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OCTOBER 7, 2011
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W W W .J U S T O U T .C O M
Out Of This World
Jupiter Hotel GM AI Munguia puts
PDX hospitality on the map
BY RYAN J. PRADO
IV U H
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It’s hard to imagine Portland’s hospitality
“Most of my experience has been nothing
industry without the Jupiter Hotel. For more like this,” Munguia says of his time with the
than six years the former motor inn has at Jupiter. “That’s one o f the reasons why I enjoy
tracted exceedingly diverse clientele to this so much. W ith traditional corporate
Southeast, trading in the baiting o f corporate properties, it’s all recipes that you follow with
executives, so synonymous with big box hotel very little regard to thinking outside the box.
chains, to instead welcome— sometimes with Jupiter was just opening up, and speaking to
a Bear hug— an inclusive guest list.
the owners I realized that there was this mass
It’s likewise difficult to
flexibility that was going
think that any of it might
to allow me to really chal-
have happened without
¿T lenge myself from a cre
Jupiter general manager
ative standpoint.”
A1 Munguia.
For Munguia, the vari
Munguia, 49, relocated
ety has been there since
the beginning. Just a few
to the Rose City following
days after accepting the
a distinguished run work
ing for corporate hotels
job, Munguia got a taste
along the West Coast.
o f this freedom with his
Originally a student o f
first hooking: Darklady’s
political science and inter
annual
M asturbate-a-
national relations, M un “We just don’t care whether Thon charity event.
guia had global ambi
“That m om ent to me
you’re gay or straight, black
tions— namely to work for
was really [one of], ‘I
or
white,
hipster
or
busi
the United Nations. But
entered a whole new di
during college, he accepted ness suit-by-day. We want
m ension,’’’M unguia says.
a position as a telephone
“We would never touch
people to be able to come
operator at a hotel— a de
this— excuse the pun—
and
feel
accepted
and
free
cision that would change
at M arriott.”
the trajectory o f his career. to be whoever it is that they
As a gay man, Munguia
“It was a way of paying
set to ensuring that the
may be and however it is
the rent, and it just sort of
Jupiter’s marketing efforts
they
define
themselves.”
got in my blood,” M un
would welcome the LG-
-AL MUNGUIA, JUPITER HOTEL BTQjxaveler. One of the
guia explains.
After climbing the cor
first phases o f that ap
porate ladder at hotel chains like Marriott, proach was to connect with Community
Holiday Inn and Starwood, Munguia sought Marketing, Inc. to begin the company’s
to further his resume— and creativity, and di Travel Alternatives Group (TAG) training.
versify the hotel experience for guests. For the For a hotel to become TAG certified, staff
former high school disco dancing champion— and management undergo diversity training,
yes, really—the general manager position at specifically as it applies to the LGBTQ_
the Jupiter couldn’t have come at a better time. community. The Jupiter Hotel became Port-
9 TO
IQ XO 5
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