Crescent Hotels & Resorts has promoted Kristi Kastrounis to Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing, placing her in charge of corporate marketing strategy across the hospitality management company's portfolio of more than 120 hotels.

Kastrounis will oversee digital marketing, ecommerce, brand positioning and broader commercial marketing initiatives. The appointment gives her responsibility for coordinating digital and commercial strategy across properties while supporting performance objectives for hotel owners.

The move also reflects a broader shift in hospitality marketing toward centralized digital capabilities. Hotel operators increasingly need to coordinate direct-booking strategies, brand positioning, customer acquisition and digital experiences across portfolios while maintaining consistency with individual hotel brands.

Kastrounis joined Crescent after nearly two decades in digital marketing and hospitality ecommerce. Her previous leadership experience includes roles at Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Aimbridge Hospitality and Hilton, where she worked with management companies, ownership groups and hotel brands on commercial performance and digital strategy.

Market Landscape

Hospitality marketers operate within a fragmented customer journey. Travelers can discover properties through search engines, online travel agencies, social platforms, metasearch services and hotel brand websites before ultimately making a booking.

That environment makes digital marketing and ecommerce important components of hotel revenue strategies. For management companies, the challenge is more complex because corporate teams must support multiple properties while accounting for different brands, locations, customer segments and ownership priorities.

Centralized marketing leadership can help create common processes for digital acquisition, ecommerce optimization and performance measurement while allowing individual properties to address local demand.

Kastrounis' experience across hotel ownership, management and brand environments gives Crescent a leader familiar with the different commercial priorities involved in this structure.

Strategic Outlook

Crescent's appointment comes as hotel operators continue to focus on direct digital relationships with travelers. Search visibility, website conversion, personalized experiences and ecommerce capabilities can influence whether travelers book directly with a property or complete a transaction through an intermediary.

For a portfolio operator, the opportunity extends beyond attracting website traffic. Marketing teams need to connect digital activity with occupancy, revenue and owner performance while maintaining a consistent brand experience.

Kastrounis' remit across digital marketing, ecommerce and brand positioning suggests Crescent is treating these functions as interconnected components of its commercial strategy rather than isolated marketing activities.

Her involvement with the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), including its Marketing Advisory Board and Rising Leaders Council, also connects her to wider industry discussions around hospitality marketing capabilities and talent development.

The longer-term measure of the appointment will be whether centralized digital expertise can translate into stronger property-level performance while accommodating the differing requirements of Crescent's hotel portfolio.

Top Insights

• Hospitality marketing is becoming increasingly digital: Search, ecommerce and digital experiences influence the hotel discovery and booking journey.
• Portfolio operators face added complexity: Corporate marketing strategies must work across multiple properties, brands and ownership structures.
• Ecommerce is central to hotel marketing: Website experience and conversion can influence direct booking performance.
• Commercial alignment matters: Digital marketing increasingly needs to connect with measurable property and owner outcomes.
• Internal leadership development remains important: Crescent is filling a senior commercial role with an executive promoted from within the organization.

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