I had the great opportunity in the summer of 2020 to have an internship in hotel asset management at Prime Group in South Florida. This was a unique experience because it happened at the height of the COVID pandemic. I began the internship in June, just one month after the company’s hotel portfolio re-opened. This was an unprecedented time, which naturally led to a significant room for growth and new learning opportunities. Luckily, my experience was led by Heather Strauss, who has a dense industry experience and led us through navigating portfolio performance during the pandemic. I learned strategies on how to be a leader in the comp set and how to be proactive in asset management. My internship experience allowed me to work with other divisions of the company such as marketing, commercial real estate, human resources, and design. I had a boots-on-the-ground perspective as I visited the different sites of the portfolio and I also visited new projects under development. Even more so, I had direct access to senior management and was able to bring up any questions I had to the CEO, Larry Abbo, who gave me a variety of career advice.

This internship was the catalyst in my career in hotel real estate and exposed me to very talented, knowledgeable, and friendly mentors and teachers. I am so grateful for the time I had at Prime Group and will cherish my experience there.