Founded by Amy Hinote in 2012, VRM Intel was created as a tool for the fast-growing and rapidly-evolving vacation rental industry.
“Our mission is to provide relevant industry-specific news, information, and resources to help professionals build their businesses, to address the challenges and opportunities facing the industry, and to positively contribute to the vacation rental ecosystem,” VRM Intel founder Amy Hinote says.
VRM Intel magazine, which launched in 2015, has become the industry’s trusted news, information and data source for the vacation rental industry’s property management professional.
As part of the company’s synergistic growth plan, VRM Intel welcomes aboard Zandra Wolfgram as managing editor.
“Zandra’s unique combination of hands-on vacation rental experience, industry insight and journalism expertise make her a perfect fit for this role,” says Hinote. “Her contributions will allow VRM Intel to continue to develop even more valuable, data-driven tools, platforms and forums designed to help engage and evolve vacation rental industry professionals.”
After earning a BA in journalism from Ohio Wesleyan University, Wolfgram has worked in some form of storytelling for more than 30 years.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to work with a true trailblazing powerhouse like Amy Hinote,” Wolfgram says. “It’s an honor to help share the news and stories of such a dynamic industry full of passionate players.”
Wolfgram’s communications career began in the arts in Cleveland’s famed Playhouse Square and segued into cultural tourism in New Orleans. The partnerships she forged led to her first full foray into the hospitality industry beginning with the Sheraton New Orleans, where she led the marketing efforts for their 15th anniversary rebranding campaign.
Since, Wolfgram has held executive leadership roles with several major resorts on the Northwest Florida Gulf Coast including Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, for which she launched The Sandestin Globe newspaper, the Sandestin TV channel and Sandestin magazine—a multi award-winning publication and forerunner to in-room hotel and resort magazines in the Northwest Florida area.
She also led the marketing communication efforts for the town of Seaside, Florida, including serving as editor of The Seaside Times; and held the same role for Premier Island Management Group, which included a complete image rebrand for Portofino Island in Pensacola, Florida. For Salamander Resorts, she served on the grand opening team for The Henderson, the first luxury hotel in Destin, Florida.
Part of her contribution as an executive leader for Wyndham Vacation Rentals’ Gulf region, included the revamp of the company’s four primary brand publications: Beach Dreams, Tops’l Life, Destin Pointe and Gulf Shores & Orange Beach.
Most recently, Wolfgram served as editor of Emerald Coast magazine and the custom publishing division for hospitality magazines for the same publishing house. She also was a senior contributing writer to 850 Business and Tallahassee magazines.
Wolfgram has written travel stories for Visit Florida and Forbes Travel, and served as the Emerald Coast Insider for VisitSouth.com. Her work has appeared in a host of vacation rental resort publications such as Sandestin Living magazine (Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort), Experience (St. Joe Clubs/St. Joe Company), Treasures (The Resort Collection), Footprints (Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa), Be (Newman-Dailey) as well as the Panama City Beach Official Vacation Guide; and in niche publications such Florida Cancer Specialists magazine.
Since her days in cultural tourism, Wolfgram has remained a champion for sustainable tourism. “I wholeheartedly believe that for a destination to have true quality of life and sense of place, it must have a vibrant cultural arts scene,” she says.
An avid arts advocate, Wolfgram supports national art causes such as Musical Theatre Project, Costume Industry Coalition and Americans for the Arts. She plies her passion within her own community as an active member of the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County and the Arts & Design Society of Fort Walton Beach, and by serving on the board Emerald Coast Theatre Company, an emerging professional theater serving Northwest Florida. For her efforts, she was named 2020 Board Member of the Year.
In addition to developing cultural arts marketing strategies for hospitality organizations, she has helped strengthen the cultural tourism health of Northwest Florida by using her communication skills to promote numerous art organizations and marquis events in her community including Sinfonia Gulf Coast, the Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation, South Walton Beaches Art & Wine Festival and Digital Graffiti—the world’s first projection art festival in Alys Beach.
“Finding a spark of something artful in the people, places and things around us inspires me … that is the essence of storytelling to me,” she says.
Wolfgram lives with her husband of 20 years and their two children on a 3-mile barrier island on the Northwest Florida Gulf Coast, where she enjoys “shabby chic-ing” vintage furniture, frequenting festivals, and kicking back with her bulldog, Hapi.
Have some new vacation rental industry news or a story idea to share? Feel free to reach out to Zandra at Zandra.Wolfgram@VRMIntel.com.
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