Group Commercial Director - Sales & Events

Arora Hotels, a division of the Arora Group, is one of the UK’s leading hotel owner-operators with expertise in airport and city centre hotel operations. Current hotels within the portfolio include Sofitel London Heathrow, Sofitel London Gatwick and Novotel London Stansted (under a franchise agreement with Accor), Renaissance London Heathrow (under a franchise agreement with Marriott), InterContinental® London ‒ The O2, Crowne Plaza London Heathrow Terminal 4, Holiday Inn Express® London Heathrow Terminal 4 (under a franchise agreement with IHG), Hilton London Gatwick and Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 (under a franchise agreement with Hilton Hotel and Resorts), and Arora Gatwick - Crawley. Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel and Luton Hoo are the latest additions to the portfolio.

Commercial Director - Sales & Events will be leading and driving commercial performance and market share within the sales and events functions at both hotel and central teams. In conjunction with Hotel General Managers and the CCO, ensuring that the appropriate performance measures and standard operating procedures are in place for individuals and teams and driving accountability to meet agreed targets for the corporate, transient business and group business and events segments.

The position will facilitate productive relationships, explore all sales opportunities, and endorse relevant brand sales and initiatives from Arora Group’s franchise partners namely, Accor, IHG, Marriott and Hilton.

The position will form part of and work alongside the hotel division commercial senior leadership team including the Director of Revenue and Distribution and Director of Marketing and Communications.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Agree and deploy best practice and guidance on SOP’s and performance documentation to drive sales and conversion excellency and improve customer experience.
• Agree and monitor performance metrics to drive sales in line with hotel budgets and client market share targets.
• Take ownership of sales quality performance and testing including but not limited to areas such field sales appraisals, review of account animation plans, 3rd party quality testing tools such as BDRC.
• In conjunction with Hotel General Managers, manages and monitors each Hotel’s annual sales and events business plans and where appropriate co-ordinates with various Arora Group central support functions and Brand support functions to help support the business plans.
• Maintains direct relationship and communication with some key clients and certain strategically important clients to the Arora Group. At times, may be required to represent individual hotels or entire portfolio at trade shows, client visits and other client communication opportunities.

Skills & Experience

• A successful track record of sales and events management in a hotel environment or similar hospitality industry. Ideally at least 5 years in a sales and events senior leadership role.
• Experience of working with major global hotel brands is ideal.
• Team player with strong & positive people skills
• Demonstrate self-confidence, energy, and enthusiasm.
• Willing to adapt and change styles as and when necessary.
• Ability to adapt to a frequently changing market environment. Be initiative-taking and able to “think outside of the box”.
• Develops constructive relationships both within Arora Hotels, brand partners, external clients and suppliers.
• Computer literate together with a strong understanding of sales and events systems such as Delphi, Opera, Sales Force. Staying in touch with leading tools and technology that may be deployed to improve sales and events efficiency.

Please note that as part of this role, there may be elements of travel both within the UK and overseas. As such, it may be necessary to be flexible to accommodate these activities including the need to stay away from home as well as the ability to drive when necessary. Therefore, carrying a full and valid driving license will be preferable. The role is office-based working from the Arora Group head office location at Heathrow with regular requirement to travel to and work from the portfolio of hotels based at Heathrow, Gatwick, Windsor, London, Stansted and Luton plus any new locations the group quires or develops in the future. Depending on specific hotel needs, the role may require being based at a particular hotel for a number of days per week if that hotel is deemed to be a ‘focus’ project.