As general manager of Hilton Garden Inn Lawton Fort Sill and Convention Center, Christi Chambers oversees the day-to-day operations to ensure area visitors not only have a pleasant stay, but also look forward to returning.
Chambers, a fourth-generation Oklahoman and Cache High School graduate who is “chipping away” at her degree in business management from Cameron University, is not only knowledgeable but passionate about the hospitality and tourism industry. She sees firsthand how the industry impacts the community.
She is responsible for recruiting friendly staff members who care about the facilities and exceed expectations in order to help bring revenue into Southwest Oklahoma. Although her role is usually administrative, recently she has had to wear many hats.
“What are not my job duties?” she laughed. “I make sure this property runs well. So, basically filling in for everyone, and just making sure that my staff and the property is taken care of. But my top priorities have always been my team members and our guests.”
Chambers has an innate sense of helping others and promoting the community. In the past, the Leadership Lawton Class of XXVIII graduate has served on the boards for
Meeting Professionals International, Lawton Business Women and Lawton Young Professionals.
She currently serves on the boards of Marie Detty Youth and Family Services, Comanche County Memorial Hospital Foundation, Great Plains Country Association, Oklahoma Society of Association Executives, Oklahoma Women in Lodging and the Lawton-Fort Sill Convention and Visitors Bureau. In addition, she continues to support to Lawton Young Professionals as well as the Oklahoma Blood Institute.
Chambers understands the impact the hospitality and tourism industry has on the community. The state’s third-largest industry helps bring in guests who, in turn, spend money on gas, food and tolls which generates tax dollars that support local government projects.
When occupancy for the 162- room Hilton Garden Inn reached record lows this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic and mandated ‘shelter-in-place’ orders to better ensure public safety, a disheartened Chambers was forced to see some of the staff furloughed a short period of time. She said keeping open lines of communication was paramount to her, the success of the hotel as well as the community.
“We were considered an essential business and still had to operate with minimal staff,” she said.
In April only 9% of the rooms were occupied, she said. In May, only 25% had been filled, and by June’s end, the hotel occupancy rate had climbed to 43%.
Applying for Payroll Protection Program, the hotel’s staff of close to 50 members was able to return to work. With very few guests, Chambers and the staff “did a lot of chores” instead, she added.
Besides deep cleaning all the hotel rooms to help prevent the virus’ spread, staff members were able to perform some minor renovations to the hotel. They redid the grout in the lobby and kitchen, resurfaced the floors in the service hallways, painted some of the interior walls as well as the pool gates. Crews also undertook some of the hotel’s landscaping projects, she said.
Chambers found herself working the front desk, helping with the housekeeping, and even had a hand in helping maintain the hotel’s curb appeal and inviting interior.
“If it needed to be done, we got it done,” she said.
Promoting and strengthening the longstanding partnership between Lawton and Fort Sill as well as the southwest region, she worked to have both the city and base in the hotel’s name to increase the hotel’s website visibility which potentially brings more visitors to the community.
“The Hilton brand usually only allows you to have one city name attached to it,” she said. “We had to heavily persuade them to have Lawton and Fort Sill combined on our branding so that whenever someone looks up Hilton properties, and they put ‘Lawton’ or ‘Fort Sill’, it will [connect them to] this property.”
As a certified tourism ambassador through Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau, Chambers states the training she received from the organization helped her to develop skills which she uses promote tourism in Southwestern Oklahoma.
“We need to appreciate the things we have,” she stated. “Celebrate them. Promote them.
“Hotel/motel taxes [also] provide incentives to organizations and groups to host their conferences in our area,” said Chambers. “Without those tax dollars, we, as tourism ambassadors of Southwest Oklahoma, would be fighting an already uphill battle.
“I have reached out to many planners; and to them, the thought of Lawton was not exactly savory. It is up to us to change their minds and help others see what Southwest Oklahoma has to offer.”