Erica Bailey, Omni Hotel Louisville

In short, I am the General Manager of Bobs Steak and Chop House and Manager of Pin + Proof and The Library Bar inside the Omni Hotel Louisville. Managing day-to-day operations, and a team of 75 associates.

I started with the Omni Hotel on 12-28-2018. While I am currently the General Manager, I started out as the Food and Beverage outlets manager for Pin + Proof, The Library Bar and The Water Company. From there, 11 months later I was promoted to GM of Neighborhood Services, the hotel’s 3 meals a day restaurant. After COVID, I came back as the General Manager of Bob’s and took over running the bars again!

What I love about hospitality is the ability to give someone a smile. We are a convention hotel and often with our guests comes a person who had a hard day of travel. Having the space to welcome someone in, give them a warm meal and make them feel valued is honestly and selfishly the reason I’m in the business.

My biggest “aha!” moment came post-COVID. I was dealing with a difficult situation involving a staff member and one of our guests and when talking to our associate, the associate looked at me and said “You know, the rest of America is not back to work yet. I don’t have to be here!” And I thought, that’s right! While we should all be grateful for our careers and having a unique place to work, as a part of the hiring team of a large employer we should also be grateful for our staff members that came back to work, during a global pandemic, with an uncertain future. They dove head first into this work. They delivered more to our guests than pre-COVID. They work hard, they try hard each day to get better at their crafts and I want to show them how grateful I am to have them as a part of my team! You cannot take great team members for granted.