Voices of Experience

Voices of Experience


Like Family: Building a Successful Hotel

March 27, 2023

Leigh Hitz is a strategic advisor in the hospitality industry that retired as CEO of Stout Street Hospitality in 2016. Hitz worked at Stout Street for nearly three decades, learning to manage all aspects of the hotel space, from the front of the house to the penthouse. In 2008, Hitz and her husband, James, established a scholarship fund for female students pursuing a hospitality degree at the University of Denver’s School Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management.

Table of Contents

1:04 How growing up in Aspen led to a hotel career
2:25 The changing tides of the hospitality industry
4:45 Building relationships first
8:48 Learning to become a leader
9:44 Differentiation in a competitive market
11:48 Rebranding a historic hotel
13:43 "If I had a crystal ball"
16:15 Scholarship for female students in the hospitality industry
18:21 Becoming one of the first female GMs
24:39 Show notes and credits