All over the country, with the help and guidance from the corporate office, our teams find innovative new ways to traverse their biggest operational challenges on a daily basis. With the organization’s diverse portfolio of business combined with an expansive breadth of team member talent, there is a wealth of knowledge waiting to be tapped and made accessible company-wide for everyone’s benefit.

The Pineapple Exchange is the next development in Guest Services’ campaign to fortify internal communications and bolster our ability to inspire and learn from one another. This peer-to-peer, knowledge-based resource is an intuitively designed online portal through which team members can share and discuss the latest best practices from around the company.

“Every month, there is an abundance of creative events, packages, discounts, and other marketing executions that see fantastic results at one property, but could just as easily see success at another,” says Kat Summers, corporate lead for digital marketing. “This new channel presents a tremendous opportunity for managers from every division to learn from the company’s best. It gives them in-depth access to not just the necessary information about successful campaigns, but also to the associated collateral.”

The idea was conceptualized during a regularly occurring departmental marketing call. “On our monthly hospitality conference, managers expressed their interest in a platform on which they could easily access information about all of the topics we were discussing,” says Kat. “This is how the concept of The Pineapple Exchange was developed.”

One campaign discussed, which will be available on The Pineapple Exchange, was the “Bridge at the Ridge” content series at Giants Ridge. This marketing effort was used to improve upon the social media presence of Giants Ridge through their three main social channels by utilizing recurring video content. Managers will be able to discover how the marketing team at Giants Ridge was able to gain over 71,500 video views through this past ski season alone.

Managers looking to recruit will also find useful resources. The Success Profile is an innovative recruiting approach utilized at The Lodge at Breckenridge through which team members, and/or potential team members, are provided an extremely detailed job description that lists their position’s focus as well as a comprehensive list of essential duties and responsibilities. Multiple examples will be provided to show users how The Lodge at Breckenridge management ensures all team members know exactly what is expected of them, what their performance will be evaluated on, and what they will need to succeed.

“Although the project will initially provide a look into only hospitality campaigns, managers and team members of other divisions will find that many of the concepts will be applicable in some form at their own property. As the platform matures, it will reach into other divisions such as recreation and dining. It’s also important to note that the network is not strictly limited to marketing, but will include other highly pertinent business priorities like recruitment, training, human resources, and operations. By coordinating with Katie Gianturco and the Training Department, we are ensuring this platform will  benefit all team members working in all capacities.”

“While this initative is still in its early stages, we are very excited for its future and plan to expand as much as possible. Besides examining other divisions, we have discussed reaching more into social media by providing guidelines on posting, creating events, analyzing insights, and other social management techniques.”

“There is also a possibility we could start detailing external campaigns from other very effective organizations. The Pineapple Exchange will grow and change as more team members utilize it, and we want it to. This is a place where a team member from a hospitality property in Washington State can learn and discuss a new effective training method from a senior living community manager in Naples, Florida.”

While the website is not on the intranet, The Pineapple Exchange is a tool that is exclusive to Guest Services team members. Please stay tuned as more details on how the site will work and how to gain access to it will be released while the program continues to develop. The program is expected to go live in mid August.

If you have any questions or best practices that you would like to share with the organization, please contact Kat at summersk@guestservices.com.