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Meet Frontdesk: Senior Guest Experience Manager

Meet Kimberly, one of Frontdesk’s Senior Guest Experience Specialists and Cleveland Guest Experience Specialist. Kim embodies all of Frontdesk’s core values but especially “Wow Our Guests”.  Our brand reputation is critical for long-term success and it’s built one guest at a time. Without Kim, our guests would not have a delightful human experience. In Kim’s free time, she enjoys traveling (she’s been to 48 states and plans to knock out all 50!) and is a wizard at home improvements. Read more about Kim and what she does at Frontdesk below.

Tell us about your role, what do you do at Frontdesk?

Senior Guest Experience Specialist and GES for [Cleveland]. I oversee the guest experience of 11 Frontdesk cities and 7 GES’s. I help out with any escalations that arise that may require further direction so that our guests leave with a satisfying experience.

How long have you been working at Frontdesk?

I started in January, 2020.

What were you doing before Frontdesk and what brought you here?

Prior to Frontdesk, I was a General Manager for Hilton for 12 years. I left the hotel industry in 2019 to open up a kids developmental gym for children on the spectrum. I found that I missed the action of hotel life and was hired part-time as the Guest Experience Specialist for Houston. I quickly fell in love with the industry and the culture at Frontdesk. After COVID shut my business down indefinitely, I took a full-time role with Frontdesk.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

The unique day-to-day experiences that arise. There could be 12 inches of snow in a city one day that you are handling guest interactions for and the next, it’s messaging guests about a tiger on the loose in Houston (real Frontdesk event).

What has been your biggest learning experience since starting at Frontdesk?

The short-term rental industry is ever-changing and evolving in different cities. Learning the ins and outs and how they differ from the hotel industry has been quite a learning experience.

What surprised you about working at Frontdesk?

The culture at Frontdesk is so alive yet so remote. When you meet co-workers in person for the first time it feels like you are already family.

What advice would you give to future employees of Frontdesk?

View each day as an opportunity to learn something new and contribute your ideas. It is through your growth that Frontdesk becomes stronger and the leader of the industry. 

What are your hobbies/what do you like to do in your free time?

I enjoy reading, hiking, traveling, and home improvement.

Favorite Frontdesk city and why? Any recommendations of places to visit in the area?

Saint Louis is always a great place to visit. The Arch is amazing to look at and the food is mouthwatering. Add in the free zoo and a river cruise and it makes for a fun time for the whole family.

Bucket list place to visit and why?

Alaska and Hawaii are my last two states to visit in the US!

Ireland – heritage homeland

Announcing Frontdesk’s New CEO

Frontdesk Co-founder Kyle Weatherly transitions to Board Director, with Jesse DePinto becoming the new CEO of Frontdesk

By: Kyle Weatherly
Co-Founder, Frontdesk

Almost six years ago, on a cold December day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my wife, Ruthie, and I had just returned from spending a year overseas. We may have been tourists, but we weren’t living like tourists.

After that trip and spending a year jumping from country to country, vacation rental to vacation rental, I felt that consumer travel would soon change forever. The opportunity to redefine hospitality for a new generation of travelers was clear.

After a few conversations with Jesse, a former technology vendor at my first company, we launched Frontdesk with a single unit as a short-term rental in our hometown and immediately started booking. In January. In Milwaukee. We knew we were on to something.

February 28, 2017 — Frontdesk hosted their first guest, in their first unit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

So, Jesse and I sat down and wrote a mission statement that included lines that we still live by today. We aspired to build something meaningful. A business that could generate opportunities for many. A culture that inspires, one that aims to put team success above individual success. To “Clean the toilets” or whatever it takes for the team to succeed. We began reaching out to landlords in city centers and offering a service for managing their flexible stays in an efficient and scalable way, enabled by our technology, and our desire to serve.   

With a focus on systematizing processes, wowing the guests, and hospitality, we figured we could take this idea and build something big together. From there, we started to grow. People liked the idea, our team started growing, and with sweat and sacrifice, a new, customer-obsessed hospitality company was born. And today, that company has grown to over 30 U.S. markets with more than 1000 units across 150+ buildings and counting.

August 2022 — Frontdesk’s newest units in Birmingham, Alabama, and Cleveland, Ohio.

Since those early days, Frontdesk has served over 400,000 guests and earned an average satisfaction rating of 4.7 out of 5.0. Even through a pandemic, Frontdesk remained strong, growing while others could not and striving to continue with a mission of getting our hands dirty while helping travelers enjoy cities the way locals do. Due to good fortune, financial discipline, and intense efforts from our entire team, our company has never been in a stronger position even in these most challenging times.

In our earliest conversations, Jesse and I had always planned for him to eventually lead and take the company to the next level. Over the last 5+ years, we have worked tirelessly to land in 30+ markets and grew to 1000+ units. Now for the next five years, we get to execute on the fun part, expanding within our current markets and building a residential hospitality brand in the process.

September 2022 — Frontdesk embraces remote culture with 300+ employees scattered across the country.

Jesse has been leading the day-to-day operations for some time, so, more than anything, this is simply our job titles catching up with reality. Today is an exciting inflection point in the company’s history, and Jesse’s arrival into the CEO role marks a turning point that we are entering a new phase of growth for the company.

It has been an honor to lead Frontdesk, and I am thrilled that the board has unanimously appointed Jesse as the next CEO. I believe Jesse will fully realize the vision we have laid out over these past five-plus years and make Frontdesk the most beloved hospitality brand of this generation.

Yours truly,
Kyle Weatherly