From Intern to Hotelier: Giving Students a Seat at the Table

Part II of a three-part series takes a deep dive into the minds of former and current Virginia Tech interns, sharing what they learned outside the classroom and how real-world hotel experience shaped their careers

By Whitney Altizer

Sometimes the most important lesson an intern learns isn’t revenue management, forecasting, or how to prepare a sales contract. Sometimes it’s simply how to pick up the phone and confidently talk to a customer.

That may sound basic to someone who has spent decades in sales, but for a generation that has grown up communicating largely through text messages and digital channels, a live customer conversation can be unfamiliar territory. Current Newport Hospitality Group intern Juliana Subu readily admits it was for her.

“As a Gen Z student, I’m used to texting, so picking up the phone and talking with a customer didn’t come naturally to me,” Subu said. “This internship has pushed me outside my comfort zone. I’ve learned how important direct conversation is to build a relationship, and now when a client calls, I’m much more confident answering that phone.”

That growth is exactly what an internship should accomplish.

In Part I of this series, I shared why Newport works so closely with Virginia Tech and why we believe internships should be much more than temporary jobs or résumé builders. At our Blacksburg hotels (Hyatt Place Blacksburg/University and Residence Inn Blacksburg/University), interns participate in client meetings, learn sales techniques, work on digital and revenue-management initiatives, and take responsibility for projects with real business consequences.

But that was the employer’s perspective.

For Series II, I wanted to hear from the interns themselves. What surprised them? What challenged them? What could they learn inside a hotel that they simply couldn’t learn in a classroom? And, perhaps most importantly, did the experience make them more or less certain that hospitality was where they wanted to build their careers?

Their answers reveal why meaningful internships matter.

Learning to Communicate in a Different Way

Subu worked throughout the summer at both the Hyatt Place Blacksburg/University and Residence Inn Blacksburg/University and will continue with the hotels in the coming semesters. Her responsibilities have already exposed her to sales coordination, revenue management, budgeting, and projects involving Newport’s corporate team.

She has also discovered just how many moving pieces there are behind a hotel stay. One of those pieces is communication.

Subu said one of her biggest revelations has been understanding the importance of building relationships not only with customers but with coworkers. Something as simple as making eye contact with someone in the hallway and acknowledging that person contributes to hospitality. In sales, the expectation goes further. Relationships are maintained through conversation, follow-up, and direct personal contact.

For Subu, that meant getting comfortable on the telephone.

She described making and answering calls as a genuine generational challenge. Sales has required her to repeatedly practice a form of communication that wasn’t second nature, and repetition has turned discomfort into confidence.

That may be one of the most overlooked benefits of internships today. Students can arrive extremely comfortable communicating through technology while having had far fewer opportunities to develop the interpersonal skills required to speak with a customer, ask follow-up questions, listen for what isn’t being said, and build rapport in real time.

Hotel sales provides very little room to hide behind a screen.

The Value of a Mentor

That development doesn’t happen simply because Newport gives a student a title and a telephone. It takes someone willing to teach.

Newport’s Area Director of Sales James Landrum has become an important part of that experience for multiple generations of Newport interns in Blacksburg. His approach is not to limit students to administrative work. He exposes them to how hotel professionals actually think, gives them increasing responsibility, and helps them understand why decisions are being made.

Subu specifically credits collaboration with Newport leadership and Landrum with helping her recognize where she needs to improve and determine what she wants from her future career. Her goal is to leave the internship with greater confidence, stronger skills, and a foundation she can carry into a lifelong hospitality career.

She’s not alone.

Former intern Kyra Le remembers James teaching her hotel sales step by step and giving her considerably more hands-on experience than she expected.

“When I faced decisions that didn’t have an obvious right or wrong answer, James didn’t simply tell me what to do. He walked me through his reasoning,” Kyra said. “He helped me understand why a decision might make sense theoretically but require a different approach because of the market, the guest, or another business consideration. It taught me ‘judgment,’ not memorization.”

And judgment may be one of the most valuable things a young professional can take into a first full-time job.

When the Hotel Becomes the Classroom

Haley Dodman’s experience followed a similar path. She joined Newport as a sales intern in summer 2024 while completing Virginia Tech’s hospitality program. What initially fulfilled a field-study requirement became a position she continued through May 2026 because she enjoyed the work enough to stay.

Haley began by learning group sales, contracts, follow-up, and the mechanics of the sales process. Then James asked a simple but important question: What else do you want to learn?

Haley said revenue management and marketing. Her internship expanded accordingly. She began participating in revenue meetings, connecting with other Newport professionals, and working on marketing initiatives.

That willingness to let interns explore is critical because sometimes the point of an internship isn’t confirming what someone wants to do. It’s helping them discover it.

“I learned quickly that hotels don’t operate like classroom assignments,” she said. “Groups change budgets. Hotels get oversold. Problems arise without warning. In school, students may have a week to solve a problem. In an operating hotel, the answer needed is likely immediate.”

She also experienced the satisfaction of watching her own work produce results.

“I helped create a landing page and a survey for a hotel parent’s program,” Haley said. “Then I saw participation increase and revenue follow. It was rewarding. I also helped establish a graduation lottery, gaining marketing experience and exposure to a new system.”

Those aren’t simulated assignments. They are business.

Learning Where You Fit

Kyra’s journey demonstrates what can happen when that exposure continues over several semesters. She came to Virginia Tech initially considering finance before hospitality captured her interest. Through Professor Sheniel Bernard, she connected with James, shadowed him, and eventually asked to work with him. She remained with Newport through her junior and senior years.

Through the internship, she gained exposure to sales, group business, events, management strategy, budgeting, and forecasting. Today, she works for Newport as a commercial strategy manager, applying many of the skills she first encountered as an intern.

Her experience also taught her something about the nature of hotel work: it changes extraordinarily fast. You can leave at 5 p.m. and walk back in the next morning to different people, opportunities, and problems.

That unpredictability doesn’t appeal to everyone. Internships help students figure that out, too.

Today’s Intern, Tomorrow’s Hotel Leader

Jessica Stein offers another perspective; she was just beginning her internship when we spoke. Her interest in hospitality began during a trip to Venice, where seemingly small gestures, from remembering coffee orders to helping with transportation and luggage, showed her how meaningful thoughtful service could be.

At Virginia Tech, courses in hospitality finance, lodging management, and revenue management helped her see the business behind that service, with revenue management emerging as a particular interest.

“What attracted me to Newport was the opportunity to explore revenue management and sales while working closely with both hotel and corporate leadership,” Stein said. “I specifically wanted meaningful responsibilities rather than an internship spent observing other people work.”

Subu is now demonstrating what that looks like in practice.

During her summer internship, she examined ways to improve training for Newport, tested different platforms, and helped develop a centralized lead-retrieval system designed to distribute leads and business opportunities to other hotels across the Newport organization. She also gained firsthand experience with corporate communication, networking, problem-solving and sales strategy.

“I was surprised by the complexity of revenue management,” Juliana said. “Classroom instruction provided the foundation, but the internship showed me the amount of data and strategy involved in daily rate decisions.

“Working across two differently branded hotels has added another layer,” she added. “I had to move between systems, determine how business should be allocated, and juggle different responsibilities each day. It was challenging, but it is teaching me to multitask and preparing me for the realities of my career.”

She said the Newport internship program has made her more certain that hospitality is where she belongs. The combination she likes is telling: analytics and strategy alongside taking care of people and building relationships.

That combination is the hotel business.

Where an Internship Can Lead

There is no single definition of a successful internship outcome. Kyra’s path led back to Newport. Haley’s led to Hyatt, where she began working in June 2026 as an analyst within its revenue-management organization after considering several opportunities.

Juliana is still discovering hers. Revenue management, sales, and event planning all interest her. She wants collaboration, opportunities for leadership, and the chance to work on special projects rather than spending her career entirely remote.

Jessica is still on her journey. That’s exactly the point.

A successful internship doesn’t have to end with every student accepting a job from the company that trained them. It should end with a student who knows more about the hospitality industry, more about the available career paths, and, perhaps most importantly, more about herself.

Hospitality is enormous. We shouldn’t expect a college student to arrive already knowing whether she belongs in operations, revenue management, sales, marketing, finance, food and beverage, events or development. We should give them a chance to find out.

Put interns in the meeting. Let them listen to the revenue discussion. Give them a project that matters. Let them make decisions and explain them. Introduce them to leaders. Let them experience a great day and a difficult one. And sometimes, hand them the phone. Because becoming comfortable answering that call may seem like a small accomplishment. For a young professional preparing to enter a business built on relationships, it may be anything but.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Whitney Altizer is Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, for Newport Hospitality Group. She leverages decades of experience in marketing, sales, and revenue management to provide integrated solutions and lead new initiatives. Altizer joined NHG in 2004 as director of sales and marketing at the Holiday Inn Blacksburg, VA. She holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration with a specialty in hospitality and tourism from Virginia Tech. She is certified through the Hospitality Marketing and Sales Assn. International (HSMAI) in revenue management, digital marketing, and sales.