Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The Vinoy’s fearless leader. The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, Autograph Collection Vanessa Williams gets it. The general manager of Tampa ’s The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, Autograph Collection understands that a great hotel is like a theatrical production — everything must work in harmony for the show to go properly.
Yes, you need reliable housekeeping and great food and drinks, but it means nothing if a friendly valet attendant doesn’t set the stage when guests pull up. “I interview [all the staff] in the hotel,” says Williams, who was the GM at Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills before joining The Vinoy in 2022. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak English.
I’ll have a translator with me, but we’re going to meet. We’re going to talk. The valet parking company is not even ours.
But I am so passionate about the fact that that is the first person any guest that arrives at this hotel will interact with [that I want to interview them first].” When she isn’t ensuring all aspects of The Vinoy’s property-wide refresh are going well before the hotel’s 100th anniversary in 2025, Williams enjoys spending time in the kitchen, walking her dog and enjoying Tampa’s bustling art scene. And as you’ll see in the following interview, she’s got a knack for answering rapid-fire questions, too.
The Vinoy celebrates its 100th year in 2025. The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, Autograph Collec.