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Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing PodcastAuthor: Travel Media Group & Ryan Embree
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216 – The Hospitality SHE Suite: Kat Woods
Wednesday, 9 September, 2026
We are thrilled to debut the first episode of a brand-new Suite Spot series spotlighting the inspiring women shaping the hospitality industry, The Hospitality SHE Suite! Throughout this series, TMG Brand Ambassador and Suite Spot Co-Host, Cassady Quintana sits down with female industry leaders to explore career journeys, key leadership lessons, and the power of supporting current and future generations of women in hospitality. To kick things off, special guest and familiar face on the Suite Spot, Kat Woods of Hyatt joins us to discuss her hospitality career trajectory and how she is opening avenues for other women through leadership and the NYC Women of Hospitality organization. Cassady Quintana: Welcome to the Hospitality SHE Suite, where we spotlight the women shaping the hospitality industry. Through conversations with leaders and changemakers, we explore career journeys, leadership lessons, and the experiences that have helped shape who they are today. I’m your host, Cassady Quintana. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Hospitality SHE Suite, a brand new series brought to you by The Suite Spot where we will be celebrating women in hospitality and their stories. I’m your host, Cassady Quintana, and I’m super excited to bring you guys this new series. It’s something we’ve been working on for a while and definitely something that’s needed in our hospitality industry. And I have an amazing guest with me, no one better to bring on first, Kat Woods, Regional Vice President of Pre-Opening Operations at Hyatt. Kat, thanks for joining me. Kat Woods: Thank you so much for having me, Cassady. I’m so happy to be here, and congratulations on launching this amazing podcast. Cassady Quintana: Thank you. Yeah, super excited. Glad you’re here. Glad we can make it work. Obviously, I’m pretty familiar with your story, but for our listeners that may not know you and who you are and what you do, kind of just walk us through a little bit about how you got involved in hospitality and where, how you got to where you are today. Kat Woods: Happy to. So I will take it pretty far back. When I was in high school and was looking at universities to go to, I ended up being recruited to run track and field at the University of New Hampshire, which also happens to have a really strong hospitality management program. I was relatively familiar with the field because I had traveled a lot and understood that hotels and restaurants need people to manage them, but wasn’t entirely sure I understood that it could be a major. Admittedly, trying to balance my athletic schedule and my academic schedule, I thought, “Hey, this might be an easy major. Let’s do it. Could be fun.” And I think the rest is history because as those who have studied this type of thing know, it’s not necessarily an easy major, but it is certainly a blast. And it was apparent from day one that this was something I ended up loving. I started working in the industry. The classes at the time were very interesting to me because going to hotels and restaurants and resorts was something that as a college student I could identify with. The same can’t really be said when you’re talking about real estate or marketing or whatever these other majors are, right? So I just fell in love with it. Continued obviously on the athletic side, but then really started to flourish on the academic side in later in my college life and ultimately started working for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Now, quite a few years ago, Marriott bought Starwood, but back in the day, Starwood was its own company, and it had some really incredible brands. One of those brands was W Hotels, and W Hotels was certainly tailored to my demographic, the young, the fun, beverage culture focus, travel, party, fashion, music, design. And for a young 20-something, you just fall in love with the industry even more. So I worked for W Hotels for about three and a half, four years, anywhere from Barcelona to New York City, and just continued to fall in love with the operation over and over again. Worked in housekeeping, worked in front desk, worked in food and beverage. And about five years after working for W Hotels, I started with independent hotels. So privately owned, not part of a larger brand. At the time, there was a really exciting hotel opening here in New York City called 11 Howard, and it had just opened. It was the hottest place to be in town. Everyone who was anyone and knew about it. And I had an opportunity to go join the team there. That was my first introduction to private management, private ownership, and really the world of truly independent properties. I worked at 11 Howard for many years through a variety of different functions, and really fell in love with the independent hotel space. Ultimately moved from 11 Howard to a company called Bridgeton, operating another hotel here in New York City, the Walker Hotel Tribeca, really involved in the independent space as well. Privately owned, privately operated company, and once again, just really loving that independent hotel space. After the pandemic, or I suppose after I reopened a hotel after the pandemic, I was honestly burnt out. I took some time off. I traveled for about six months by myself to visit some family and some friends, and kind of reset a little bit. Went back to the amazing team at Bridgeton and said, “I’m interested in continuing to work for the company. However, I don’t wanna work in a hotel. I think I wanna try something else.” And that was when I sort of stumbled into a role that focused on asset management and hotel development. And if I was working for a larger company, I don’t think I would’ve ever had had that opportunity because on paper I was not even close to being qualified. But given my relationship with that hotel company and the fact that I had already worked for them for several years, I appreciated their confidence in basically saying, “You’ll figure it out.” <laugh>. And so I did that for about three years, owning on the owner side, on the operator side, essentially being responsible for asset management for the company, as well as any portfolio-wide initiatives that we were working on. A lot of tech enhancements, a lot of brand standardizations, just kind of anything and everything that at these larger companies you may have individuals or entire departments dedicated to. And at a small company like Bridgeton, you didn’t. And so that kind of fell to myself and a very select group of others to roll these things out. And I loved it. I was very proud to work in the independent hotel space. There’s a reason I am on the advisory board for the independent hotel show, and I think there’s a lot of beauty in that world. About six months ago, I joined the team at the lifestyle group of Hyatt to focus on their pre-opening operations. And essentially what that means is having a GM-focused individual, a GM operational brain for every phase of the project from signing the deal until opening. Why I made the change, I was looking to grow my own professional network. I was also looking to grow professionally and work for a larger organization. And quite honestly, the opportunity felt like a dream job. Cassady Quintana: There’s nothing wrong with that. I love that. You’ve been in hospitality. It’s almost rare these days to meet someone that, like, chose that route, right? Like to go to college for hospitality and then stay in it their entire career. A lot of the people we talk to, it’s like, “Oh, I was working a side job in college,” and kinda just fell into it, and then they fall in love with it. But you kind of already knew from the jump when you went to college, like, “This seems interesting. It’s something I’m interested in.” You stayed in it. And I’m glad you brought up this new position because I saw when you got this new opportunity at Hyatt and it’s awesome. But for me, I was like, “So what exactly does this position. Like what does that day-to-day look like?” So kind of walk us through. I know you’re traveling all the time, but what does this role specifically look like on a day-to-day basis? Kat Woods: I’ll tell you a story because this is the reason that this job is a dream job. I’m not gonna mention which hotel I was working at, but there was a hotel that I had worked at when I was really young, and the back of house layout was very confusing and did not make much sense operationally. In addition, there were finishes and things about the guest rooms that did not age well. So as the product became two, three, four years old, it looked even older. And I remember specifically saying to somebody, “Who did this?” and how come we didn’t have someone who’s operated a hotel before look at these floor plans, look at these finishes, think about it how a guest is going to use it. Think about how all of the employees and colleagues need to walk through these spaces. Because at the time, being 20-something and having the confidence of anyone that young. I felt like I knew I though I could do it better. And this job is such a dream because I’ve always thought about how it would be great to be involved from the ground up to always keep in mind the, of course, the guest experience, but the employee experience and the way that the back of house spaces are evolve throughout the development process to make sure that they’re efficient, that people have the space and the resources and the tools to do what they need to do in order to ensure that obviously the guest has the best time, and to ensure that whatever these finishes are that we put in a room look messy or bad after a month or two, right? And so that’s a lot of what this is. This job, I have an incredible team that I work with and don’t have to worry about things as silly as, like, does this finish age well because they’re phenomenal. But talking about how backs of house flow, how employees need to move through space efficiently in the back of house in order to make the front of house experience feel to the level that we are certainly trying to deliver. And it’s great because I am pulling knowledge and resources and lessons learned from my days as a room inspector in housekeeping. Or a front desk agent or times when I had to cover the bellman, to most recently when I was a developer myself, or I was thinking about how does this hotel position in the community and how do we make sure that it’s a staple of the area surrounding it? So it’s kind of a dream because I’m using everything I’ve learned along the way. Cassady Quintana: I was gonna say, this is honestly perfect for you. Well, congrats on this new role and it’s awesome to kind of see what you’re doing there. And you brought up all this experience you have and your professional career shows for that, but I wanna get a little bit deeper onto that personal side because, you talked about maybe you weren’t qualified for a role at some point and, but you had the confidence to say that you could do it or you were gonna try and figure it out as you went along. So when you think about those roles and the experiences you’ve had in your career, what would you say you’ve, you’ve learned about yourself and what have you gotten really good at? Or maybe what was something that you realized, “Well, I’m not very good at that, but I want to be”? Kat Woods: That’s a great question, and hindsight is a beautiful thing because I’m confident that there were some lessons that I was learning that really didn’t feel all that good. At the time. So a great example, right, when I left the hotel property level and moved to corporate, I always had this shiny, beautiful image in my brain of what working for a corporate job would be, you know, coming to the office and seeing your office mates every day and going for an hour and a half for lunch and attending all that happy hours because nothing ran past five o’clock or whatever it may be. And there are certainly some really wonderful benefits, and everyone has to make the decision that’s best for them, about going to a corporate role. But I do not thrive sitting behind a screen. I need to be out with people. I need to be building relationships. I love to be connecting people. And so while I started to realize very quickly that sitting behind a screen wasn’t what made me the most fulfilled, I had to balance that with the fact that I took on that role at Bridgeton, which had a kind of a junk drawer of responsibilities because I needed to understand why we were making some of the decisions we were making at the property level. And when anyone is kind of looking at a job and maybe it’s not the best job for you or you’re not fulfill- fulfilled or you wanna travel more or whatever it is, right, whatever your situation is, I encourage you to keep just trying to focus on what you can get out of that role. And for me, it was learning a lot about asset management, learning how hotel development deals really get to the finish line, how to evaluate and underwrite all these different properties. And sitting behind a screen, again, wasn’t what I wanted to do. But when I shifted my brain to think, “Okay, I need to learn this. I need to understand this. I need to be good enough at this so that I can speak about it and, and bring it with me to wherever I go next,” it made it a little bit easier to go be in Excel all day. Cassady Quintana: Yeah. Well, I think there’s, you know, there are pros to having a job that you don’t love is, one, you learn what you don’t wanna do for the rest of your life, but also there are some things that you can take, okay, like you said, I need to learn this so that for when I get the job I really want, you’re already kind of there. So, you know, as you’re going through that job that you necessarily didn’t love and all these other experiences you’re having, was there ever a moment that you were like, “Okay, I’m meant for a larger leadership role or something greater than where I’m at right now?” Kat Woods: I think that’s true about anyone who’s driven or wants to continue to grow in their career. We should all be looking for our next step and how do we grow and how do we kind of expand our own professional path. And anyone who knows me is, knows that I’m pretty ambitious. I like to see progress. I like to try things. If they fail, we fail fast, we move on, we try something new. And so, I was always constantly looking out for what’s next and what’s exciting. When you get to a certain point in your career, and many women that you interview on this, I’m sure will say the same thing, you have the luxury of continuing to be more and more selective. And when I was in the operation, I always worked for brands that I wanted to be a part of and associated with. I always worked for people that I enjoyed spending 60 plus hours a week of my time with, right? And now I have the luxury of being able to do both of those things, as well as being associated with projects that I just kind of hardly can believe that I’m associated with. Like pinch me and these are so cool, so amazing. And that’s what I would kind of always say when you have the luxury of starting to be selective, think about what you want. Do you really wanna work for Maria? And if you do, take any job and get your foot in the door and then figure it out. Or do you really wanna work with X, Y, Z woman who’s been a great mentor to you? Maybe there’s a role within her organization that’s not a perfect fit for you, but you can at least start to be in her circle, right? And so just figure out what you want. For me, it was first important to be a part of a cool brand and then it was very interesting to be a part of independent hotels. And now Hyatt has some really phenomenal colleague benefits, and I’m lucky to be in this organization. And that was really important for me at the time of making this decision, not to mention this, like, really cool job and amazing team, so. Cassady Quintana: You kind of have the best of both worlds. It sounds like a great job that anybody would want. Well, yeah. And I love that because for me, I’m in my late 20s now, and I had a job before this, and realized really quickly that while I loved the people I worked with, the job wasn’t for me, but I’ve kind of found myself at Travel Media Group now and getting to meet people like you and hearing these conversations and hearing these stories, it kind of helps me think, like, okay, what’s next for me too? Obviously, within Travel Media Group, I started in one position and now I’m doing something else, and now I’m on this podcast. And for me, it’s staying at Travel Media Group because I love it here, but finding ways to move up where I’m at here. So when you think about that, because sometimes leadership isn’t for everybody, right? Some people know they don’t wanna manage people, they don’t wanna have a team, they just wanna go to work and do their own thing. But for me, and for you, we kind of have that drive and that passion to keep reaching another level. So when you kind of transitioned into a leadership position, how was that for you, and what did you learn, and how has your leadership style evolved going from kind of being in the weeds of everything to now, like, “Okay, I have a team that can handle this stuff, and I can kind of overview, supervise them?” Kat Woods: Great question. And having direct reports is, like, a very obvious way to learn how to manage, right? You have people that report to you, you need to keep them organized and make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction. So for people who are entering their first leadership role or one of their first leadership roles, my advice is always to be humble and, and honest, right? Even leaders make mistakes, and I think when you can recognize that as someone who reports to somebody else, you just naturally have grace for the fact that we’re all human here. But also, don’t be afraid to learn, like, alongside people. So earlier I said, if we’re gonna try it, let’s try it quickly. If we fail, we fail fast and we try something new. Ego is a huge, huge thing to overcome for some young leaders. Just because you’re in charge doesn’t mean you’re actually in charge. And so it’s okay to look to the people to the right and left of you and work together to accomplish whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish. But for me, maybe it’s astrology or whatever the, whatever the stars had in line for me, I always was attracted towards leadership roles. And I found having a team that reported to me came very naturally. It was, it was natural for me to understand what we as a group needed to accomplish in the day, help my teams prioritize, give them honest and real-time feedback about things that could help them not only professionally, but in their interprofessional relationships with other colleagues. And it, I think it’s just in my nature. And I found my biggest challenge started to come when I moved to out of property roles. And leadership is something that you need to be able to have even if you don’t have direct reports. And so, I’ve been working a lot on learning how to influence without authority and the ways that real leaders drive teams that may not be people that just do what you say because you’re their boss. And that is a very interesting world in human behavior that I like to navigate. I’m learning. I wouldn’t say I’m the best at it just yet, but I think those that I have the privilege of working with know that I like to keep people organized. I like to make sure we’re all on the same page. And those things remain true whether or not people are directly reporting to you. So yeah, those are two different stages of leadership for those in the industry, right? How do you, how do you get your counterparts to work with you even though they’re not just gonna do what you say because, right, you’re in charge, right? Cassady Quintana: I love what you said about the influence without authority. I think that’s super important because people are more likely to. I say this all the time about when you’re working under someone that’s very passionate about what they do too, it makes you wanna be passionate too, right? Even if it’s not my favorite thing, if someone above me is super pumped and excited, like, I feel like I’m already pumped and excited too. And so being able to influence people and just having that. I mean, you have a natural knack for leadership, obviously, but because you’re so passionate about what you do and you’re so invested in it, I can already tell that your team is probably the same way because they don’t feel like you’re just bossing them around, but you’re in it with them too, and so they automatically wanna be in that with you. But I wanna talk a little bit about, obviously, this is the She Suite. We’re talking about women in hospitality, and you do a lot of work with the New York City Women of Hospitality Organization. So I wanna ask you about that and how you got involved there, and just tell us a bit, a little bit about the organization for those that don’t know what it is. Kat Woods: Absolutely. So the New York City Women of Hospitality is a non-for-profit organization based in New York City. However, we branch out to Jersey and some of the surrounding communities, of course. And it is intended as a platform for females to come in and network, educate themselves, meet someone of a little bit of a different industry, and continue their education on the hospitality space just to further their own professional careers. My colleague, Jolie, and our original co-founder, Tiffany Parra, founded the organization back in 2018. And I believe the last event before the pandemic had about a hundred, had about 100 attendees. So then in 2023, I reached out to Jolie and Tiffany just to kinda see what was going on, if this was going to be something that was revived. And I was at a position that I actually didn’t have any direct reports, and I was kind of craving that mentor role in a few people’s lives. And so we revitalized the New York City Women of Hospitality. In our first event, we had over 50 attendees, and I think we gave, like, two weeks notice. It was kind of crazy if you think about what was going on and how people were feeling about in-person meetings at that point in time. And it was very clear to myself and the board that there was an appetite for this type of network once again. So then in 2024, we rolled out a pretty significant event series. Looking back on it, we were really aggressive. We did six events in the calendar year. Anything from a breakfast and learn with, at the time, our law firm partner who was really teaching you your rights in the workplace when it comes to maternity leave, when it comes to interview processes, and continuing to provide resources for women in the workplace, but in a third space, because employers are obviously going to make sure that they’re doing right by the company, maybe some employees don’t know their rights. So it’s this really great opportunity to continue to teach women just everything. We even held a rye tasting course so that women can understand the difference between X, Y, and Z different types of liquors. And it was great. The organization is entirely self-funded. We have no membership fee to enter. We do not put any type of threshold on who can attend. We just want people to come and network and grow. We’ve seen job offers kind of eventually flourish from some of these meetings. We’ve had some really great partners that end up co-hosting events with us for amazing platforms for women to listen to other female professionals. And so it’s really an events-based women’s networking organization based here in the city. Cassady Quintana: I love that. I wish I could come join one of your sessions. Maybe I’ll have to come up to New York City for something. Kat Woods: Well, Tiffany Parra did launch the Orlando Women of Hospitality last year. And so we are happy to announce we have our second branch, and maybe that’s a great opportunity for your next interview. Cassady Quintana: No way, I didn’t know about this. I didn’t even know about this. I’m gonna have to check that out as soon as we get off this. That’s awesome. So I was. Th’s kind of leading into my next question. I was gonna ask for people that don’t live in New York City or can’t come to your events, what are some other either organizations or resources or maybe even people to follow that you would recommend to other women that want to be in that space but can’t get to your events? Kat Woods: Oh my gosh. There’s so many. And there’s some really phenomenal organizations. And I will preface it by saying, depending on where you are, the power of that organization may be more enhanced, maybe a smaller community, but a few that I would love to shout out right now are, Women in Travel Thrive. We’ve worked a lot with them, not only on events here in New York City, but we recently, in 2025, we partnered for an event at the Independent Hotel Show alongside Emily Goldfischer and Hertelier. Highly recommend everyone subscribe to the Hotelier weekly email. Emily is phenomenal what she’s created there and providing a space for female-focused hotel news is really, really wonderful. Cassady Quintana: Well, thank you for giving those recommendations. I advise everybody to go follow, subscribe to those things that Kat just told us. I kinda wanna segue because you talked about, when you got involved with the NYC Women of Hospitality, craving that mentorship, you wanted to mentor other people. And I know I have a lot of women that I looked, look up to and have gotten me to where I am today, whether that be college professors or people I knew in my personal life. So I think it’s really important, especially we know hospitality to be a much more male-dominated industry, right? You go to some of these industry events and you are excited when you see a panel full of women. I just was at Hotel Data Conference and they had an entire panel of women and they called ’em the Girl Power Panel. And I just though that was awesome because it’s something you don’t see as often, and I think it’s important to have those people. So, I mean, what’s something that you’ve learned from other women in hospitality that, you know, you carry with you and maybe you give that to people that are younger than you? Kat Woods: I struggle sometimes because I’ve never actually had a female direct boss, and it is crazy to me that is something that I have never sought out. And sometimes I’m like, “Ugh, that’s a bummer.” But I’ve also had incredible mentors and sponsors along the way that are men. And it is phenomenal when you have a leader that is a female that you can look up to, but I don’t wanna discount any of the male supporters in the room because I really wouldn’t be where I am without some really incredible leaders. However, that being said, with the focus of the conversation, I’d love to shout out a few. There’s a few women that I consider close friends and I call for their advice often. One of them is Tiffany Parra, who is, of course, the co-founder of the New York City Women of Hospitality. She’s also a phenomenal professional in her own right with what she’s accomplished with Marriott, and has started the chapter of the Orlando Women of Hospitality. She’s not only a good friend, and I’m very lucky to call her a friend, but she’s just gives really great, solid, honest advice, especially as I was searching through, you know, what I wanted to do next to my career. So Tiffany Perra is a phenomenal, amazing woman that I can’t speak highly enough about. And here in New York City, there’s another leader. Her name is Zoe Pepper. We’ve showcased her a few times at the New York City Women Hospitality level, and she is one of the most authentic and genuine leaders who’s incredibly successful. And if you ever have the opportunity to hear her tell her story, she makes you feel so proud to be exactly who you are. Cassady Quintana: Love that. Kat Woods: I always think about that in the way that I wanna lead and the way that I wanna be perceived because what works for somebody else may not be what works for you. And to see someone who is as successful as Zoe, who drives home the fact that I am who I am and this is how I’m going to lead, it really just gives you confidence that you can do it yourself. So those are two that I would highly recommend. If you’re looking. If anyone out there is looking for a mentor, and not to put them, add more work to their plate, but those are two that I look to on a regular basis. Cassady Quintana: I love that. And I love the mentality of just being who you are and leading how you should based on who you are, because I think sometimes, there’s a lot of leadership books out there, and there’s a lot of talk on how you should lead a team, but first, all your employees may be different. So even how you lead individual people might be different too, and how you communicate with them, and honestly, how you communicate with yourself about those people too. So understanding those relationships is important. And I think leadership is one of those things that you usually are either naturally good at it or you have that drive to want to be good at it, but it is a long. You never stop learning on how to be a good leader, right? Because you are always gonna have somebody new on your team that requires something different. So right now, you’re in a leadership position, you have a team. So what’s something within this role or yourself leadership-wise that you feel like you’re still figuring out? Kat Woods: That’s such a good question. And let’s bring up all of my professional insecurities right now. Thanks, Cassie. <laugh>. Cassady Quintana: Of course, anytime. Kat Woods: I always believe that there is a way that we can come to a conclusion together. And sometimes I don’t think we get there fast enough, and I’m trying to work on taking a step back and saying, “Is making a decision the most important thing that we do right now?” Because in some cases, it is. In some cases, inaction is the worst thing that you can do. But as I progress to more strategy-focused roles, sometimes making the decision is not what we need. Sometimes we need a collaboration about how the decision is made and how it affects 100 different areas, right? I will always be operations through and through. Anyone that has worked in an operation will tell you the same thing. You make a decision, you move on. You make a decision, you move on. And I maintain that not making a decision is, is actually a detractor from someone’s effectiveness naturally, right? If you can’t make a decision and you can’t progress any change, but maybe we don’t have to do it immediately. Maybe it doesn’t have to be right then and there. So one of the things that I’m still working on, especially as I navigate a larger organization, is making sure I have the correct people in the room to make an informed decision and then hopefully do so in a timely way. But yeah, GMs will tell you, “Let’s move. What’s next? Here we go.” And that’s, sort of what I bring to this corporate world. Cassady Quintana: That’s good though. You need that. And I think it’s important too to remember that you mentioned this earlier about having peers and people that work for you or work with you that you can trust too and hold accountable and they’re also gonna hold you accountable because it can be lonely when you feel like you have to make a decision on your own. So the more you can. And obviously, there are decisions out there a leader has to make that is their own sole decision, right? There is no room for collaboration or room for – Well, how can we do this differently? Yeah, but being able to have a team that you can trust to collaborate on those decisions definitely makes it easier. And that’s what every leader wants, is a team that they can trust to help them out with that. So we’re gonna get a little bit deeper too before we wrap up, but let’s imagine we’re going back to the beginning of your career. <laugh> If you could sit down with young Kat before she’s embarks on all of these different journeys, what’s some advice you would give her? Kat Woods: Oh, it’s such a good question because hindsight’s so good, isn’t it? I wish I never did X, Y, and Z. <laugh> I think one of the pieces of advice that I would give my younger self is to not be afraid to continue to widen your career path rather than just elevate your career path, right? In working for smaller companies, you haven’t. It, it’s not hard to widen your career path because you’re doing so many things, but when you work, work for a larger organization or you work within a hotel, maybe you’re on the F&B track. And if you continue on the F&B track, there’s a lot of success that you can have, and maybe you can actually progress quite quickly. But if you are an F&B manager and have the opportunity to become a housekeeping manager, and then maybe after that you have the opportunity to be the front office night auditor or night manager, there’s so much value to be gained in all of these positions that maybe, especially when I was younger, I perceived as not a promotion, right? And I think I missed out on learning a bit more in depth about certain functions of a hotel or functions of a restaurant because I opted to take the promotion versus look for something that was on the same level but was a different department. There are ways to make up for it, there are ways to learn, and you can always go get your hands dirty, but don’t be afraid, young Kat, or maybe any of the young listeners out there, to go wider with your experience rather than to just chase the next title and chase the next title and chase the next title. Because I assure you, if you go wider, once you get to one or two positions above, the accelerated route that you will then have because your experience is so much wider, it’s unmatched. Cassady Quintana: Yeah. I think that’s important to kind of dip your toe in all the ponds that you can, right? And get a little bit experience everywhere you can because later down the road you may, like you know earlier, you had that desk job that you didn’t really enjoy, but now looking back, you’re like, “Oh, I’m so glad I learned that stuff when I did because it served me in the future.” And I think that’s important, especially for young listeners because there is kind of that idea of staying really loyal and working your way up within that one route you’re in, but we’re seeing a lot more with Gen Z that they’re not doing that as much anymore, right? They do wanna have different experiences and if something isn’t fulfilling or they want something else, they are gonna move. So I think that’s really important to not be afraid of doing that, not being afraid to try different things and widen your experience. So I love that advice. I’m gonna take that advice for myself too. But Kat, you’re a busy woman. We know that you’re always traveling, opening up these new hotels. What’s next for you? Where can our listeners find you? What do you have going on over the next few months? Kat Woods: Great. Thank you for having me, first of all. Of course. It’s been a pleasure to get to know you and to obviously be a part of this. And I, anything I can do to continue to support you, I’m happy to. I will be at the Independent Hotel Show in Miami in September. I know that I came from the independent hotel world, but there’s so much value to be gained at that show. And I’m based here in New York, so I’m always happy to make connections. You can follow New York City Women of Hospitality on Instagram, on LinkedIn. We do have an ev – several events actually coming up over the course of the next few months. So we’d love to see some of your listeners join us. Cassady Quintana: Well, thank you, Kat, for joining us, taking time out of your day. We really appreciate it. And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning into the first episode of this She Suite, a new Suite Spot series. We’re super excited. We’re gonna have a lot of fun stuff coming your way, so make sure you stay tuned, subscribe to our YouTube, and subscribe on all of your streaming platforms where you get your podcasts. Kat, thank you again, and we’ll see you in a few weeks in Miami. Kat Woods: Looking forward to it. Cassady Quintana: Alright. Thanks, everyone, and we’ll see you on the next episode of The Suite Spot. To make sure you never miss a conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review, and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Our editor is Brandon Bell, with cover art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host, Cassady Quintana, and I hope this conversation inspires you to continue supporting, elevating, and celebrating the women shaping hospitality—today and for generations to come.
