Hotel Sales and Marketing Director (gn)

What is a Hotel Sales and Marketing Director and what are the required skills and studies to become one?

A Hotel Sales and Marketing Director is a key position in a hotel and is responsible for the strategic and operational management as well as the coordination of the sales and marketing activities.

The role is to manage the development, positioning, and the whole marketing activities of the hotel(s) to increase sales and brand awareness. This role is a multi-tasking and exciting job.

What is the role of a Hotel Sales and Marketing Director?

Depending on the hotel, the role can differ. Some will mostly focus on Sales with no or only a few marketing responsibilities, whilst others will have both parts of the job. But both fields are linked, and one cannot work without the other.

In general, the Director is responsible for the Sales and Marketing of the hotel. She/He is responsible for the sales, image, and communication of the hotel, not only online but also offline and proactively with clients and customers.

The role has many tasks, and the Hotel Sales and Marketing Director is working closely with the Hotel’s General Management for the creation and implementation of strategies in regard to budgets and forecasting. Therefore, also close cooperation with Revenue & Reservations, F&B and Rooms Division Management is key.

What are the main tasks of a Hotel Sales and Marketing Director?

The main tasks that you could find in a job description are the following:

Sales:

• Identification and development of new and existing markets, business segments and opportunities
• Budget planning and forecasting
• Leading a Field Sales Team, perhaps even the reactive Group and Event Sales team
• Analysis of turnover and sales figures and implementation of corresponding strategies and actions
• Controlling and success analysis of the implemented measures
• Key account management
• Networking and representation of the hotel in various events and fairs
• Sales calls and customer acquisition
• On-site visits and sales tours by corporate clients
• Sales reporting

Marketing:

• Enhancing brand awareness in the markets
• Creation and implementation of sales & marketing strategies, plans, campaigns, targets, guidelines
• Determination of instruments for an effective marketing mix
• Planning, coordination and strategic development of the website and other important channels
• Public and press relations as well as coordination
• Market and competition analyses
• Implementation of strategy to increase customer loyalty
• Perhaps leading a team of Specialists for offline and online Marketing, and PR

What are the skills required for a Hotel Sales and Marketing Director?

Hard Skills:

• Data management software
• PMS: Opera, Sihot, Fairmas, Oracle, Protel…
• Channel Manager: OTA Insight, Travelclick
• RMS: Duetto, EzRMS
• CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot …
• MS Office: Excel, Powerpoint …
• E-commerce

Soft Skills:

• Communication
• Organisation and planning skills
• Strategic and entrepreneurial mindset
• Sales mindset, Business development & negotiation skills
• State-of-the-art leadership qualities
• Good internal communication, teamwork, mentoring, coaching
• Service orientation and very good time management
• Good representation and dress code

What salary does a Sales and Marketing Director earn?

Depending on which city or country you are living in, the size of the hotel and how many years of experience you have, the salary might differ. But average from EUR 60.000.

Which studies should you do to become a Hotel Sales and Marketing Director?

You need to have in-depth knowledge of hospitality and sales management. You need to understand how a hotel is working, which different teams exist and how they correlate. Furthermore, you should know how to sell and promote the hotel and all its products or services in the best way possible. But also, to have a deep knowledge of the market, the competition and future perspectives.

A bachelor’s degree or a master’s in hospitality management, business administration, marketing & communication or equivalent experience is often desirable. Really essential and mandatory are previous long-term sales and/or marketing experience in the hospitality industry.