RMCC's 20th Anniversary

Speakers: Jay Tom Ratliff, Sr Dir RMCC Americas. Shane Byrd, Revenue Manager, Onboarding. Austin Hinojosa, Senior Manager, Workforce Planning & Operations. Kaylen Burke, Assistant Director

Jay Tom Ratliff: Hello. I'm Jay Tom Ratliff and I've been with Hilton for 16 years. Most of that has been right here at the RMCC.

Kaylen Burke: My name is Kaylen Burke and I have been with the RMCC since August of 2013.

Austin Hinojosa: My name is Austin Hinojosa and I have been with the RMCC for 11 years.

Shane Byrd: My name is Shane Byrd and I've been with Hilton for 25 years since July of 1998.

Kaylen Burke: Gosh, there's so many of these moments that have been my favorite over the years. But I do have to say one of my most consistent and fond memories is always going to be State Fair Day.

Austin Hinojosa: Some of my best memories have to be when I was a revenue coordinator for the focus service team. I met so many people, I made lifelong friendships with teammates who I still regularly see to this day. I think the best memory has to be a team outing that we had famously known as the RMCC boat party. The entire department met out on Lake Lewisville and spent the day on the catamaran just socializing and enjoying the weather in each other's company. Another really good memory would be during my internship with the RMCC when life was easy and my chauffeur Ivan would drive us to lunch and different events throughout the week. And so I really, definitely enjoyed that.

Jay Tom Ratliff: You know, there's a lot that I think about whenever I think about my time with the RMCC from the very first days and being in the small room and being just a few team members and really come together to understand what is the RMCC and what are we trying to achieve and then seeing some amazing growth of the RMCC and how much has been an integral part of Hilton and its commercial success over the years, there's been a ton of people that have come in to contribute and to make this part of their lives and their careers and then move on to other positions and other teams. And all of those are fantastic memories. I also think about some of the very cool events that we've had and some of the celebrations that have gone on some wild antics that have been part of those people that have been in the RMCC. But I think my most favorite memory of it all has to be the people. There has been some amazing people that have been part of the RMCC and those friendships and their commitment to their job and to Hilton and to this organization has been something that I'll always cherish and always remember as a fantastic part of the RMCC.

Shane Byrd: I've been at the RMCC so long, it's really hard for me to pin down and isolate one specific memory that I would say is my favorite. There's so many just I'd have to say just the camaraderie and the, you know, the teamwork, being able to laugh and joke appropriately with my team members and coworkers, especially when I'm having a bad day. Somebody is always there to cheer me up and some of those are some of my fondest memories just joking and the camaraderie.

Jay Tom Ratliff: Wow. To think about the number of ways that the RMCC has changed is really kind of mind boggling. I mean, everything from the location and the number of offices that we have, thinking about the small team whenever I first started all fitting together under one room to really discuss, you know, either training or how to do holiday coverage. And, and then now to see that we're in so many different locations, we have so many new team members, so big an impact on Hilton and our hotels, that has been just really radically different, not to mention just what we do on a day to day basis. Yes, it's still revenue management and it's still pricing and inventory controls, but the systems are different, how we interact with hotels, how hotels see us as part of their teams has really grown and been a major change to the RMCC and the overall impact that we can and do have.

Kaylen Burke: RMCC has changed so much over the last several years when we think about how efficient we've become with our reporting. The new teams we've brought in and departments within the RMCC alone to help us support our premium against non RMCC hotels. And then of course, last but certainly not least the new faces we've brought in, some of what makes our departments so special are the people. And so it's nice to see that individuals want to start their career with Hilton, especially in the RMCC.

Shane Byrd: I've been with the RMCC since March 2005. So I've seen pretty much all of the changes of the RMCC over the years. We've, when I first started, I think I was the 11th hire in the office. Originally. Most of those people have since moved on. Erin Ewens Brown was the, soul director of the RMCC at that time and we only had three assistant directors. I was one of only four analysts at that time. And to be promoted to revenue manager, we had to spend every day for about three weeks straight with homework assignments every night with Lynn Doucet in her office. Anybody that knows and remembers Lynn can appreciate that. But we've seen all, I've seen all the growing pains going from just full service hotels in the beginning to, I piloted one of the very first two, Hamptons. And, you know, from there, then Hilton started doing the focus service in the All Suites and then we got GRO and just, you know, the RMCC was just exploded.

Austin Hinojosa: When I first started supporting focus service hotels for the RMCC was a new concept and the development of what is now the standard model was just beginning. I vividly remember celebrating our 100th focus service hotel and now we have over 2000 enrolled across all of our different service offerings. Our team meetings used to be held in the Shanghai conference room on five and everyone actually had a seat. So that's so much different than the large conference rooms and venues we booked today to host team meetings. Additionally, our support and Strat Ops teams were not a team, training was held by the Hilton learning team. Shout out Jay Tom and business development was facilitated by model directors. Daily reports were manually created, printed and interpreted. So we've come such a long way in developing different resources to make our team's lives easier. Provide topnotch training to new hires, offer valuable products to our hotels and generate revenue and work opportunities for the hotels and hotel staff that we ultimately serve in communities all across the Americas.

Kaylen Burke: I want to give a quick shout out to my mentor and friend Shawn Muchacho, who currently is an assistant director with the standard team specifically over new hires, Shawn and I started back in 2013 together, Shawn was my mentor, new hire buddy, whatever we called it back then. And since then, has really been pivotal in my career and development as well as just as a person. And I can't thank him enough for all of the times that I sat in his office to vent or really brainstorm on how to become a better team member, a better revenue manager, a better people leader and even a better person.

Austin Hinojosa: So many team members have made an impact on me and my career throughout the years. But I specifically want to shout out Rhonda Tillman, who I've worked alongside the entire time. We've been through so many different phases of the RMCC together in all types of changes which require critical analysis, process, review and creation and handling, escalated and time sensitive matters with owners, cross functional teams and hotels. Rhonda and I operate very similarly. And so it's a real benefit to have someone who, you know, you can talk to and bounce questions and ideas off of to find a solution. She has so much institutional knowledge and is able to look at things from multiple views and really is a good partner in producing an optimal outcome. Y'all often refer to me as the puzzle master of the RMCC but really Rhonda is so smart, detailed and more deserving of that title. Thank you, Rhonda.

Jay Tom Ratliff: Over the years of being with Hilton, it's impossible to thank everybody that's had an impact on my career. There's a few people that were very instrumental in the very beginning of my career. And some of those are still with Hilton and still with the RMCC. I gotta always give Rhonda a shout out. She's been a staple of the RMCC from my very beginning days and she's the glue that holds us all together then and today. So Rhonda, whether you know it or not, has a huge impact on the RMCC and has had so, since she began. I also want to send a shout out to Terry Busch, who has always had a big impact on Hilton, but was one of my first directors and really gave me a lot of strong advice I still think about today and that has helped me navigate through my career at Hilton.

Shane Byrd: Julie Jachimczak is a person who's not just my coworker, but a friend of mine, a confidant, somebody that I've known for more than 20 years since she was on the old rat team. And then when she joined the RMCC, she, she was in my pod, my work group. We fondley remember those days as Julie and I used to bounce ideas off of each other quite a bit. She's been very instrumental you know, in aiding in the system with mentoring, with just collaboration on many things. She's always been somebody that I could count on for her honest feedback, good or bad. And I really appreciate that Julie's been a great friend and she is now also my manager on the on-boarding team and I couldn't ask for a better manager either. Except Julie. Thank you for everything that you've done and thank you for bringing a great friend and a great manager.