I have been inside
the rooms you are
trying to enter.
A decade in luxury hospitality, destination marketing, and brand strategy — now channelled into helping women build income from the expertise they already carry. This is the story of the crossing.
Aaliyah
Windster
Sales Executive · Brand Strategist · Hospitality Professional
Recognition
Talent of the Year 2024 — Tourism Industry
The woman who delivered
excellence for everyone else.
I grew up in Aruba. I built my career in hotels, resorts, tourism boards, and retail floors across three countries. I was excellent at all of it — and for a long time, that was enough.
It started at Marriott's Resort Ocean Club in Aruba — my first real taste of luxury hospitality, international guests, premium service standards, and the particular art of making people feel seen. I was 21. I learned more in that kitchen and that lobby than any classroom had prepared me for.
From there came Stenden Hogeschool in Leeuwarden — a Bachelor in International Hotel and Hospitality Management — and an education that sent me across the Netherlands, combining real hotel shifts with academic frameworks. I graduated as the highest GPA student in my cohort. I was building something, even if I could not yet name what it was.
The Body Shop years taught me retail, team culture, and what it feels like to be responsible for an entire floor's performance. Multiple Top Seller of the Month recognitions. A store re-opening. Customer satisfaction consistently above 70%. I was learning how brands live or die in the hands of the people closest to the customer.
Then came Aruba Tourism Authority — and everything changed. For three years I was the commercial lead for B2B sales, marketing campaigns, and PR across the Netherlands and Belgium. I ran partnerships, trained travel agents, managed influencer collaborations, led press trips, and built luxury brand campaigns. I was the person who decided which brands got access.
In 2024 I was named Talent of the Year in the Dutch tourism industry. I had achieved the success everyone around me was aiming for. And somewhere inside that achievement, I realised: I had been building other people's brands with my most valuable asset. It was time to build my own.
Ten years.
One crossing.
Every role was preparation for what came next. This is the career that built Soft Escapes.
Front of House Intern
Marriott's Resort Ocean Club — Aruba
Welcomed international guests, managed check-ins and reservations using Opera PMS, and developed multilingual communication skills in a premium resort environment. The foundation of everything that followed.
Allround Hospitality Medewerker
Stenden Hotel & Hospitality — Leeuwarden / Amersfoort
Participated in the Stenden University training hotel across banquet, restaurant, and front office. Supported hospitality events and guest services while completing my Bachelor degree — graduating as highest GPA in the cohort.
Supervisor F&B
JW Marriott Resort & Spa Guanacaste — Costa Rica
Led high-volume food and beverage operations in a luxury resort setting. Maintained HACCP compliance, managed dietary requirements with precision, and upheld premium service standards across all touchpoints.
Regional Shop Manager
The Body Shop — Netherlands
Led customer experience, team onboarding, and product launches across multiple locations. Multiple Top Seller of the Month recognitions. Spearheaded a store re-opening with member-exclusive sales events. Maintained customer satisfaction consistently above 70%.
Sales Executive Europe
Aruba Tourism Authority — Netherlands & Belgium
Commercial lead for B2B sales, marketing campaigns, and PR across two countries. Responsible for key partnerships, travel agent training, branding activations, influencer collaborations, and luxury product campaigns. Spearheaded fam trips and press trip programming.
Founder
Soft Escapes by Aaliyah — softescapesbyaaliyah.com
Building a digital lifestyle and editorial platform for women building with intention. Digital products, strategy sessions, and editorial content — all rooted in a decade of premium hospitality expertise.
The principles
behind the work.
These are not brand values written for a deck. These are the things I have learned by living them.
Softness is strategy
The world rewards the loudest, the fastest, the most relentless. I have been all of those things. And I have learned that the women who last — the ones who build something real — are the ones who are regulated, rested, and intentional.
"Build from the inside out."Expertise is currency
Every year in hospitality, every difficult guest handled, every event coordinated, every partnership pitched — that is a decade of premium commercial training. The market pays for it. You just have to know how to present it.
"You are more valuable than your job title suggests."Clarity before action
Most women do not have an information problem. They have a clarity problem. The right framework, applied to the right moment, changes everything. That is what I provide — not more content to consume, but a clear path to take.
"One clear step beats ten scattered ones."Presence without performance
I am building this in public — documenting the crossing in real time. Not because I have all the answers, but because the women I want to serve deserve to see someone who looks like them, building something real, without pretending it is effortless.
"Document, do not perform."Slow is sustainable
I grew up watching the hospitality industry burn people out within five years. I have been that person. Soft Escapes exists because I believe there is a different pace — one that produces better work, better relationships, and a business that does not cost you your health.
"The softer way is the longer way forward."Everything is personal
I respond to every email myself. I read every contact form. The Clarity Maps I write after Strategy Sessions are written by me, for the specific woman I spoke with — not templated, not delegated. That is the standard I hold myself to.
"Scale without losing the human."What hospitality taught me —
and what the market calls it.
The gap between your career and your income potential is not skill. It is language. Here is the translation.
| What I did | The market language | What it is worth |
|---|---|---|
| Received and evaluated brand pitches at ATA | B2B partnership strategy & brand evaluation | €80–€150/hr consulting |
| Trained travel agents across NL & BE | Sales enablement & commercial training | €900–€3,000 per workshop |
| Ran influencer and press trip campaigns | Influencer marketing & PR strategy | €1,500–€5,000 per campaign |
| Managed guest experience & upselling | Client experience & conversion optimisation | €500–€1,200/mo retainer |
| Led store re-openings and brand events | Brand activation & event production | €1,000–€4,000 per project |
| Built hotel and luxury brand campaigns | Campaign strategy & brand positioning | €750–€2,500 per project |
| Communicated in 4 languages daily | Multilingual brand communication | +30% rate premium |
We are not here
to disappear.
For years I lived in the centre of the noise. High-stakes sales, relentless marketing, the constant pressure to be more, deliver more, perform more. I achieved the success. I collected the recognition. And somewhere underneath it all, I lost the peace.
Soft Escapes was born from a simple realisation: the most powerful version of a woman is the one who is regulated, rested, and intentional. Not the loudest. Not the most exhausted. Not the one who sacrificed everything for a title.
My mission is to help women bridge the gap between their highest ambitions and their deepest need for peace. To show that you can build something commercially serious and personally sustainable. That softness is not the opposite of success — it is the condition for it.
Four languages.
One voice.
Language is not just communication — it is access. Being fluent in four languages means I can serve clients across Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America without a word lost in translation.
Dutch
Native Fluent
Primary market: Netherlands & Belgium
English
Native Fluent
International brand and business language
Spanish
Fluent
Latin America & Caribbean markets
Papiamento
Native Fluent
Heart language — the language of Aruba
"Being multilingual is not a skill I list on a CV. It is how I think."
"Softness is not a retreat from the world — it is the strategic choice to engage with it on your own terms."
— Aaliyah Windster · Soft Escapes Studio
You know enough
about me. Now let's talk about you.
The Ritual Kit gives you the framework. The Strategy Session gives you the clarity. Both were built from a decade of experience — and both are designed to move you forward, today.