by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
One thing Gary Gotling understands is it takes a lot of experience, having the all right tools at your disposal and working with a great team to become the best at what you do.
Gotling, a 29-year veteran of the hotel industry, has been named the Hyatt Hotels and Resorts Director of Sales and Marketing of the year for 2006, deemed to be the superior performer in the nation.
It’s not the first time he has been honored by the corporation. Gotling has been nominated three times for this award and has been the director for two National Sales Teams of the Year as well as one Resort Marketing Team of the Year.
Gotling began his career in the industry when he got a job at the front desk of a hotel in his hometown of Chicago. He worked his way up through the ranks of room service, banquet operations and food & beverage, then moved south when he landed the Catering and Convention Services Manager job at the 1,300-room Hyatt Regency Atlanta.
Since he joined the Hyatt brand in 1984, Gotling has traveled quite a bit and changed his career focus out of guest services and into the sales department when he arrived at the Hyatt Regency in Greenville, S.C. in 1987. He worked there for a year (and met his future wife) before going back to Atlanta for three years. Gotling accepted his first director of sales position at the Hyatt Regency Savannah in 1991.
After six years in the Peach State, Gotling packed his Rolodex again and directed sales at the Hyatt Regency in Miami until 1997, when he and his family began a six-year tour of duty in Hawaii at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa.
Hyatt transferred the family to Tampa for a couple of years then to Jacksonville in March of 2005 when Hyatt took over the Adam’s Mark Hotel and Gotling was on the pre-opening team.
By that time, Gotling and his wife had a 12-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter who hadn’t lived in the same place for more than three years of their lives.
“My wife told me: ‘no more moves’,” said Gotling, “But I’ve loved every place I’ve lived. I’m a kid from Chicago and I haven’t had to shovel snow for 23 years.”
Gotling is quick to point out he realizes he couldn’t have won the award without help and credits three things that have made it possible for him to accept the award in Los Angeles May 22 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.
“We have a great product, a great location and a great staff. I share this honor with everyone here at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront and with all the people I’ve worked with over the years,” said Gotling.