Effective Digital Marketing During COVID-19

Bill Carroll is a clinical professor (ret.) at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration. For more than 12 years he taught economics, pricing, and marketing distribution courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive-education levels. He holds a B.A. degree in economics from Rutgers, an M.S. in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in economics from Penn State.

As CEO of Marketing Economics, a consulting firm specializing in travel industry pricing, distribution, yield management, and strategic planning, Dr. Carroll works with a variety of clients, including global distribution systems, hotel service companies, and travel intermediaries. He also works closely with PhoCusWright, Inc., a travel industry research, consulting, and publishing company, and he has written a number of reports and articles, including a report covering the evolution of hotel distribution and its impact on major chains and intermediaries.

For over 25 years, Dr. Carroll held a variety of senior positions in the travel industry. He was the Division Vice President for Global Marketing Planning at Hertz, where he was responsible for global pricing, yield management, marketing information systems, and counter sales. He implemented the first decentralized yield management system in the car rental industry and a comprehensive executive information system (EIS) that gained national recognition. Following Hertz, Dr. Carroll served as the Global Vice President for Reed Elsevier’s Travel Group, which included responsibility for Travel Weekly, the Hotel and Travel Index, the Official Hotel Guide, and the Official Meetings and Facilities Guide. He was also responsible for production and database systems and the migration of information products to electronic distribution.

Prior to his work in the travel industry, Dr. Carroll was an assistant professor of economics at Drew University, where he taught courses in econometrics, public finance, labor, and environmental economics. He also served as a member of the economics staff at AT&T, where he was an expert witness before state regulatory bodies and prepared filings on pricing and forecasting with the Federal Communications Commission.

Dr. Carroll has written numerous academic and popular-press articles on economics and travel industry topics. In addition to his business and academic career, he is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and was a university lacrosse coach for over 10 years.

A hospitality industry veteran with over 25 years of experience, Jimmy Siebold brings an exemplary history of hotel management and restaurant experience to Charlestowne Hotels. A graduate of Western Michigan University with a degree in Integrated Supply Management, Jimmy started his career at the Jefferson Hotel, a five-star, five-diamond property in Richmond, Virginia. He has also served as a general manager at the four-diamond Kiawah Island Resort in South Carolina. Jimmy has held the position of director of operations at various sports complexes that include the Jacksonville Jaguars, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Harley Davidson Museum. After assuming the role as food and beverage director at the Tides Hotel in Folly Beach, South Carolina, Jimmy joined Charlestowne Hotels in August 2012 as a general manager at the North Charleston Inn and has been a regional director of operations since 2014. Recently, Jimmy received his Advance Marketing Certification from Cornell University. Jimmy has been an integral team member with multiple renovation and repositioning projects during his tenure with Charlestowne Hotels. His passion for heartfelt hospitality and dedication to the future of the industry are highly instrumental in overseeing and defining the properties which he oversees.

Max Starkov is a hospitality and online travel industry technologist, consultant, and digital strategist with more than 20 years of experience in hospitality technology and digital marketing, hotel online distribution and revenue management, OTA channel management, and hotel CRM and branding strategies. Until recently, Max was the founder, president, and CEO at NextGuest (formerly HEBS Digital) in New York City, the hospitality industry’s leading digital consulting, technology, CRM, and marketing firm, with 150 employees and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

Stephanie Sparks Smith is the founder and digital matriarch of Cogwheel Marketing, as well as a partner and consultant at Cayuga Hospitality Consultants. Her focus is helping owners and management companies drive incremental exposure and revenue to their websites and online channels through hotel digital marketing and advertising. The expertise of Cogwheel Marketing is knowing the intricacies of the brand systems of Marriott/Starwood, Hilton, and IHG, and understanding where brand marketing stops and hotel-level marketing begins.