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Influential Women Features Raffaella Tasca: Founder and Owner of Stellina Connections, LLC
Raffaella Tasca is a seasoned hospitality professional and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in hotel sales, meetings, and incentive travel. Throughout her career, she has built a reputation for strategic leadership, relationship-driven service, and an unwavering commitment to excellence within the global hospitality industry. In 2025, she launched Stellina Connections, LLC, a hospitality consultancy specializing in sourcing, negotiating, and managing hotels and destinations for meetings, events, and incentive travel programs around the world.
Known for her authenticity, integrity, and personalized approach, Raffaella combines deep industry expertise with a highly relationship-focused philosophy that prioritizes trust, transparency, and long-term value for her clients. Through Stellina Connections, she leverages decades of experience and an extensive professional network to help organizations create seamless, memorable event experiences while navigating the increasingly complex hospitality landscape.
Raffaella’s career in hospitality began on the planning side of the industry, where she worked as a meeting planner organizing corporate events and incentive programs. It was during those early years that she discovered her passion for hospitality sales, strategic negotiations, and client relationship management. Over time, she transitioned into leadership roles with several highly respected hospitality organizations, steadily building expertise across global hotel sourcing, meetings management, and contract strategy.
Throughout her career, Raffaella held leadership positions with organizations including Millennium Hotels & Resorts, Krisam Group, Teneo Hospitality Group, The Venetian Las Vegas, and AMR™ Collection, which later became part of Hyatt. Most recently, she served as Regional Director of Groups for the West Coast, overseeing corporate group business and developing strategic partnerships throughout the hospitality sector.
These experiences provided Raffaella with comprehensive expertise in hotel negotiations, incentive travel planning, global sourcing strategies, and the operational realities hotels face when balancing client expectations with business demands. Today, she applies that insight through Stellina Connections to create customized solutions that benefit both clients and hospitality partners alike.
The name “Stellina,” Italian for “little star,” carries personal meaning for Raffaella, inspired by a childhood nickname and reflecting her commitment to creating genuine connections while delivering thoughtful, attentive service. She believes hospitality is ultimately about people — how they are treated, how they feel throughout the process, and the trust built through consistency and care.
Raffaella earned her Bachelor of Science in Hotel & Resort Management with a Business minor from Rochester Institute of Technology and has remained actively involved in the hospitality community for decades. She has been a member of the Society of Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) for more than 15 years, continuing to strengthen industry relationships while staying engaged with evolving trends and best practices.
Raffaella attributes much of her success to tenacity, resilience, and a strong work ethic developed throughout every stage of her career. She believes her willingness to adapt, continuously learn, and embrace challenges has been essential to her growth as both a leader and entrepreneur.
A defining factor in her success has been her focus on building long-term relationships. Rather than pursuing short-term wins, Raffaella has consistently prioritized trust, loyalty, and delivering value over time. She believes consistency, transparency, and follow-through create lasting partnerships that ultimately drive sustainable success.
She also credits her mindset as a major contributor to her professional growth. Raffaella approaches challenges as opportunities, remains solutions-oriented under pressure, and embraces calculated risks when opportunities align with her values and long-term vision. Launching her own consulting business required courage and confidence in her expertise, and she believes stepping into uncertainty ultimately strengthened both her leadership and perspective.
The best career advice Raffaella ever received was to provide the same level of service she would expect herself if she were the client. She often compares this philosophy to the experience of visiting Disneyland and seeing Mickey Mouse unhappy or disengaged — the experience would instantly lose its magic.
For Raffaella, hospitality is not simply about delivering a product or transaction. It is about how people are made to feel. That mindset has shaped every stage of her career and continues guiding her consulting philosophy today. Regardless of the size of the client or project, she believes everyone deserves excellence, honesty, consistency, and proactive service.
Raffaella also encourages young women entering the hospitality and events industry to remain curious, ask questions, seek mentorship, and continuously learn from experienced professionals. At the same time, she believes women should not hesitate to use their voices, contribute ideas, and trust their instincts even early in their careers.
Raffaella encourages women to embrace calculated risks and remain persistent, explaining that some of the most intimidating moments — leadership meetings, negotiations, and major decisions — often become the experiences that shape personal and professional growth the most.
Looking at the industry overall, Raffaella sees several major challenges, including ongoing ownership changes, industry consolidation, and increasing pressure to balance elevated client expectations with operational realities within hospitality organizations. She also notes that building visibility as an independent consultant can be difficult within such a highly relationship-driven industry.
At the same time, she sees significant opportunities for innovation. Much of the hospitality industry still relies heavily on traditional and manual processes, creating room for modernization, improved efficiency, enhanced transparency, and more data-driven decision-making while still preserving the human connection that defines hospitality at its best.
The values guiding Raffaella in both her professional and personal life are integrity, loyalty, accountability, honesty, and consistency. She believes trust is earned by following through on commitments, maintaining transparency even during difficult conversations, and consistently showing up with authenticity and professionalism.
Based in Encinitas, California, Raffaella enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter, and their Australian Labradoodle, Biscoff. Outside of work, she enjoys travel and hot yoga while continuing to cultivate the same balance, discipline, and intentionality that define her professional life.
Today, through Stellina Connections, Raffaella partners with organizations around the world on meetings, incentive trips, executive retreats, off-site programs, conferences, and corporate events of all sizes.
While her experience spans the broader global hospitality landscape, she has also become a strong advocate for the evolving luxury all-inclusive resort model — particularly within the meetings and incentive industry, where misconceptions still exist despite the tremendous value, elevated experiences, and operational simplicity many of today’s premier resorts can provide.
Known for being highly relationship-driven and fiercely client-focused, Raffaella works as a true advocate throughout the sourcing and negotiation process, helping clients identify the right fit, navigate complex decisions with confidence, and create exceptional experiences worldwide.
If you are planning a meeting or event anywhere in the world and simply want an experienced hospitality professional in your corner, Raffaella welcomes the opportunity to connect.
Learn More about Raffaella Tasca:
Through her Influential Women profile, https://influentialwomen.com/connect/raffaella-tasca
Influential Women
Influential Women provides a platform where women from all backgrounds can connect, share their perspectives, and create content that empowers themselves and others. Through storytelling, thought leadership, and creative expression, Influential Women amplifies voices that inspire change.
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Influential Women
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