The basic strategy hashed out in that Memphis hotel hasn't changed.

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As Vice President of Branding for Highgate Hotels, Susan Jaques oversees brand strategy for a group of over 40 properties including the Paramount Hotel in New York City and the Parc 55 Hotel in San Francisco and takes on design projects in her role too everything from overhauling hotel lobbies to re-doing specialty suites.

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"Due to the rapid growth of tourists from China, we needed to ensure the high level of customer satisfaction and have a strategy, " says Izabela Hamilton, a spokesperson at the Burj Al Arab Hotel, which employs 200 butlers -- none of them British.

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In another key aspect of her new strategy, Ms. McDonald has limited her target group of customers to head chefs, sommeliers and luxury hotel managers in Europe, the Mideast and Asia.

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