Meet Ashley Steele, HVMG Corporate Director of
Operations
Ashley Steele didn't set out to build a career in
hospitality. In fact, she studied criminal justice and counseling with plans to
become a juvenile counselor. But a summer hotel job eventually led her down a
different path, one that has taken her from room attendant and front desk
associate to Corporate Director of Operations.
Nearly two decades into her career with HVMG, Ashley brings a practical, people-first approach to leadership. She believes in giving people the information and autonomy they need to make good decisions, meeting associates where they are, and never losing sight of who she is along the way.
Q: What was your first job in hospitality?
Ashley: My very first hospitality job was when I was in
high school. A friend and I decided to get summer jobs as room attendants at a
Holiday Inn. I was a teenager, so I didn't think too much of it at the time,
but I'm glad I started that way because it helped me understand how things
work.
I didn't know then that, 30 years later, I would be
making a career out of hospitality.
Q: Where did you grow up?
Ashley: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Q: What sets HVMG apart operationally?
Ashley: HVMG is the only company I've worked for
professionally, but I've had the opportunity to work with many people who have
come from other companies. One thing I hear consistently is that at HVMG, we
truly are allowed to be the CEOs of our operations.
We're allowed to make decisions that ultimately impact
our associates, our guests, our bottom line and our owners. Even when there's a
company initiative, if you put together a business plan and explain why
something does or doesn't work for your operation, people will listen.
That ability to be the CEO of your business is very
important.
Q: What are some of your personal guiding principles?
Ashley: One of my favorite quotes is from Oscar Wilde:
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
I'm a big proponent of that. I always joke that I still
don't know what I want to be when I grow up because I feel like I'm still
growing. But no matter what I do, I want to be me. Being myself has gotten me
where I am today, and I never want to lose that in the process.
I'm also a big proponent of transparency. I don't want
there to be secrets. I want everyone to have the information they need to make
decisions whether I'm there or not. That translates into a better quality of
life for everyone. We should all be able to enjoy our time off and then come to
work ready to work.
It comes down to being open and honest with one another,
putting our best people on our biggest opportunities and asking: If this were
really our business and our own money, how would we run it?
Q: Hospitality is famous for being an industry where
someone can start as a room attendant or dishwasher and eventually become an
executive. What advice would you give someone who wants to move up?
Ashley: I'm the perfect example. I started as a room
attendant in high school. When I was in college, I worked as a night auditor at
an independent hotel in Florida, and that's when I started noticing something:
None of the managers just woke up one day and became general managers. They had
started as room attendants, dishwashers and in all kinds of other positions.
Hospitality truly values people who work their way up.
My biggest advice is to let your intentions be known. If
you don't tell anyone, "This is what I want to do," you can get passed by. Find
a mentor. If you're a room attendant and you want to work at the front desk,
make friends with someone at the front desk. Ask, "How can I learn to do this?"
You become more valuable the more you learn, and I've
never heard a manager say, "No, we're not going to teach you."
Let your intentions be known, and don't be afraid to take
chances.
Q: Your degrees are in criminal justice and
counseling. How did you end up making hospitality your career?
Ashley: Honestly, by chance.
Going into my senior year of college, I needed a job. I
had worked in hotels during summers between semesters, so I thought finding
another front desk job would be easy. I started with HVMG in April 2007.
My ultimate goal was to become a juvenile counselor. I
graduated in 2008, and then the recession made finding a job difficult.
Meanwhile, my hospitality career started taking off.
Never in a million years did I think I would be doing
what I'm doing today. I went back to what I knew because I needed a job, and
here I am almost 20 years later, still with HVMG.
Q: Do you ever get to use that counseling background?
Ashley: More than I probably thought I would!
People will come into my office and start laying things
on me, and sometimes I'm thinking, "Whoa, I wasn't ready for that today." But
people have told me they feel comfortable around me, and I think that's just my
demeanor.
Over the years, I've also learned that leading people
means figuring out how to relate to different personalities. Early in my
career, I struggled with that. I thought, "If someone tells you to do
something, just do it." It turns out it's a lot more complicated than that.
One of my former bosses once asked me, "Ashley, do you
want to be right, or do you want to be happy?"
I responded, "Well, I want to be happy knowing that I'm
right."
He threw his hands up and told me I was missing the
point! But I did get it. Sometimes it isn't worth the fight to be right. You
have to learn how to meet people where they are.
Q: How has that lesson influenced the way you develop
people?
Ashley: For a while, I assumed that because I wanted to
keep moving up, everyone else felt the same way. They don't — and that's okay.
If you have a room attendant who is perfectly happy being
a room attendant, how do you help that person become the best, most
sought-after room attendant there is? How do you help someone become the
dishwasher everybody says they have to have on their team?
You can't put people in positions they aren't asking for.
Your path is your path, and it's not everybody else's path.
Q: If you weren't in the hotel business, what would
you do?
Ashley: I love crafting. I will do a DIY project in a
heartbeat. I'll go on YouTube and figure out how to make something.
I've gotten into things like wreath making, and right now
it's my son's senior year in high school, so I'm literally bedazzling
everything so I can wear something different to his games every week.
I could see myself doing something creative because
crafting is therapeutic for me. It allows me to let go of everything else I
have going on and focus on that one thing. I can be at 100 when I start, and by
the time I'm finished, I'm back down to zero.
Q: You have a free plane ticket and a complimentary
hotel stay anywhere in the world. Where are you going?
Ashley: The Maldives. That is my dream vacation.
The only thing stopping me is the 24-hour travel time!
I've looked at overwater bungalows in Jamaica and Cancun, and I think those
would do the trick temporarily, but there's something about the Maldives. It
looks so peaceful and tranquil, like you're truly off the grid.
That's what I'm searching for.
Q: What's a book that has had an impact on you?
Ashley: How to Manage Difficult People.
My mentor, Margie Vito, originally hired me at HVMG. I
became a GM when I was around 23, and by nature I'm more of an introvert and pretty
reserved. At that point in my career, I was struggling with how to manage
difficult people.
The book helped me understand that you have to figure out
how to relate to different people and communicate with different audiences.
That lesson has stayed with me throughout my career.
Q: Who are some leaders you admire?
Ashley: Michelle Obama and President Obama come to mind
because of the things they've had to endure and the way they've handled
themselves with grace.
That's something I strive for: handling things with
grace. I'm not a loose cannon, but when I get frustrated, sometimes I can shut
down. I admire people who are in the forefront, face a lot of scrutiny and are
still able to carry themselves with grace.
That's something I try to bring to my own career as well.
Ashley was the 2025 Margie Vito Excellence in Leadership Award winner.
