Crescent Hotels & Resorts has confirmed the promotion of Kristi Kastrounis to Senior Vice President, Digital Marketing. Having joined the group in October 2025 as Vice President, Digital Marketing, she has held this expanded role since May 2026.
In her broader remit, Kristi Kastrounis leads Crescent’s corporate marketing team and oversees digital strategy, eCommerce, brand positioning and commercial marketing initiatives across the group’s portfolio, which comprises more than 120 hotels and resorts in the United States and Canada.
Crescent Hotels & Resorts, Operator
A Virginia-based hotel management operator
Head office: Fairfax, Virginia (United States)
Portfolio: 120+ hotels and resorts
Geographic footprint: United States and Canada
Positioning: hotel management on behalf of owners, across a portfolio combining branded and independent properties
Brands operated: Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and IHG, among others
Recognised for its commercial performance, operational excellence and the quality of guest experience delivered on behalf of its owner partners
A Commercial Organisation Strengthened Through Internal Promotion
This appointment reaffirms Crescent Hotels & Resorts’ commitment to developing talent from within. The group had already made two similar promotions within its commercial organisation just weeks earlier, elevating Shameka Urquhart and Adam Nemirow to Senior Vice President, overseeing revenue integration and new projects, and revenue strategy, respectively.
Dawn Gallagher, President of Crescent Hotels & Resorts, welcomed the appointment, noting that Kristi Kastrounis brings a deep understanding of marketing from both an owner and a major hotel brand perspective, along with a proven ability to translate that expertise into tangible results for the group’s hotels and investors. She added that the promotion reflects Kastrounis’s impact within the organisation and expressed confidence in her ability to lead the marketing team as Crescent continues to build out its commercial organisation.
Twenty Years in Hospitality Digital Marketing
Kristi Kastrounis brings around twenty years of experience in digital marketing, fifteen of them focused specifically on hospitality marketing and eCommerce. A graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in English from Calvin College and a Master’s in Journalism from Regent University, she began her career as a journalist before joining The Virginian-Pilot, where she held online content production roles for PilotOnline.com and HamptonRoads.com.
She went on to work at Operation Smile, the international non-profit organisation, where she took charge of web content and social media, before joining Gold Key | PHR, a Virginia Beach-based hotel group, in 2012, rising through the ranks to become Marketing Director for the group’s hotel division.
Her move into multi-brand portfolio hospitality marketing followed at Interstate Hotels & Resorts, and subsequently at Aimbridge Hospitality, where as Senior Director of eCommerce she oversaw digital strategy for a high-value portfolio of owners operating Hilton, Marriott and IHG hotels, with combined revenue exceeding €430 million (approximately $500 million, at an approximate exchange rate).
Deepening Expertise at Hilton
Between January 2022 and October 2025, Kristi Kastrounis served as Director at Hilton, where she led the Key Partner team, tasked with growing direct digital channel share and implementing strategies to strengthen performance indicators and reputation management for the brand’s priority owners and management companies. Her team supported 57 leading management companies and Key Partners, representing a combined total of around €14.6 billion (or $17 billion, approximate conversion) and 1,800 hotels.
This experience at Hilton gave her a cross-cutting understanding of the respective priorities of brands, owners and management companies, a perspective that now informs her approach at the helm of Crescent’s marketing team.
A Firm Commitment to the Next Generation
Beyond her role at Crescent, Kristi Kastrounis sits on HSMAI’s Marketing Advisory Board and contributes to the association’s Rising Leaders Council, where she mentors young hospitality marketing professionals. She is also a Certified Hospitality Digital Marketer (CHDM) and holds the Hilton Lead 3.1 certification, awarded as part of the Harvard Virtual Leadership Development Series.
This appointment comes as several hotel groups strengthen their marketing organisations, echoing the recent promotion of Pauline Troplong to Marketing and Communications Director at Les Sources group, illustrating a broader trend towards elevating digital and commercial expertise at the highest levels of hospitality organisations.
At a glance by The Hospitality Tribune
Crescent Hotels & Resorts promotes Kristi Kastrounis to Senior Vice President, Digital Marketing
Kastrounis joined Crescent in October 2025 as VP, Digital Marketing and was promoted to SVP in May 2026
She now leads corporate marketing strategy across Crescent’s 120+ hotel and resort portfolio in the US and Canada
Previously spent nearly 20 years in hospitality digital marketing, including roles at Hilton, Aimbridge Hospitality and Interstate Hotels & Resorts
At Hilton, she led the Key Partner team supporting 57 management companies representing $17B and 1,800 hotels
She serves on HSMAI’s Marketing Advisory Board and mentors emerging talent via its Rising Leaders Council
The promotion follows two other recent internal SVP appointments within Crescent’s commercial organization
