Carol Bolling - Founder & Managing Director
Joining the travel industry over 25 years ago, Carol has held a wide variety of positions. She began her career at BFGoodrich Aerospace – Aircraft Evacuations Systems Division in Accounts Receivable. Once she discovered the sweeter side of the industry, leisure travel, she moved on to work for Interval International, Air Jamaica Vacations, Almond Resorts in Barbados & St. Lucia, Occidental Resorts in Mexico & the Caribbean, Sugar Bay Resort & Spa in St. Thomas, Sunset Jamaica Grande, and The Landings St. Lucia.
While at Air Jamaica Vacations, she managed hundreds of hotels and resorts in Jamaica. She increased production and developed long lasting relationships with the hoteliers in her portfolio. Her duties included promotion and co-op negotiation, rate management, hotel inspections, rate and copy fulfillment for print, radio and e-commerce opportunities. In 2007, she joined Almond Resorts where she managed five hotels between Barbados and St. Lucia. Her employment began as the Database & Internet Business Development Manager, where her responsibilities included e-commerce, rate and availability management, relationship development with the major OTAs to ensure top placement and increased sales production. She collaborated with the in-house marketing teams to develop sales and marketing strategies. She managed both the annual and promotional contracting for five markets to hundreds of partners. She developed the matrix used for revenue management and the matrix used for budgeting revenue by occupancy. She was then promoted to the Revenue Management position and her responsibilities continued to grow.
Carol relocated to Miami in 2012 and joined Occidental Hotels and Resorts as the Online Account Manager. She managed 13 properties in Mexico and the Caribbean and later joined Sugar Bay Resort and Spa as the Manager of E-Commerce and Sales Analytics. At Sugar Bay, she managed her OTA relationships, the extranets, and sourced a variety of e-commerce opportunities. She later became the Revenue Manager of Sunset Jamaica Grande and was given the task to improve the market mix and increase revenues while lowering occupancy.
In 2014, Carol was asked to join the team at The Landings St. Lucia, a five star resort and spa, where she managed wholesale, leisure, and e-commerce sales for North America. During her time at The Landings, the resort showed improved revenues and increased ADRs.
The Caribbean is close to Carol’s heart as she continues on her path to improve sales to the region. She has now founded Authentic Island Hospitality Management (AIHM). At AIHM, her services include Revenue Management and Wholesale, Leisure, & E-commerce Sales. Carol is also proficient in a wide variety of tour operator, property and channel management systems.
