Raised in Las Vegas, she married young and had three children with her then-husband. Offering comfort to the community is important to Morataya-Pilkington, who has faced her own difficulties and discriminations. Now they’re here two or three times a year.”
“When I met them, they put their arms around me. “She did all this espionage to find out their favorite things, favorite colors, and decorated the whole room in a way personal to them,” explains Morataya-Pilkington with a smile. She points to people like her head concierge, who took great steps to welcome back an older lesbian couple that had once heard rude remarks from a homophobic patron. But she’s also leading by example, using policy and personality to enhance the resort’s pro-LGBT culture - something she sees embodied by her hundred-plus employees. An out and married lesbian and mom of three, she’s the woman running a four-diamond hotel at America’s largest casino.
“I think I’ve been able to show my team a different side of what a family is,” says Morataya-Pilkington. But as the hotel manager of MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort Casino, Stacy Morataya-Pilkington understands that in an oft-intolerant world, it can be extra important to make LGBT guests feel VIP. When you work in hospitality, the goal is to make every guest feel special.
