Last year at Aimbridge Hospitality, we launched our Wellness Your Way initiative that invites our clients to enjoy wellness-inspired incentives when they book a meeting or event at one of our hotels. Our clients’ favourite aspect has been the charitable giving, where they can donate their reward to a charity of their choice, and we’re proud to announce we have already donated over £2,500 so far to various charities across Europe!
With this in mind, we have decided to extend our Wellness Your Way offer until December 2025 so we can continue to support more charities like Trussell Trust, a remarkable charity with food banks across the UK. Claire from PCS, who booked an event at Crowne Plaza Newcastle, chose Trussell Trust as the recipient of her donation, and here’s what Emma Revie, Chief Executive at Trussell Trust, had to say:
“Thank you to the team at Crowne Plaza Newcastle Stephenson Quarter for their incredible support. Food bank teams are working tirelessly to ensure help continues to be available, but ultimately, no-one in the UK should need to turn to a food bank as all of us should have enough money for the essentials.
The support of Crowne Plaza Newcastle Stephenson Quarter will help food banks within our network continue to provide emergency support, while we work together in the long term to build a country without the need for food banks. Thank you so much.”
In addition to individual donations, Aimbridge has partnered with Macmillan Cancer Support to drive our charitable giving as a company. Cancer affects all of our team members, one way or another, so it’s a charity close to our hearts and we’re proud to be working together to make an impact. We recently spoke with Kate Lightfoot, Senior Partnership Development Manager for Macmillan, for her thoughts on our Wellness Your Way initiative:
“The cost-of-living crisis is increasingly making it hard for people to give to important causes such as Macmillan Cancer Support. Alternative giving initiatives, such as Wellness Your Way, are a brilliant way for businesses to help their community to continue supporting the causes close to their hearts.
The charity sector as a whole has had to pivot to new ways of giving to maintain the vital funds that allow them to do their work. When businesses prioritise charitable activity and support their employees and customers to give back to their community, we all benefit.
Macmillan are proud to partner with Aimbridge EMEA and are excited about the difference we will make together for the millions of people affected by cancer in the UK.”
We hope our initiative continues to provide businesses with an opportunity to support their communities and empower individuals to give back.
If you’re looking to make a difference, book your next meeting or event at one of our hotels and let’s make a positive impact, together.
When businesses prioritise charitable activity and support their employees and customers to give back to their community, we all benefit.
Kate Lightfoot, Senior Partnership Development Manager, Macmillan
News
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In our latest Getting to Know You feature, we speak to Lucy McNicoll – Interstate’s Sales Effectiveness Director.
Here, Lucy shares an insight into her role, as well as some little-known facts about her time in hospitality.
Tell us about your role and what it involves?
I am Sales Effectiveness Director for the UK3 region of Interstate Hotels & Resorts, looking after 29 hotels mostly Mercure and IHG branded, from Brighton to Inverness. I manage the sales team and work with the wider commercial team to ensure the best revenue results possible for our hotels.
My role involves training and coaching, assisting with advice on large business opportunities, making sure we are offering the best solutions to our customers and agents and that all the systems and tools are utilised to their full capacity to help us achieve our sales goals. I am also the brand lead for Accor, so I provide guidance and insight to our Accor hotels to ensure they make the most of the Accor tools and initiatives to drive performance.
What does a typical day in your role involve?
Every day is different! There’s a really good mix of future planning, day to day hotel team support, understanding and actioning business analytics. Presenting on various topics around learning and development to wide ranging audiences across the UK and International locations, ensuring we are up to date with industry and customer trends and partnership reviews with suppliers.
What’s your favourite part of your role?
I love working with my Commercial colleagues on new initiatives! It’s fantastic to bring a new concept to the wider team that drives revenue into out hotels. It is extremely rewarding to see my team members being successful and to celebrate their successes through their hard work and resilience, especially recently through the pandemic. I love seeing happy customers and helping them achieve what they require from our hotels in our ever-changing world!
What do you think makes Interstate stand out from the crowd?
Being nimble and adaptive really helps us keep ahead of the market and ensure our business is competitive, therefore offering our owners the best resources in the industry. Sharing news, information, and tools with team members to help them perform their roles to their best ability and working together collaboratively to share best practice across the portfolio of hotels.
Tell us something about you that not everyone knows
Working in hospitality has allowed me to travel all over the world and visit some amazing hotels. I got into hospitality at a young age, as I liked to cook – I started my career as a trained Chef. My first job was as a Chef in a summer camp in the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania USA and I also got to travel to China as a result of working in events at a London hotel and I have been lucky enough to represent hotel portfolios at trade shows around the world.
I got into hospitality at a young age, as I liked to cook – I started my career as a trained Chef.
Lucy McNicholl, Sales Effectiveness Director
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Jas Sandhu, Director of Sales & Marketing, was the deserved winner of the Sales Manager of the Year award at Interstate’s Commercial Forum event, and he was rewarded with a trip to the Bahamas!
In this edition of our “Getting to Know You” feature, Stephanie Pinto, Vice President of Sales, shares with us what she thinks makes Interstate stand out from the crowd and what she enjoys most about working with the team.