Steven Choukalas

After 25 years in hospitality, intentionally stepped away from the industry to focus on family priorities and evaluate a meaningful long-term career change.

Used this period to reflect on the type of work that would be most meaningful for the next stage of my career, with a focus on finding an organization where my experience could be used to help people, support employees and customers, and make a positive difference in the community.

During this transition, pursued opportunities outside traditional hospitality, including public-sector positions with Maricopa County Elections Department and the United States Postal Service.

● Processed and distributed high volumes of mail while following established procedures, safety standards, and accuracy requirements.

● Maintained reliability, productivity, and attention to detail in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.

● Collaborated with supervisors and team members to support efficient workflow and operational goals.

● Adapted quickly to a highly structured environment with established policies and performance expectations.

● Worked effectively as part of a team while maintaining accuracy and accountability in a physical, high-volume operation.

● Accurately processed ballots while following strict legal, procedural, security, and quality requirements.

● Maintained confidentiality, documentation accuracy, and attention to detail in an audit-sensitive environment.

● Worked effectively as part of a deadline-driven team while following standardized procedures and quality controls.

● Completed assigned work with zero discrepancies.

● Demonstrated reliability and professionalism while working within a highly regulated public-sector environment.

● Led daily operations of a 98-room extended-stay hotel, managing and supervising approximately 15–20 employees across multiple operational functions.

● Successfully operated a profitable property in a challenging surrounding environment by maintaining strong employee and guest safety standards, developing reliable staff, controlling expenses, and maintaining a consistent guest experience.

● Established and enforced policies and procedures designed to protect employees, guests, and company property while maintaining a safe and professional environment.

● Built a strong team culture in which employees were trained to recognize problems, follow established procedures, make sound decisions, and handle situations confidently without management intervention whenever appropriate.

● Maintained guest review scores in the 90% range by emphasizing strong first impressions, cleanliness, staff presentation, customer service, and rapid response to concerns.

● Personally contacted guests following negative reviews to understand their concerns, determine what could be done to resolve the situation, and identify opportunities to improve the guest experience.

● Increased room rates approximately 20–40% after recognizing that the property offered a stronger product than surrounding market pricing reflected, while maintaining strong guest satisfaction and operational standards.

● Successfully positioned the property as a dependable and safe lodging option, creating opportunities to secure corporate lodging contracts with multiple companies.

● Maintained strong financial performance through budgeting, expense control, staffing decisions, pricing strategy, and operational oversight.

● Consistently managed the property toward monthly profitability by combining strong financial controls with employee performance and guest satisfaction.

● Developed a housekeeping staffing plan that reduced unnecessary overtime while maintaining appropriate staffing coverage and service standards, resulting in significant labor-cost savings.

● Trained and mentored more than 20 employees during the course of the career.

● Developed and mentored an employee through a management-development program who was expected to require approximately 12 months to reach Assistant General Manager readiness. Through structured training, coaching, and hands-on development, prepared the employee for the role in approximately 6 months.

● The employee was subsequently transferred to another hotel within the company and continued advancing professionally, ultimately becoming a manager in food and beverage at a respected hotel in New York.

● Served as a hands-on problem solver for employees, guests, and company properties, personally responding to maintenance issues, difficult guest situations, employee concerns, safety matters, and urgent operational problems.

● Trained staff to solve problems independently while remaining available to provide guidance and support when situations required management involvement.

● Traveled to other company properties to assist with operational issues and problem-solving, demonstrating the organization’s trust in leadership, judgment, and operational expertise.

● Personally returned to the property when necessary to repair problems, assist employees, address difficult guest situations, or resolve urgent operational issues.

● Maintained a strong focus on ensuring guests and employees felt safe and supported.

● Built a reliable staff and positive guest experience that helped establish the property as a trusted choice for both individual travelers and corporate clients.

● Managed customer service, employee performance, staffing, budgeting, operations, safety, maintenance coordination, and overall property performance.

Front Desk → Maintenance Engineer → Night Auditor → Operations Manager → Assistant General Manager → General Manager

● Built a 25-year career with the organization, progressing through increasing levels of responsibility from Front Desk to General Manager.

● Developed broad hands-on knowledge of hotel operations by working across front desk, maintenance, night audit, operations, assistant management, and general management functions.

● Demonstrated long-term commitment, adaptability, reliability, and the ability to learn and take on increasing responsibility.

● Led and supported employees across multiple departments through scheduling, training, coaching, performance management, and daily operational support.

● Trained and mentored employees at multiple levels, with a strong focus on preparing employees to work confidently and independently.

● Prepared schedules, monitored attendance, approved time records, and supported payroll processes.

● Served as a liaison between employees and leadership, addressing workplace concerns and helping resolve problems professionally.

● Established and communicated workplace policies and procedures designed to maintain safety, accountability, service quality, and operational consistency.

● Supported audits, compliance reviews, documentation requirements, and internal procedures.

● Identified opportunities to improve processes, increase efficiency, reduce operating costs, and improve employee effectiveness.

● Managed competing priorities and unexpected problems in high-volume operating environments.

● Developed a reputation as a dependable problem solver who could step into difficult situations and determine practical solutions.

● Trained employees to understand not only what procedures required, but why those procedures were important to the safety and success of the operation.