Susan Dampier's path to Carmel ran through two decades in Aspen. As the Area Managing Director for Marc & Rose Hospitality, she now oversees La Playa Hotel and Bud's, plus Hotel Carmel and Brophy's. She got her start the way a lot of hospitality lifers do, working her way up through restaurants before moving into hotels. Twenty years at Aspen Skiing Company's hospitality division, coming up at The Little Nell, the Limelight Hotels, and the Mountain Clubs, gave her a standard for service that's stuck with her since then.  

What gets her out of bed every day is the variety at work. Leading teams across multiple properties and outlets means no two days look alike, which is exactly how she likes it. 

What some don’t see about La Playa is the portfolio behind it: two hotels, several bars and restaurants, and a banquet operation, all held together by the culture and pillars of Marc & Rose Hospitality. Coordinating service standards across such different guest experiences is no small feat. 

A recent win Susan's especially proud of is the transformation of Bud's. It was always beloved, she says, but it had gotten a little sleepy. New programming brought it back to life such as Fadeaway Sessions with DJs spinning vinyl every Thursday, live jazz twice a week with David Morwood, and a new chef, Jose Mejia, whose outstanding menu has been focused on local seafood and produce. 

Looking ahead, she's excited about a remodel in the design phase for Hotel Carmel, a 30-room boutique property, done in partnership with Post Company, the same firm behind the recent La Playa remodel. Alongside that, she's curating a retail line for Bud's and La Playa in partnership with Malbon which is currently in production, and something she can't wait to roll out. 

What Susan loves most about doing business in Carmel is the community. After 20 years in Aspen, starting over somewhere unfamiliar made her nervous but Carmel welcomed her immediately. She mentioned Culinary Week as a perfect example of a fun reminder of what the town can pull off when we all work together.  

That same appreciation carries into how she talks about the Chamber. When Visit Carmel needed support ahead of a City Council presentation on a proposed TOT increase, Susan reached out to the Chamber to see if they could send someone to speak in support of the hospitality community. The Chamber took it to the Government Affairs Council which researched the issue, worked through it thoroughly, and ultimately came out in support of not raising the TOT. Going through the GAC connected her with people who care deeply about getting these issues right and were willing to dig into the details. It turned what could have been a one-off ask into a real relationship, and it's the kind of connection she knows she can go back to the next time an issue like this comes up.  

She'd absolutely recommend Chamber membership to any business owner. She says it’s a supportive community of business professionals, one that's deeply invested in Carmel-by-the-Sea's economic future. 

When she moved here from Aspen, she didn't really know what to expect. Starting over in a new place is intimidating, no matter how much experience you bring with you. Her advice to a new business owner would be: don't wait until you're established to get involved. Show up to the events, join the boards, introduce yourself to your neighbors in business. The relationships you build early are what carry you through the harder moments later, and in a community this tight-knit, those relationships are often the difference between just operating a business and really belonging here.