Director of Sales Hilton Garden Inn Schaumburg
Becca Clark graduated from Northern Illinois University College of Business in 2014 with a major in Marketing and certificates in Sales and Social Entrepreneurship. She was taking a Professional Selling class that brought her to a golf outing where she met with someone from White Lodging. Her assignment was to role play closing on a piece of business. She must have done quite a good job as they hired her and she worked for White Lodging until the company was acquired by Aimbridge last July. She has remained with Aimbridge at the Hilton Garden Inn Schaumburg where she has worked as the Director of Sales for over five years.
Becca grew up in Algonquin, Illinois where she was active in sports and served as the class president. She was always very active in her community. She is the youngest of two kids in her family. Her older brother is five years older than her and was very protective, though she admits, she was often the one directing him around. She recently married her high school sweetheart and they decided to return to their hometown of Algonquin.
When asked what one of her more interesting and humorous experiences in the hotel industry has been, she recollects one evening when weather unexpectedly shut down the airport. “The hotel rolled rooms for the next day to be cleaned because we had plenty of availability, but the airport shut down due to a storm and we were suddenly oversold on clean rooms by over 20 rooms. Since I did not want to lose that revenue, I called in my sales staff (and every other employee) to see if they wanted to help, and we all voluntarily came in to clean rooms at 11:00 PM on a Friday night. We actually had a blast! But I will stick to my real job!”
Becca loves the hotel industry and being able to “make someone’s day”. She shares, “Whether it be a guest, a meeting planner, a housekeeper, or front desk agent. I love being able to put my personal touch on my work to make people smile.” Becca often writes hand written notes to guests when they are celebrating a special occasion and she bakes a cake for every staff member when it’s their birthday.
When not working, Becca enjoys spending time with her husband outdoors, hiking, attending festivals, concerts, traveling and hanging out with her dog. They are headed to Ireland for their honeymoon in the spring.
Fun fact: Becca is a huge Swiftie! Which means, she loves Taylor Swift and has seen her perform in concert 13 times. She even traveled back and forth to Austin, Texas in less than 24 hours to see Taylor Swift in concert. She was able to meet her in-person at a private event.
As a mentor, Becca tells young professionals just getting started to, “Never pass up an opportunity to learn. Learn the whole operation. It becomes easier to sell and execute if you have a general idea how the hotel and restaurant runs. You gain respect from your coworkers if you can put yourself in their shoes. Also keep learning for yourself. It is important to grow yourself and be open to opportunities for growth along the way.”
Special thanks to Becca for sharing a little bit about herself! We hope you join us as we share Partner Spotlights each month.