Hospitality Begins at Home for Kiger-Nagy

John Q. Hammons Hotels names Barrie Kiger-Nagy Sales Director for its newest property, Embassy Suites Hot Springs, scheduled to open November 18, 2003.

HOT SPRINGS, AR, October 2, 2003 - Barrie Kiger-Nagy contends some companies are family-friendly, but John Q. Hammons Hotels is a family-first operation.

Wife of Food and Beverage Director for Magic Springs Amusement Park, Barrie was newly named Sales Director for Embassy Suites Hot Springs last January when she learned her husband was critically ill. Hospitalized for the entire first half of the year, Paul Kagys battle against pneumococcal infection ultimately resulted in chronic kidney failure as well as the amputation of both his legs and one hand. Today, Paul is eager to get on with life.

Years ago, Pauls spleen was removed following a soccer injury," Barrie states, as if staring at an imaginary medical chart. Because we were not aware the vaccine administered at that time should have been repeated every 5 years, his compromised immune system could not fight off the bacterial invader. Hemorrhaging beneath the skin was so severe that Pauls team of 15 doctors treated him like a burn victim with less than a 1% chance of survival. The entire ordeal, including his ongoing recovery, is a miracle."

Mother of two children, ages 6 and 3, Barrie emphasizes she couldnt have coped so effectively as she did without the support of the management team and staff at John Q. Hammons Hotels.

These folks have been absolutely incredible," she contemplates, gratefully. At any point, they could have gone another direction without me. Instead, they jumped in the trenches with me and helped my whole family and me survive a very difficult ordeal. What a truly amazing group of people to work with!"

Kiger-Nagy says the commitment John Q. Hammons company showed her is characteristic of the care their staff provides to hotel guests.

Customer service is not a just a tag line for us, she insists. Customer safety and satisfaction is built in to everything we do. For example, the impressive multi-story atriums, characteristic of many Embassy Suites properties, feature glass elevators which are easily monitored from all angles, to provide an increased safety level for our guests."

Kiger-Nagy says her career with Embassy Suites Hot Springs evolved more out of what she didnt want to do than what she actually trained to do.

Heavy college coursework in pharmacy prepared me only to be ideally misplaced in a hospital setting for 7 years," she laughs. Aware of my dilemma, the director of sales from a local hotel called in 1994 to offer me a position, which I hesitated to accept because I lacked experience. 'Dont worry, she replied. 'Think of a hotel like a hospital, with --ity tacked on the end!"

Kiger-Nagys hospitality industry experience includes her work as Director of Sales for Hilton Hotels. In 1998, she moved to Dallas to work at the Fairmont Hotel.

During those years, I received excellent training in New York and Boston," she recalls. The Fairmont provided exactly the kind of experiences I needed to prepare me for my work here in Hot Springs. Being associated with a quality, state-of-the-art convention facility like the Embassy Suites is a phenomenal opportunity, not only for us, but also for the entire community. We appreciate the hard-working sales team at the convention center and look forward to developing cooperative relationships with groups and associations to increase tourism and improve the quality of life in Hot Springs."