Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Newport Hospitality Group, Whitney Altizer, joins the Suite Spot in the latest episode of TMG Hospitality Trailblazers to give audiences a close look at what makes the Newport portfolio and brand unique in the hospitality industry and why social media is critical to a hotel’s success in the digital age.

Ryan Embree:

Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Welcome to another edition of our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. I got a fantastic guest. We actually had an opportunity to meet with someone from the, the Newport Hospitality Group just a couple weeks ago at the Hospitality Show, but we got a brand new guest here with us today, senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, Whitney Altizer. Whitney, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot today with me.

Whitney Altizer:

Hey, Ryan, thanks so much for having me. Appreciate it.

Ryan Embree:

We’re gonna have a fun conversation today. A lot of exciting stuff and news about Newport Hospitality, but as tradition here on the Suite Spot, hospitality, as we know, is one of those things where people can come from all different places, brands, management companies, and unique journeys that led you to where you are. So let’s hear about yours, Whitney. Talk to us a little bit about your hospitality journey and what led you to Chief Commercial Officer at Newport Hospitality Group.

Whitney Altizer:

Yeah. Well, I always joke that Newport raised me. You know, I went to Virginia Tech for business and hospitality, and then I moved to Atlanta and worked with Darden restaurants for a stint. You know, and I love the experience, but I just decided I needed a new perspective on food and beverage and the industry in general. So I ended up back in Blacksburg at a full service Holiday Inn that Newport actually owned and managed at the time. So 22 years ago, I walked into that Holiday Inn as a director of catering and sales, worked there on property, and then, moved up to the corporate director of sales, a corporate revenue manager. Then I was the director of Revenue and Digital. Then came along the Vice President of Comms Stratt, which catapulted me to where I am today which is the Chief Commercial Officer.

Ryan Embree:

Your story is a genuine reflection of our industry, of how many facets there are to hospitality, from everything from food and beverage to sales, to all the positions that you, that you held in, in between. You know, it’s one of the reasons a lot of people love hospitality is because you can really do anything within it, right? It’s almost its own ecosystem within our industry, and it’s really cool to see, and I’m sure that was, you had some incredible experience, which lends you to where you are right now and knowing different people’s positions. That’s what we hear is sometimes the most successful hospitality people are the ones that got exposure to those different aspects of hospitality and kind of use that in their experience today. Some of those, hospitality professionals maybe even had to, you know, during that, that 2020 era had to get into some of those departments that they hadn’t done in a minute, and certainly shared some experience there. But, we won’t talk about that time, but doing some research for this episode, I wanna talk about Newport Hospitality and their story. Right? I always find it so fascinating when we talk about to these management companies and brands about how they first got into hospitality and fun little facts. That the origin story really dates back all the way to the 1850s. It goes back way, way far. Could you give a little background on the early days, maybe not take us that far, but a little bit early days of Newport Hospitality and how it’s led to the amazing growth that you guys are experiencing right now in 2025?

Whitney Altizer:

Yeah. Newport, in my opinion, was built on hard work, dedication, and two families. So in 1990, we were officially founded by Bill Carey and Mike Pinger, and but as you noted, the story dates back much further than that. Bill came from a ranching and entrepreneurial background and was the great grandson of a man that had built a large land in cattle business in West Texas in the 1850s. And that cattle business is what went on to help fund the start of Newport, and then as well purchase a lot of the hotels that we currently own.

Ryan Embree:

Absolutely incredible. Just such a unique story. So happy that it’s on the website where I’m sure employees and and guests can even check that out and share that. And led to where you are today. And I want to talk about fast forwarding today, ’cause you got some exciting news, a new website on the horizon. Talk to us a little bit about this project and this new chapter, for Newport Hospitality Group.

Whitney Altizer:

Website debut coming soon. We are beyond excited. This has been a labor of love. There’s been joy, there’s been passion, there’s been divine intervention. We are just so happy to see it come full circle. Really the design intention was to speak to our partners, our clients, our team members, but do it all at the same time in the same platform, right? So we’ve tailored this website so that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re looking for, you will find the ability to get the information that you are looking for and the correct person to interact with you know, in this current climate of digital changes. Its been very interesting to walk through this process. It’s a lot different than, you know, 10 years ago when, when we started on WordPress, right? <laugh> Now it’s the AI integration, it’s large language models, it’s SEO. We’re taking into account all of those things, but trying to still keep the website intuitive and engaging for anyone that would visit it and be looking for information.

Ryan Embree:

Well, it’s, it’s kind of, it’s exactly what you said, Whitney. It’s very fortuitous timing as far as, you know, ’cause I’m sure even the way that websites are being designed and kind of strategically, you know, built today, it, you said 10 years ago, I would even argue just a couple years ago, is very different in the landscape, even with the way that people are trying to look for information, whether that is, young hospitality professionals trying to find out some background, about the hotel or the culture that, which we’re gonna touch on here in a minute, to ownership groups and developers that are, you know, trying to look for information. So, great timing, can’t wait to see it. But on that, that new website is, is gonna be that diverse, incredible portfolio that Newport holds right now. And as marketing people, we always love to talk about what’s next, right? What’s in the pipeline, what exciting project, what are you, what’s getting you excited right now about either projects or, or stuff in the pipeline right now at Newport Hospitality?

Whitney Altizer:

Yeah, so the biggest thing right now is that we’re gonna be opening a new Hotel in Q1 2026. So it’s currently under build right now. It’s with a partner that we already work with, Andre Hickman and Sanford, Florida. And this is his second hotel with us. We built his first hotel. Now we’re getting to build his second hotel with him. And we’re just beyond excited to see that all come to fruition and have two hotels in the same market with the same great partner, you know. And then of course, our Chief Development Officer, Sean, is always moving and shaking. He’s always got something on the horizon. And right now we’re looking at three potential acquisitions in Virginia, two in Ohio, and then a large expansion into the Northern Territory. We’re mainly east coast right now. Those are not over the finish line yet, so I can’t quite say much more than that. But we’ve been very thoughtful about who we wanna grow with, how we wanna grow, and making sure that we’re aligned with those partners so that we’re all walking together on the same path.

Ryan Embree:

Thats fantastic. And, you know, Sanford, right here in our backyard Travel Media Group’s backyard, right down the road, right down I-4 which, which could take a little little time depending on, on when you’re going. But, uh, but, you know, so exciting to see. It looks like you’ve already might already need some new changes for that, updated website here soon with some new properties. So we’ll continue to keep an eye on that. Another aspect that really stood out to me, you know, doing some research for, for this episode, as well as talking to Brendan at the Hospitality show was the commitment to employee culture. And I saw right now on social media, which you got a huge presence on. You’re running this voice of 35 campaign. I wanna talk a little bit about that campaign, but you were actually featured on there, Whitney, and you shared, we not only invest in our people, but the relationships with our owner as well as the community. So again, maybe talk about that, that voice of 35 campaign, what you’re trying to accomplish there, and then expand a little bit more on that, investing in people, relationships, and community.

Whitney Altizer:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, voices of 35 is something that we feel like captures the heart of Newport. It puts into words why I’ve been here for 22 years. So the intention was to celebrate the whole 35 year journey, the people that made it possible internally, externally, and then to reflect on those team members and their growth. So we’re really lucky that at the corporate level, we’ve got over 10 em