Q&A: Hyatt exec on brand-building with community in mind

For hospitality brands, a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion extends to not only their employees, but also to the communities in which they operate.

With Hyatt Hotels’ new Caption by Hyatt brand, which recently debuted its first location in Memphis, the hotel chain has purposefully developed a brand to be truly of its community – meaning the hotels hire local, buy local and make effort to support local and minority-owned businesses whenever possible.

Overseeing Caption by Hyatt’s development is Crystal Vinisse Thomas, the global brand leader for Hyatt Hotels Corporation’s lifestyle and luxury brands, which also include Park Hyatt, Alila, Andaz, Thomson and Hyatt Centric.

Vinisse Thomas, who previously served as senior brand marketer for Beats by Dre at Apple, guides the strategy and vision of Caption by Hyatt and is a champion of diversity, equity and inclusion both within the organization and in communities at large.

Below, she discusses what makes Caption by Hyatt’s approach distinct, as well as how hotels can connect with and market their communities with inclusivity in mind. She also shares her experience climbing the corporate ladder as a woman of color and the importance of making goals actionable.

What sets Caption by Hyatt apart in the market, and how does it support local communities?

Caption by Hyatt is a unique addition to Hyatt’s portfolio, joining as the first brand concept to combine the design and comfort of an upscale, lifestyle-forward hotel with the flexibility and self-guided options of a select-service property.

What I love about Caption by Hyatt is that it’s a brand that doesn’t shy away from mixing things up, and this shows up best through our food and beverage. The F&B program is typically an afterthought in the select-service segment, but at Caption by Hyatt, we’re bringing this front and center to the guest experience with our concept, Talk Shop. Designed to be an all-day hangout for everything you need and crave, Talk Shop truly melds several facets of F&B together and is designed to be entirely flexible to meet guests’ needs at any time of day, whether that’s to hang out, work, socialize and everything that happens in between.

Also pivotal to the brand is the intention to be truly of the community, not just in it. Each Caption by Hyatt hotel will be distinct and at the same time have that unmistakable neighborhood feel, where the people make the place. At Caption by Hyatt Beale Street Memphis, our first global property which opened back in June, we’re making every effort to ensure the hotel and the community serve each other. We are making a point to partner with local businesses, like local craft brewers, and providing a platform for female and minority-owned businesses as much as we can through partnerships, programming and hiring.

What can hotels do to begin incorporating and promoting more local people and businesses, particularly people of color and businesses owned by minorities?

The first thing I recommend hotels to do is to get to know your community. Have firsthand conversations, form an open dialogue and build a relationship. Seek to make connections with locals and listen and learn from them so you’re not only providing an authentic experience for your guests, but also honoring the culture of the location your hotel calls home.

Taking it a step further, it’s also important to have conversations at the corporate level to create a welcoming culture that supports the communities you are operating in. I oversee six brands here at Hyatt (Andaz, Alila, Caption by Hyatt, Hyatt Centric, Park Hyatt and Thompson Hotels) and across all, creating an authentic experience for our guests that provides a distinct sense of place is a top priority. Partnering with locals and neighborhood businesses does just that.

I’m a natural storyteller and when I approach each of my brands, I ask myself, “What kind of story are we telling here?” Our guests come from all different kinds of backgrounds, so inclusivity and representation are pivotal when it comes to storytelling for a hotel brand. Through listening to our guests, members and customers, we understand the importance of valuing their diverse and unique perspectives.

To use Caption by Hyatt as an example, our guests are creators, entrepreneurs, side-hustlers, dreamers and belief-driven buyers who prioritize both style and substance in everything they do, buy, post and perform. So, we’ve designed Caption by Hyatt hotels to be an open space for the community and travelers of all types.

How can hospitality brands incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into their marketing campaigns?

I think we have to be careful not to try and overtly incorporate DEI into campaigns just to check a box. Today’s consumer (and marketers, alike) will see right through that and call us out on it. DEI has to be part of your everyday and built into your culture, and most important, we’ve gotta hold ourselves and our partners accountable for how we show up.

In my work, I’m very intentional about ensuring our campaigns and assets represent the reality of not only the world I live in but also that of our consumers. We’ve introduced new marketing principles that guide how to photograph inclusively so we’re capturing an accurate representation for our guests and members. Lead with inclusion, be genuine in your message and create campaigns that depict the audience you’re trying to reach.

Earlier this year, Castell Project found that women account for one top position for every 10.3 men that occupy a leadership role, compared to 2019 when it was one woman in a leadership role compared to 11.2 men. How can the industry elevate more women to leadership positions?

Hold yourself accountable and just do it. I recognize how easy it is to only look within your own network to hire and promote, but we have to start doing the work and expand our circles beyond what we know. There are so many talented women executives in my group chat, alone! So, supply isn’t the challenge - we need more of a collective effort to even begin to close the gap.

At Hyatt, we recognized that we weren’t where we wanted or needed to be, so we set goals, and made those goals actionable. By 2025, we have a goal to double the representation of women and people of color in key leadership roles. Today, we’re already seeing more women in leadership positions compared with 2020; and in 2021 alone, we increased our representation of Black leaders among all levels of the organization.

How are you helping create opportunities for women and people of color in hospitality?

For most of my career, I‘ve been "the only" or one of a few who look like me in the room and even more so now as an executive. This has lit a fire under me to educate budding leaders both in and outside of our industry that you can aspire to any role in hospitality, across several disciplines beyond the hotel itself. Knowledge of that is half the battle, so I try to spread that message as much as I can.

At the start of my career, I didn’t realize that brand management was a “thing” in hospitality until I shared my passion for storytelling with one of the corporate recruiters, who then helped me pivot in that direction. Now that I’m here, I’m passionate about giving that same energy to others by being visible and sharing my experience, so that they know they can be here, too. I’ve had several opportunities to connect with future leaders through Hyatt’s collaborations with the Chicago Urban League and the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality (of which I was a member in undergrad), and various programs through Cornell’s diversity alumni network.

As you can imagine, representation is incredibly important to me, personally. I’m especially keen to have diverse and dynamic people on my team and hold myself to a high standard for creating an inclusive culture - frankly, that’s the key to unlocking the best, most creative ideas! My first hire at Hyatt was a Black woman, and as we look to grow, I’m always mindful of how I can directly impact creating spaces and opportunity for women and people of color to thrive in our industry. And to be clear, that’s not something that requires a lot of effort for me; it’s always top of mind as part of who I am.

Can you speak to specific DEI initiatives you’re involved with at Hyatt? How do these initiatives reflect Hyatt’s brand and mission?

One of the major DEI initiatives we have at Hyatt is called Change Starts Here, which launched in June 2020. Change Starts Here is our commitment to advance DEI across our business in three key categories: who we employ, develop and advance; who we support; and who we buy and partner with. I’m particularly proud of the headway we’re making on who we do business with, especially as we diversify our supplier base. In 2021, Hyatt identified 220 new Black suppliers and achieved nearly $4 million in Black supplier spend.

Another effort I’m proud of at Hyatt is RiseHy, a global program we launched in 2018 designed to pair the hospitality industry’s career opportunities with young people who need them. As part of the initiative, Hyatt hotels around the world are committed to hiring 10,000 Opportunity Youth – people ages 16 to 24 who are neither in school nor working and come from challenging socio-economic circumstances – by 2025. Through this initiative, we are using the power of technology, including virtual reality, to scale career opportunities and bring awareness to hospitality careers. RiseHY aims to set candidates up for success from the start and expand training programs as a path for not just employment but advancement within the hospitality industry.

Both of these initiatives reflect Hyatt’s brand and mission to care for people so they can be their best, and most importantly our commitment to accelerating DE&I efforts throughout the organization.