End of an Era

May 31, 2011

To whom it may concern

It is with a heavy heart I am writing to announce my resignation from Skye Hospitality’s Hampton Inn effective June 20, 2011. The past 10 years have been wonderful and rewarding and I appreciate the opportunity I was given.

Thank you for the opportunity that has been provided for me.

Sincerely, Scott D. Williams

And with the words above the end of an era is now upon us.

I am posting this as I am about to walk out the door of the Hampton Inn hotel in White Marsh, MD. I am filled with memories of co-workers, guest, and some amazing stories to tell.

My first day at the Hampton Inn was on Halloween day in 2001. Previously I was working at Sbarros in Towson Town Mall when they decided to close the store the day before my birthday. I was not that upset because the job was only supposed to keep me occupied while I looked for another job. I had gone on a few interviews o this point but I have not heard back from anybody yet. So with no job I thought back to an absolutely crazy girl that I met a few months previous who was working at the Hampton Inn Annapolis. My thought was if she can do this job so can I. I walked in and grabbed an application and things took off from there. I was told later that the girl, who I picked up the application from, Rashanda, immediately went to the back and told them to give me a call. A few days later I received a call for an interview and was hired immediately, with a start date of October 31, 2001.

I will never forget my first day at the Hampton Inn. It was Halloween and everyone was dressed up while I am wearing a tie. But then I was shown a tour of the hotel by the same girl who interviewed me who was dressed in a skin tight cat outfit. After the tour I was introduced to my AGM who was wearing a witches outfit and she did not look half bad in that either. I walked out of there my first day and said, “I could get to like this job.” Little did I know at the time how true that statement was going to be.

The expression, “my work place is like a family” is so true when it comes to the hotel. I pin pointed it to you are stuck working with someone for 8 hours at the hotel. You have two options, being friendly and get to know the person you are working with, or sit in silence for 8 hours and be miserable. Most of us end up going with the friendly approach. We end up getting to a comfort level with everyone that singing and dancing and making a complete fool of yourself is something natural as opposed to being guarded and careful. Topics that are normally off limits like religion and politics are talked about like we were talking about movies and books. Jokes played on each other can happen daily and really teach you to put your guard up. I also have learned one really good joke can give you a legend status that makes it really hard to top, and that they talk about for years after. I have made some friends here that I hope I have with me for a life time.

Here I am ten years later about to walk out the door. It is an extremely bitter sweet moment but it is a decision I am proud to make. It was so hard to walk into my GM’s office and tell her that I was calling it a career. I almost instantly started to regret the decision until I got home that night. I told Lex I was not going to be working at the hotel much longer and he gave me the biggest hug, and with a huge smile on his face he told me he loved me. At that point the decision was set in stone.

I feel like so much has changed in my life since I started at the Hampton Inn. When I started Lisa and I had only known each other for a few weeks, here we are 10 years later with two kids, a mortgage payment and adult responsibilities. I have grown personally and professionally because of the people who I have met at the Hampton Inn at White Marsh. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity that I was given by Mr. Dresher and I hope I never embarrassed the hotel too much when talking about it in public. I will miss my friends that I leave behind and I hope we stay in touch. Thank you, thank you, and thank you for the time of my life.



Omnia mutantur nos et mutamur in illis