiling a few of the people who work to give visitors a great Memphis experience.)
Craig Marshall is one of those lucky people that's known exactly what he wanted to do since childhood. While staying at a Holiday Inn on a family vacation, 10 year-old Craig noticed the hotel manager having dinner with his family in the hotel restaurant. He told his parents that working in a hotel looked like a lot of fun.
After 20 years with Holiday Inn and 10 years at the Hampton Inn Beale St., Craig is happy to admit that running a hotel is exactly as much fun as he thought it would be.
His favorite part of running a hotel? Working the front desk. Every day, Craig spends a little bit of time working the front desk of the hotel, usually during heavy check-in times. It gives him a chance to meet guests, deal with any issues, and make recommendations on his favorite things to see and do in Memphis.
Under his leadership, the Hampton has won a slew of awards, most notably, the Conrad Hilton Award for being the #1 hotel in the world for customer satisfaction and product quality. Craig says that they're number one because his staff works in an environment of trust and empowerment - if something is going wrong for a guest, a staff member can fix it without a bunch of red tape.
Though Craig is originally from the Midwest, he's been in Memphis for a long time. "Its a real easy town to get to know people in," he said. "For a variety of reasons, Memphis has stayed small, and that's ok."
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