Estefania Cortez
Director of Guest Experience
Four Seasons Tenure
- Since 2007
- First Four Seasons Position: Communication Centre Agent, Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires
Employment History
- Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires; Les Clefs d’Or International; Welcome Travelers, CITY; Filo Ristorante, CITY; Banquets at Melia Hotel, Buenos Aires
Education
- Bachelor’s Degree, Humanities, Wellspring School
- Bachelor’s Degree, Tourism and Hospitality Management, La Suisse CEPEC.
- Bachelor’s Degree, Human Resources, UADE University
Birthplace
- La Rioja, Argentina
Languages Spoken
- Spanish, English, Portuguese
Though situated in the lobby of Four Seasons Resort and Residences Los Cabos at Costa Palmas, Estefania Cortez’s territory runs throughout the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula and beyond. “I have to know everything about our region to point guests in the right directions for things that are going to make them feel special,” says Cortez of her focus as Director of Guest Experience at the luxury desert and beachfront retreat. “There are many outlets for people to get the most from their time in Los Cabos, and a lot can happen when we set out to fulfill their dreams.”
For Cortez, close contact with guests and professional connections are essential to bringing those dreams to life. She recalls a couple whose travel plans included days of relaxation at the Resort, but not enough time to visit Mexico City where the wife had hoped to catch Lucha Libre, as Mexico’s high-flying, uniquely entertaining twist on professional wrestling is known.
Sizing up the situation, Cortez pondered, “How could I surprise them with something they’ll never forget?” She reached out to the Concierge Desk nearby, where an agent knew of a wrestling outfit in La Paz, a couple hours north of Los Cabos. “I’m from Argentina and had never seen Lucha Libre. When we found video of some matches, all I could say was ‘Wow!’”
Wow, indeed. Cortez coordinated with her team, requested space at the Sunset Terrace near the Resort’s popular outdoor grill Limón, and decked out the scene with lighting, seating, and fresh popcorn for the couple and their friends. “The look on her face when she walked in – it was unbelievable.” The event was a smash hit, and the first-ever wrestling match held at a Four Seasons proved so successful Lucha Libra is now on the calendar for festive days through the year.
Essential to Cortez’s work as the Resort’s maiden Director of Guest Experience was her membership in Les Clefs D’Or, the international association of hotel concierges. She gained entry through expertise and a network of connections she cultivated while travelling to international congresses each year as a Four Seasons concierge, including leading the desk in Los Cabos. Today she works with managers from every department at the Resort, teaming up to conceive amazing experiences and then make them happen.
Cortez grew up in Buenos Aires while relishing hotel stays with her family as her father travelled across borders for work. Once, when she was 12, a tense moment involving flight ticketing was decompressed by a front desk associate at a five-star hotel in Uruguay, who assured her stressed-out mother that the family was in good hands. “I was really taken with that. Their confidence their ability to make things right was very reassuring.”
Her interest in hospitality grew as she studied first humanities in her hometown, then administration at La Suisse CEPEC university. Her initial step into hospitality was as a banquet waitress; her second was as a communications agent in one of the most prominent luxury hotels in Buenos Aires. When the property was reflagged as a Four Seasons in 2007, Cortez stayed on, sharpening her skills as a Concierge while embracing the brand’s concept of luxury and anticipatory service.
In 2014, she was invited to attend a Pan-American Congress of Les Clefs D’Or in Los Cabos, where she received the Golden Keys that distinguish the association’s members, and she quickly fell head over heels for the region. “I told my colleagues I could live here someday. I’ve always been drawn to peaceful places, and here, I found a unique connection with the sea and the mountains.”
When an opportunity opened on the Concierge Desk of Four Seasons Los Cabos in 2021, Cortez took the leap with the support of her family. She was promoted to her current position a few years later, with the General Manager telling her he felt “everything is possible” when she is on the case.
“I really think about that phrase sometimes,” she says. “Whether guest requests are small or huge, I want to make them happen.”
