MIAMI— Marriott International has launched Renaissance Hotels Florida, a cooperative sales and marketing alliance to market the brand to both business and leisure travelers visiting Florida. The concept, said Marriott, differs from other centralized sales office programs “because each of the groups sales managers is empowered to handle clients from initial query to completion of the booking on behalf of all participating hotels, handling both groups and leisure travelers in real-time.” Expected benefits of the program include the ability to cross-sell properties more efficiently, while allowing the customer to access the hotels in the group through one contact point. The group currently includes four of the nine Renaissance Hotels, Resorts & Suites in Florida (Renaissance Orlando Resort at SeaWorld; Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, St. Petersburg; Eden Roc Renaissance Resort & Spa; and Renaissance Miami-Biscayne Bay) with plans to add the other hotels in the future. Heading up the new entity is director of marketing Randy Griffin, former director of marketing for the Eden Roc Renaissance. His staff consists of top sales producers who have worked for the Florida hotels within the past five years, said Marriott. The group includes Bryan Schacht, director of sales, southeast corporate sales, Atlanta to Carolinas; Wendy Traurig, director of sales, southeast corporate sales, Key West to Orlando; Laura Alsup, senior account executive, southeast corporate sales, Orlando to Atlanta; Karen Nosari Hollern, senior account executive, Florida state association sales and Diane Jezdimir, director of sales, leisure sales, southeastern U.S.
