Catering Sales Manager
Reports to Director of Sales
WHO YOU ARE
You are someone who is obsessed with hospitality: it is quite natural for you to walk into a hotel and be the be host there is! You get excited about how meeting rooms are set up, ensures that food quality and presentation is top notch, and that our guests leave better than when they arrived.. You enjoy casual sophistication and realize the concept of luxury has evolved to be approachable and loathe heavily scripted interactions and cookie-cutter experiences.
Your career experience is eclectic and dynamic and take great pride in having worked your way through a variety roles. You are humble and understand the need to work side by side with others and take feedback seriously to improve upon processes. You love the collaborative environment you find in hotels and have a special place in your heart for the people and teams you have worked with and developed throughout your career.
THE ROLE
The Catering Sales Manager sets the tone for the hotel clients' experience of the hotel. This integral role ensures that the service delivered to our guests is unique and memorable, meeting our high expectations. Though this is a management role, it is certainly not one in which you spend the entire day in the office doing paperwork. Instead, your day is spent where you are at your best: in the meeting spaces with your groups, delivering innovative guest experiences.
The Catering Sales Manager reports to the Director of Sales, working together on how to deliver remarkable guest experiences. It is critical the person in this position possesses a diverse knowledge of Banquets and F+B operations and is willing to dive into the day-to-day operation, while balancing and directing the long-term goals of the hotel. You lead the team through your collaborative approach, you understand that the ability to act as a soldier is as critical as being a general.
WHAT YOU WILL DO
- Execute sales activities to achieve budgeted goals
- Assist in the annual budgeting plan
- Properly analyze business to ensure booking guidelines and parameters for proper function space to guestroom ratio is appropriate for hotel's best interests
- Aggressively build and maintain professional and active relationships with clients and parties and convention bureau managers, recognizing these key sources as our primary lead generators
- Negotiate with clients and achieve maximum revenue/profit potential while satisfying clients' needs
- Communicate effectively with hotel stakeholders to ensure client's needs and expectations are satisfied
- Maintain files by proper and expedient client dialogue documentation, adherence to trace dates and maintaining files on active trace
- Support and plan special sales activities, promotions and client events
- Proble- solve with other departments as needed to book business into the hotel e.g. salvaging of accounts threatening cancellation, groups that have outgrown confirmed space
- Prepare resumes for groups prior to group arrival
- Lead resume review meetings with applicable departments
- Conduct pre- and post-conference meetings as appropriate
- Enlist senior management and leverage relationships to interact with tentative or prospective clients in order to book business
- Enhance the hotel's community image by actively participating in associations, events, clubs and boards
- Stay ahead of hotel competition- their new developments, services and amenities to ensure competitive knowledge and strategy are current
- Assume active ownership of assigned sales territory and respond to specific market needs, initiates needed action and suggest to sales leadership any necessary actions
- Perform all responsibilities in a timely and efficient fashion, following established policy and projecting a favorable image of the hotel
- Discuss, support and innovate key service and product differentiators on an ongoing basis
- Comply with hotel standards for sales while working harmoniously and professionally with co-workers and Executive Committee
- Perform tasks and projects that support client schedules and sales revenue achievement such as assisting with telephone volume, walk-in site inspections, and evening and weekend appointments
- Excellent product knowledge of hotel facilities, capacities and room dimensions as well as to have same knowledge of competitive hotels
- Plan, attend and/or participate in meetings with hotel associates as well as pre-convention meetings
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
- Willing to work a flexible schedule in order to accomplish all required tasks. Your schedule may vary, which may include days, nights, weekends, and holidays.
- Work with integrity, confidentiality and discretion
- Work in a safe, prudent and highly organized manor
- Superior oral, written and computer skills
- Guide and monitor business ethics and good business practice
- Always conduct self in a most professional manner to reflect the hotel standards
- Highly organized and can plan multiple activities and meet deadlines with the ability to maintain a positive and professional demeanor at all times
- Participate in Lobby Duty Program
- Available to cross train as directed
- Knowledge of Sales, Reservation and Room's distribution functions
- All other responsibilities assigned by management
- Maintain a good working relationship with other associates by promoting teamwork and fostering a harmonious working climate
- Partake in a positive work ethic and surrounding environment
HOW YOU LEAD
- Offer direct support for your team through one-on-one coaching, counseling, gentle correction, and constructive feedback.
Collaborate effectively with all departments in the hotel including Rooms, Banquets, Engineering, Food & Beverage, and Culinary to provide an exemplary guest experience; be comfortable in debating ideas before implementing a decision that will impact operations property-wide, as we do not work in silos.
- Be respectful in your daily interactions with your managers, direct reports, and peers, exemplifying the utmost level of professionalism and being a pillar within your community.
- Highly analytical in thought and recommendations, with the ability to express a point of view in respectful manner.
- Engage others in general conversation tactics to build rapport quickly, with the ability to lead and adapt communication and presentation tactics to engage a wide range of audiences and stakeholders.
- Approaches fact finding and discovery missions as a collaborative effort; values input and experiences of others that creates additional insight to uncover deeper issues that need to be addressed.
- Influence others to effectively drive results and take direction to execute on strategy through tactical methods; is comfortable prioritizing their work and that of others.
- Prioritizes and organizes their own work, when necessary, by working flexible or extended hours to accommodate increased workload; can flex to the needs of hotel based on business needs
WHO WE ARE
Hotels done differently. It's not just a slogan or catchphrase, it is who we are in everything we do. We believe in the power of People, Place and Character; ensuring our properties are a place where individuals are valued and celebrated as a tribute to the neighborhoods and the people of the communities in which we operate; elevating our associates' pride in who they are, where they live and who we serve.
Since its founding, Aparium has grown into a new kind of hotel brand, one that ventures off the beaten path, both geographically and philosophically. It is a sophisticated hotel brand known for its singular ability to combine the business acumen of large hospitality companies with the charm of boutique hotels, bringing the disparate forces together in bustling, smaller markets.
Located in the heart of Old Town Alexandria, Hotel Heron will open in the spring of 2024 offering guests the opportunity to see Old Town from a new vantage point. With Washington, DC just minutes away, Hotel Heron acts as a flag in the sand just across the river, beckoning travelers to explore beyond the National Mall and Monuments to discover a city ripe for its new renaissance. Originally opened in 1926 as the George Mason Hotel, this adaptive reuse combines the iconic inn with an adjacent new building that houses a modern event space and elevated guest rooms. This chic 134 room boutique hotel is home to a signature ground floor restaurant serving hearth inspired Mid-Atlantic cuisine, a cozy craft cocktail bar hidden in the heart of the hotel, and an open-air seasonal rooftop bar with unparalleled views of the Potomac. Elevated amenities include a state-of-the-art fitness center and meeting spaces designed for socializing, co-working, creating, eating, drinking, and relaxing. The hotel brings together world travelers and neighbors alike while showcasing Alexandria's rich legacy and knack for innovation through thoughtful touches from local businesses and artisans.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, Aparium Hospitality Services celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an equitable and inclusive environment, and sense of belonging for all employees. We do not discriminate and believe every individual should be proud of who they are, where they come from and take pride in who we serve.
Hotel Heron participates in the Department of Homeland Security's E-Verify program.
Aparium Hotel Group
Jan 03, 2025 