Stephanie Papaioannou

Senior Vice President, Hospitality and Members Services
Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club

A 20+ year veteran to the hospitality sector, Papaioannou served at The Harper Alliance as Executive Director and Andrew Harper Inc. as Vice President prior to joining the Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club.

The Northwestern University grad also was a Planning Manager at Abercrombie & Kent and had successful tenures at various other luxury travel firms at multiple levels.

Papaioannou is responsible for much of the travel experience available to members within the A&K Residence Club collection of properties.

Back To Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club Executives

In the archive

Papaioannou joined the Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club in 2008, the year it was assembled from two equity clubs, BelleHavens and Crescendo Residences. Her team merged the operations of both into the Abercrombie & Kent model, and the club reported a member satisfaction rating above 95 percent.

In July 2010 she was promoted to Managing Director, responsible for all club operations, at a time when the club was selling more equity memberships than in the whole of 2009 and offering a two year trial membership. Her colleague on the sales side was BelleHavens founder Darin Gilson.

Her path ran through the two sides of the business the club tried to join. Before the residence club she had worked as a planning manager at Abercrombie & Kent itself and in senior roles at Andrew Harper, the luxury travel publisher, so she knew both the tour operation and the members it was meant to serve. The club's plans let members trade part of their nights for Abercrombie & Kent tours and safaris, and the service side of that exchange fell to her team. The membership plans section of the club file sets out how many nights each plan could exchange.