The woman behind the brand
Aaliyah Windster
She didn't stumble into luxury.
She studied it, lived it,
sold it, and now
she builds it for others.
Founder of Soft Escapes. Hospitality graduate. Former Marriott intern, Body Shop regional manager, and Aruba Tourism Authority sales executive. Fluent in the language of brands that feel expensive because they are intentional.
She grew up knowing
what beauty felt like.
Aaliyah was born and raised in Aruba — an island that doesn't just attract tourists, it shapes people with taste. Growing up surrounded by hospitality, tourism, and a culture built around how things feel, she absorbed something most people spend years trying to learn: that experience is everything, and the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is almost always intentional.
She excelled from the start. Not because things came easily, but because she decided early that she would be her own dream woman. That decision changed everything.
Born & raised in ArubaShe didn't wait.
She moved.
At 16, Aaliyah graduated from HAVO — young, ready, and already looking beyond the island. Too young to move abroad but too ambitious to slow down, she enrolled in a hotel and restaurant management programme and finished in three years with an associate's degree, one year ahead of schedule.
At 18 she did it — driving licence earned, bags packed, she moved to Leeuwarden to study International Hotel and Hospitality Management at NHL Stenden. She graduated with honours, a minor in Entrepreneurship, a minor in Food & Beverage, and the kind of confidence that only comes from having done the thing you said you would do.
NHL Stenden, Leeuwarden — Bachelor's with HonoursFive-star luxury,
from the inside.
Her internship took her to the JW Marriott Hacienda Pinilla in Guanacaste, Costa Rica — a five-star resort where the standard isn't high, it's immaculate. She didn't observe luxury from the lobby. She worked it: learning what it takes to make a guest feel like they've arrived somewhere that was waiting for them specifically.
That experience became the invisible thread running through everything she does now. She knows what luxury actually costs in attention, in detail, in restraint. And she knows how to deliver it.
JW Marriott Guanacaste, Hacienda Pinilla — 5-star internshipShe sold with
body, mind & soul.
After Marriott, Aaliyah spent three years with The Body Shop — a brand built on values, identity, and the belief that how something is sold matters as much as what's being sold. She rose from assistant to regional shop manager, leading teams and driving performance while never losing sight of what made the brand feel the way it did.
This is where she learned that great brand work isn't marketing. It's belief. The best-selling moments weren't clever tactics — they were genuine conviction delivered with warmth. That's a skill you can't manufacture. She has it.
The Body Shop — Regional Shop Manager, 3 yearsSelling a destination.
Telling its story.
Three years as a Sales Executive for Aruba Tourism Authority meant representing an entire island — its culture, its light, its feeling — to the world. This wasn't product sales. This was storytelling at scale: translating something deeply felt into language that moved people to buy flights, book hotels, and choose Aruba over everywhere else.
Multilingual, culturally fluent, and trained in the nuance of what makes a brand internationally compelling — this chapter gave Aaliyah the vocabulary and confidence to position any brand, anywhere, with precision and soul.
Aruba Tourism Authority — Sales Executive, 3 yearsSoft Escapes
was always next.
Soft Escapes is the natural sum of everything Aaliyah has built. A luxury visibility consultancy for the brands that already have the soul — but need the strategy, the storytelling, and the platforms to let the right people find them.
She works with boutique hotels, wellness brands, slow fashion labels, and founders who build with intention. She brings hospitality instincts, brand fluency, Pinterest strategy, editorial copy, and a career's worth of knowing what luxury actually looks like — not in theory, but in rooms, in stores, in campaigns, in the moments that make people feel something.
"I didn't dream of a career. I dreamed of a life — and then I built the career to match it."
— Aaliyah Windster, Founder of Soft Escapes
The things that don't
show up on a CV.
Intentionality over volume
One piece of content that feels right reaches further than a hundred that don't. She doesn't believe in noise. She believes in presence — and the patience to build it properly.
Taste as a skill
Taste isn't decorative. It's a decision-making framework — knowing which direction to go because you understand instinctively what fits and what doesn't. Aaliyah has spent a career sharpening hers.
Authority before income
She built credentials before she built a business. The passive income, the brand deals, the speaking — those come second. What comes first is knowing your subject so deeply that the right people seek you out.
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2012
HAVO Diploma
Aruba — Graduated at 16
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2015
Associates Degree — Hotel & Restaurant Management
Completed in 3 years, ahead of schedule
-
2018
Bachelor's — International Hotel & Hospitality Management
NHL Stenden, Leeuwarden — Honours — Minor: Entrepreneurship & Food & Beverage
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Internship
JW Marriott Guanacaste, Hacienda Pinilla
5-star luxury resort, Costa Rica
-
3 years
Regional Shop Manager — The Body Shop
Progressed from assistant to regional manager. Brand, sales, and team leadership.
-
3 years
Sales Executive — Aruba Tourism Authority
Destination storytelling, international sales, multilingual brand representation.
Ready to work
with someone who
actually knows your world?
Aaliyah works with a small number of brands at a time — because that's how you do this well. If your brand has taste and needs the world to see it, this is where that conversation starts.
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