by Jess McCuan / photo by Brent Fleury

It’s A Tall task putting a fresh spin on one of Western North Carolina’s oldest and most venerable hotel properties. But if anybody can do it, it’s Susan Phillips. The fast-talking 47-year-old spent 15 years at Delta Airlines, many of those in reservations. "That’s when you get to learn all about folks and how to sell them something in just a few minutes," she says. She left the beginnings of a law career behind and was promoted up the marketing and sales ladder at Delta. Since then, the Parker, Florida, native and mother of four has held marketing positions at Asheville Regional Airport and HomeTrust Bank.

In December 2008, when Phillips took over as marketing director at the Grove Park Inn, the travel industry was in freefall. Global economic turmoil meant people were putting the brakes on their travel plans, and certainly travel to luxe locations like the Grove Park. Taking the helm during a time of industry-wide panic gave Phillips something of an advantage: her bosses were ready to try just about anything to lure people (or in some cases, lure them back) to the resort. In the last few months, Phillips and her team have rolled out a handful of truly provocative marketing stunts—like giving away 96 hotel rooms to Twitter users on the Grove Park’s 96^th birthday in July. (The hotel had never given away so many rooms, according to Phillips.) In September, she came up with the Little Package of Joy, better known as the "procreation vacation"—a two-night stay at the hotel, plus breakfasts, dinners and a spa gift certificate, all meant to help couples conceive. "We had so much fun with that," she says. "People went, ‘Really?’"

Let’s hope it works. According to Smith Travel Research, a Hendersonville, Tennessee, firm, hotel occupancy rates nationwide were down by more than ten percent in the first two quarters of 2009, and down by nearly eight percent in the third quarter. At the Grove Park, the number of "social visitors" is up by five percent this year compared to 2008, but group visits are down by 15 percent. "It has not been an easy year," Phillips says, noting that, while the recession is easing, travelers are still making shorter drives from home and staying at their destinations for shorter amounts of time. Phillips’ challenge now is to find people who are still traveling and get inside their heads. "When you market, a good bit of the job is psychology," she says. "That’s what keeps me up at night—trying to be a step ahead of them, trying to anticipate their needs."

When I came here, we were predominantly looking at marketing the same way [we had been]. There were certain publications we bought print ads in. There was a machine that was in place. I had to change that. I had to look at the dynamics of how people obtained their information. There’s the print medium that we need, but there are also people who want to get some of their information online. So we started migrating online…We did a beer-naming contest. For us, it was a way to get into the social media environment and to attract different folks that may not know about us.

We did a viral video that went on YouTube, a campaign called grovesmagicalelixir.com. That, for us, was really a lot of fun…It showcased us in an entirely different way. It was really neat because it was so non-Grove Park-ish. When you talk about image, we [are] this traditional place to stay. Your grandparents probably stayed here. Especially for the up-and-coming younger generation, how do you connect? How do you have something that’s fast and moves at lightning speed? The video that goes with Grove’s Magical Elixir—we had people take a look at it and say, "Is this really the Grove Park Inn? My grandparents stayed here." It was a way to try to reach past generations.

We have had more young people and more families… We had been really nervous, as most folks were, about summer travel [in 2009]. To see all the children come through here—it was definitely a younger demographic that had never been here before. They saw an ad, they saw something online, they heard about us on Facebook. There were all these different ways that they connected with us. They came over here, and then they talked about coming back. To me, that was a success.

It’s thinking of ways that people can get together and celebrate. I went to a conference recently on tourism, and one of the things they said that struck me is that people in this economic environment want to create memories. They want the Ozzie and Harriet days, they want to go back in time. They don’t want to pay high prices, they want to get back to basics. That really instilled me with a lot of inspiration. Okay, if they don’t have a lot of money to spend, we have to make sure that that experience is so rich that when they come here, they’re not wanting for anything. It doesn’t have to be exorbitant, but it’s truly an experience from A to Z.