Ronalds’ accomplishments with the hotel already have helped elevate downtown Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Bruce Haines, whom Ronalds will succeed as general manager as he moves to a new role as managing partner, credited her as instrumental in Bethlehem\u2019s being chosen USA Today newspaper’s No. 1 Best Main Street.<\/p>\n
“We led the charge,” Ronalds said.<\/p>\n
“And, obviously, having the relationship with travel writers in building those relationships over the years is very helpful in getting nominated for awards.<\/p>\n
“Because they can kind of see how the city is, how the community is, how the shops and restaurants are.”<\/p>\n
![\"Historic-Hotel-Bethlehem-Exterior-Night_54_990x660\"](\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/1ee27cd\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/990x660+0+0\/resize\/880x587!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F08%2FHistoric-Hotel-Bethlehem-Exterior-Night_54_990x660.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
An areal shot of The Historic Hotel Bethlehem. Photo | Courtesy of Hotel Bethlehem<\/p>\n
‘Still more to learn about the hotel’<\/p>\n
Ronalds also was instrumental in helping Historic Hotel Bethlehem’s in the hotel\u2019s five consecutive wins as USA Today No. 1 Best Hotel\/Resort.<\/p>\n
She attributed that success to “working on the marketing strategies.”<\/p>\n
‘We have an amazing staff, and everyone\u2019s aware that we are shepherding a legacy for the hotel and the city.” <\/p>\n
Kelly Ronalds, new general manager for Historic Hotel Bethlehem<\/p>\n
“First of all, how do you get people to vote for you year after year, right?” Ronalds said. <\/p>\n
“And then it\u2019s also making sure our staff is always the right people in the right places providing outstanding service, world-class service, so that people continue to love downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people have great emotional ties \u2014 you know, their weddings, bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs and baptisms, everything. It\u2019s been a community-center hotel for over 100 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so ensuring that we continue to do that.”<\/p>\n
That, Ronalds said, is part of her biggest goal beyond helping downtown Bethlehem continue to thrive: Being a steward of the hotel’s storied legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we have an amazing staff, and everyone\u2019s aware that we are shepherding a legacy for the hotel and the city,” she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in the industry for a long time, and you have a story to tell. And I don\u2019t believe everything\u2019s been told yet. I think there\u2019s still more to learn about the hotel.”<\/p>\n
‘Never be bored working here’<\/p>\n
Ronalds describes herself as being from a large family \u2014 she has four siblings \u2014 and \u201cproud mother of two adult children.”<\/p>\n
Her daughter is in marketing \u2014 “which is very cool,” she said \u2014 and her son is a welder who lives in the Lehigh Valley but works in Alaska. <\/p>\n
And Ronalds has two grandsons, 4 and 7, and another grandchild on the way.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s \u2018How do we better engage our guests, better provide service for our guests?’ And so that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be continuing to look at and maybe do a little change to be even better.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kelly Ronalds, new general manager for Historic Hotel Bethlehem<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so that\u2019s the joy outside of my work,” she said. “When I say that I love working at the hotel and I love living in Bethlehem \u2014 I live in the historic district, so I\u2019m right here. <\/p>\n
“It\u2019s my passion, and then the other joy in my life is my family. Family is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ronalds started working at hotels while in college, and held positions at Allentown Hilton before joining Historic Hotel Bethlehem in 2010 as director of sales.<\/p>\n
She was promoted to director of room sales and guest experience in 2021, and in 2022, marketing and public relations came under her purview.<\/p>\n
Haines told her about 10 years ago, “You\u2019ll never be bored working here,” she said, laughing.<\/p>\n
“And then we opened the conference center. And we, during COVID, converted the [Extended Stay] suites across the street.<\/p>\n
“And I think there\u2019s more to come, and I think that continuing that story is gonna be key.”<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think it\u2019s from not just a marketing and PR standpoint, but it\u2019s ensuring that we have the right staff doing the right things all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking to the future, Ronalds said there are “some strategies that I\u2019ve kind of been working on in my current role, but really haven\u2019t taken it to the degree that we\u2019d like to take it to. <\/p>\n
“And so look for that down the road. No major changes; we love the community. <\/p>\n
“But it\u2019s \u2018How do we better engage our guests, better provide service for our guests?’ And so that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be continuing to look at and maybe do a little change to be even better.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 Historic Hotel Bethlehem’s new general manager said she sees the prominent business as a catalyst…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,49632,3486,49633,49634,49635,49636],"class_list":["post-102208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-does-hotel-bethlehem-have-a-new-gm","tag-historic-hotel-bethlehem","tag-historic-hotel-bethlehem-and-kelly-ronalds","tag-historic-hotel-bethlehem-new-general-manager","tag-kelly-ronalds-hotel-bethlehem","tag-who-is-hotel-bethlehems-new-gm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}