For Hal Barth, the best part of his job as director of sales at the Cromwell Crowne Plaza is his ability to experience the world either through travel or interacting with visitors and employees from other countries. It’s what has kept the 52-year-old in the hotel business since 1982.
“I love to travel and that’s one of the perks,” said Barth. “I meet people from all over the world and I get to stay at places at a reduced rate. Every day is different. You never know who you’re going to meet or who you are going to work with.”
 He counts among his co-workers a revenue manager from Serbia. “We talk with people who are on the road 100 days a year or more. Talk about a lifestyle,” said Barth, a veteran traveler who has been to every state except Alaska, as well as Western Europe.
Barth’s career began as a banquet server at the Farmington Marriott when it first opened in 1982. “That’s the great success story Marriott likes to tell,” said Barth, who moved from Farmington to Houston and then Chicago. He worked at the Hartford Crowne Plaza from 2001-2003 and then the Hastings Hotel in Hartford in 2003 before it closed.
Next stop was the historical Biltmore Hotel in downtown Providence. (No, his time there did not correspond with Buddy Cianci, the colorful mayor who served time in prison.) He said his time there was fun, but his position fell by the wayside with the economic downturn.
“The interesting thing was it was my first independent hotel,” he recalled, but with independence came a lack of training and branding opportunities. He said the Goodwin Hotel’s independence is what probably contributed to it being shuttered. “It’s hard to run an independent in a down economy,” Barth commented.
Since assuming his new position in January, Barth has spent a lot of time reacquainting himself with people he knew from his previous stints in Greater Hartford. His current general manager, Steve Gardiner, knew Barth from when they worked at competitive hotels.
“People in New England [tend] to stay in the same place,” Barth said.
