There were eight weddings held in 1984 at the Marriott Downtown Providence, the year that Director of Catering Donna DiOrio started with the company. In 2008 it expected to host about 100 weddings.
Under DiOrio’s leadership, social bookings have grown so that revenue is now split about even between weekday and weekend for social and corporate events.
And the amount of social bookings is expected to keep growing, DiOrio said. Last year the hotel came up with a new use of its indoor-outdoor heated pool when it created Aqua, a restaurant and lounge.
A Providence native, DiOrio at one time had aspirations of being a court reporter. She married young, when she was a Johnson & Wales University student. At the time, she was working for Bachrach Studios and had been taking courses in court reporting. Her husband, Ronald DiOrio, was transferred to a job in Florida and the couple moved south. After four months – when DiOrio was a pregnant 20-year-old – they moved back to Rhode Island.
A year later, her husband was killed in a car accident. DiOrio’s daughter, Renee, was seven months old. “So I moved back home with my parents and, pretty much stayed at home for a good five years until my daughter started preschool,” she said. “My father retired first – I said now it’s time to go to work.”
And within a few weeks she found a position at the Chateau de Ville dinner theater’s Warwick branch. She was hired as a party planner.
Nine years and a few regional transfers later, DiOrio was practiced at selling a product. But the job took a lot of time. Twice, she fell asleep while driving home.
“So I said, ‘This is it.’”
Luckily, a former food and beverage director at the Chateau who had taken a job at the Providence Marriott would occasionally call DiOrio – trying to get her to come aboard. So she finally took him up on the offer and found that her background at Chateau de Ville prepared her well.
In 1984, she was hired as senior catering sales manager. Three months into the job, she stepped into her current role and started driving sales. Her first move was turning the hotel from an almost-all-corporate facility into a place where social functions were held. The mid-week corporate business was booming, but there was a lack of weekend events, she said, adding, “That was what I went after.”
As director of catering, she oversees the entire sales team – both the social and corporate. As part of an executive “task force,” she also has played a role in on-site planning to open new Marriott hotels.
Despite a busy schedule, DiOrio is involved with the Providence Warwick Conventions & Visitors Bureau and tries to be active in the community.
In Providence competition for business has increased, with the growth of boutique hotels and large chain hotels.
“We do keep track of [the competition],” she said. “But you have to remember that this is a Marriott property and Marriott customers are very loyal.”
Many companies seek consistency in their bookings, she said. A corporate retreat could cost more than $20,000. Some run as much as $100,000. They want to see DiOrio’s familiar face and know what they’re getting when they’re booking an event, she said.
She added, “There are people who stay here who’ve been coming here for 35 years. We know what they like and they know us.” •
