Ilaria Pellegrin, Commercial Director at Hilton Lake Como

This week we caught up with Ilaria Pellegrin, the Commercial Director at Hilton Lake Como to find out what she never travels without, her packing tips, and what her most memorable trip has been so far…

Ilaria Pellegrin is the Commercial Director at Hilton Lake Como in Italy. From an early age, Ilaria regularly went on holidays together with her family which created her passion for travel. Every year Ilaria was enthusiastic to be spending the summer break away together with her family in a bungalow or apartment. She felt it evoked that special kind of feeling of being at home, whilst being away from home. Until she joined Hilton, Ilaria never thought of the many different ways hotels can make people feel at home wherever they are.

After graduating with a degree in Marketing and Business Management, Ilaria was very keen to explore new cultures and practice languages, and when she was 22 years old she started her career as Visual Merchandiser working throughout Europe for a high-end fashion textile company. One year later, Ilaria applied for a role in the USA as Marketing Trainee for an international wine company targeting the luxury market. In that role, she ended up moving to the USA in order to support a Merchandising Project aiming to increase awareness of the brand in New York.

Thanks to a scholarship as part of a Master’s in “Hospitality and Hotel Management”, Ilaria eventually started her journey in hospitality at Millennium Hotel Mayfair in London, and after a year Ilaria progressed to Hilton Molino Stucky Venice working in the events department. Today, Ilaria works as the Commerical Director at Hilton Lake Como.

Whilst working for Hilton, Ilaria has enjoyed some great career highlights. For example, she was successfully selected to attend the first Continental Europe Women@Hilton Leadership Symposium hosted in Amsterdam in 2017 which was aimed at growing female leaders. In 2021, she participated in the second version of “The Women in Leadership” project, a six months program, designed to help women achieve their future career aspirations of becoming General Managers.

Describing her future, Ilaria says; “I am sure that women in hospitality are changing the current narrative. Too often, we allow ourselves to stop at the impossible when, if you are really looking at it, almost everything is possible. Humility, passion, and being in the right place at the right time: are the best ingredients for an authentic recipe”

In this week’s Suitcase Series we take a sneak peek into Ilaria Pellegrin’s travel psyche…

What’s been your most memorable trip and why?

Well, when I decided to go on a short trip by myself to North Africa I must admit that I thought many times about how, as a woman, I might have been perceived in a continent where the gender parity gap has not been reached yet in all countries. I was indeed positively surprised in Cape Verde, a beautiful archipelago of tropics and beaches, and I had the opportunity to immerse myself in real local life. It was there that I felt how grateful I am to be born with a passport inclusive of parity rights, and at the same time I felt the power and tenacity that characterizes us, women! This experience told me to be even more open-minded and without prejudices and since then I have applied this new way of thinking in every aspect of my life journey.