uestsmiths

​​Guestsmiths was founded by Rikka McDonald, a hospitality professional with experience across hotel operations, customer service, and event coordination in both the Philippines and the United States.

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Rikka has worked in hotel environments in both countries and completed a year-long J-1 Hospitality Management Training Program at Hyatt Regency Boston. Her background also includes technical customer support for U.S.-based Comcast customers and coordinating campus-wide events for Emporia State University in Kansas.

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Across these roles, she saw the same operational challenge repeatedly: when small teams are busy serving guests, managing events, and handling day-to-day responsibilities, important behind-the-scenes work can easily become fragmented.

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Messages go unanswered. Follow-ups get delayed. Deadlines become harder to track. Information lives across too many systems. Small operational gaps begin consuming more and more of the owner’s or manager’s time.

Guestsmiths was created to help solve that problem.

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Built on Hospitality

 

Rikka earned her degree in Hospitality Management from the University of St. La Salle in the Philippines, where she attended on a full-ride scholarship.

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Her hospitality education and professional experience shaped the service philosophy behind Guestsmiths: communicate clearly, follow through consistently, treat people professionally, and make sure important details do not disappear between team members or systems.

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Having spent much of her life in the Philippines, Rikka also has a strong understanding of the country’s culture and workforce. That experience gives Guestsmiths an informed foundation for recruiting, developing, and managing Philippines-based professionals who support hospitality and event businesses in the United States.

 

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More Than a Virtual Assistant Service

 

Guestsmiths is not a VA marketplace or staffing agency.

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We are a managed operations partner for small hospitality and event businesses.

Instead of simply providing a person and leaving the client responsible for managing the work, Guestsmiths builds structure around the service.

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Our team members are carefully recruited, vetted, trained, and managed to work within documented client procedures, communication standards, approved systems, and clear escalation boundaries.

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Depending on the client and service scope, Guestsmiths may help manage guest or attendee communications, reservation or registration administration, operational follow-through, deadlines, documentation, reputation workflows, and other recurring behind-the-scenes responsibilities.

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When something requires the client’s authority or judgment, it is escalated—not guessed.

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Hospitality Is Still Human

 

Technology can make operations more efficient, but hospitality still depends on human communication, judgment, and follow-through.

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That is why Guestsmiths combines capable people with clear systems and accountable management.

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Our goal is straightforward:

Fewer dropped balls. Better follow-through. Clearer communication. More operational visibility.

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So small hospitality and event teams can spend less time chasing administrative work—and more time focusing on the guests, clients, attendees, and experiences that matter most.