Month: April 2023

General Manager, Milan – Position Filled

Posted on by Katherine Wyles

This job opening has now been filled. Please check our latest job opportunities here

Our client is one of the largest privately held hospitality organisations in the world, with almost 500 hotels across three continents (US/Canada, Europe & Asia) and has formed strategic alliances with many of the world’s largest hotel brands.

They now have an opening for a General Manager at one of their hotels in the beautiful city of Milan.

The hotel has recently gone through a major renovation that resulted in the rebranding and repositioning of the property into a high-end 4 star, lifestyle hotel. Offering 200+ beautifully appointed and refurbished rooms and suites, 5 small/medium meeting rooms, a fitness centre, a café, a restaurant and a brand new concept restaurant on the top floor. The hotel offers the perfect location and solution for both the business traveller or leisure stay..

Overview:

One of the most exciting projects for a new General Manager will be to focus on the rebranding and repositioning of the hotel in the market. They are looking for a strong leader who can build a team for a new brand by developing and inspiring his/her team. The goal would be to deliver the annual budget, improve the operational delivery, drive the performance and the launch the property next year. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to join a company that is known for its successes throughout Europe.

Reporting to the report to the Regional Operations Director, the key objectives of the role will be:

  •  Delivering the annual budget through the agreed commercial strategies
  • Hands-on operator with strong people management skills driving employee engagement and delivering the highest levels of customer service
  • Rebranding and repositioning of the hotel
  • Dealing with outsourced companies

Candidate Requirements:

  • An experienced hotelier with minimum 3 years’ experience as a General Manager in an internationally branded hotel
  • Fluent English and Italian speaker
  • Strong knowledge of the Italian market
  • A strong understanding of commercial functions, corporate and MICE segments, sales and marketing, revenue
  • Good knowledge of F&B
  • Excellent organisational and planning skills
  • Proven leadership skills involving the ability to manage, develop and motivate a strong executive team to achieve their objectives
  • A positive and motivated firsthand approach
  • Proven history in client negotiations and account strategizing
  • Rebranding and repositioning experience
  • Excellent presentation skills
  • Degree qualification  – desired but not essential

For more information or to apply, please contact Mara at mm@madisonmayfair.com or call on +44 20 8600 1169

Cluster Director of Revenue, Germany – Position Filled

Posted on by Katherine Wyles

This job opening has now been filled. Please check our latest job opportunities here

With two hotels in Dusseldorf and Heidelberg, our client has an opportunity for a Cluster Revenue Manager to join the Company.

Reporting directly to the General Managers, the primary purpose of this position is to monitor group and transient business thresholds within the forecast to ensure measurable improvements for demand and availability. Supply critical analysis on the effect of short range decisions effecting occupancy, average rate and rooms profit goals. Analysis of city events and activities and to project the effect of opportunities they create.  Monitor competitive analysis. This is a challenging position within the commercial team. The Cluster Revenue Manager will be responsible for managing at least 2 hotels directly and overseeing the reservations teams on property. There will of course be travel involved between the two properties and the opportunity exists for hybrid working.

The successful candidate should possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities and be able to explain and demonstrate that he or she can perform the essential functions of the job, using some other combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities.

  • Must be proficient in writing, speaking and negotiating in English and local language;
  • Extensive knowledge of revenue management;
  • Knowledge of hotel and competitive market or similar environment;
  • Ability to analyse data
  • Ability to priorities tasks & to manage workload using own initiative
  • Excellent computer skills
  • Strong communication(both verbal and written), decision making, influencing/consensus building and analytical skills with clear understanding of impact on goals and bottom line
  • Previous experience in hotel, travel & tourism, service sector preferred
  • Team player – with a sense of humour even in the face of adversity!

Candidate Requirements:

  • Bachelors or Master’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent combination of education and work related experience
  • Ideally you will have a with 3+ years progressive work-related experience in financial/strategic planning, revenue management, pricing with proficiencies in multiple disciplines/technologies/processes, preferably in the hotel industry or similar environment.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of revenue management principles, effective hotel pricing concepts, yield management optimization and selling strategies.
  • Fluent in German

For more information or to apply, please conact Mara at mm@madisonmayfair.com or call on +44 20 8600 1169

General Manager, Paris Airport – Position Filled

Posted on by Katherine Wyles

This job opening has now been filled. Please check our latest job opportunities here

Situated at Le Bourget Airport in Paris, our client is seeking to hire a General Manager who possesses hands-on and successful experience in managing all the key business functions, including operations, finance, sales, revenue and e-commerce.

The hotel is an upscale/lifestyle branded property which offers a sleek contemporary design and modern interior. Along with over 100 rooms they offer meeting facilities, contemporary French restaurant, wellness area with a magnificent swimming pool and a panoramic bar which gives a breath-taking view of Paris and the runways of the private international airport of Le Bourget

Key objectives of the role include:

  • Delivering the annual budget through the agreed strategies
  • Represent the hotel in the local marketplace and be actively involved in sales activities
  • Manage the hotel within the brand standards
  • Deliver service levels to meet customer expectations and within brand standards
  • Coach and manage people to drive desired results and fully review the current working practices in order to increase profitability

Candidate Skills:

  • Director of Operations/Hotel Manager experience with internationally branded hotel groups, minimum 2 years’ experience as Director of Operations in a similar size hotel
  • Proven leadership skills involving the ability to manage, develop and motivate a head of department team to achieve their objectives
  • Experience in month end reporting, budget preparation and presentation
  • A positive hands-on approach
  • A good coach, who will be able to motivate the existing Executive Team members and mentor the new ones
  • Strong business management acumen in both revenue and cost controls
  • Proven track record in delivering consistent and high level of customer service throughout hotel
  • Strong facilitator and driver of engagement within the hotel team
  • Proactive, driven, independent, decisive
  • Strong problem solving
  • High level of resilience and self-discipline
  • Fluent English and French speaker

Highly desirable skills 

  • Previous or current experience with the lifestyle brands

For more information or to apply, please contact Mara at mm@madisonmayfair.com or call on +44 20 8600 1169

Cluster Director of S & M, Prague – Position Filled

Posted on by Katherine Wyles

This job opening has now been filled. Please check our latest job opportunities here

Our client is an internationally known brand that represents style and luxury all over the world.

They now have an super opportunity for a Cluster Director of Sales & Marketing to be based in the historic and beautiful city of Prague. Covering two hotels in the city, both properties have strong Directros of Sales and therefore it would be beneficial to locate a candidate with a strong marketing background who has an understanding of online business and digital marketing.

Key Responsibilities
The successful candidate will be responsible for the total hotel revenue generation in line with the vision, mission and beliefs of the Company. They will maximise the hotel’s revenues by increasing occupancy at best rates and making profitable use of all relevant outlets (e.g. restaurants, events, Spa etc.). They will oversee the sales, marketing, PR, conference and events teams, setting strategies and targets for each revenue stream and overseeing their achievement of these objectives. They will work to build highly effective and aligned teams through communication, motivation and training and the Cluster Director of Sales & Marketing will build effective partnerships with like-minded and luxury and upscale brands to build and grow the business both in terms of revenue and positioning. They will also establish and maintain good business relations with key corporate clients, e.g. airlines, DMC’s, OTA’s, travel agencies, tourist offices, etc.)

The main focus of the role is to reposition the hotels with a correct marketing message. Repositioning within the leisure sector (the properties are out of the city centre) and managing the USPs will be important. The successful candidate will need to be highly engaging, involved, global thinker, with a “let’s do” attitude, commercially minded who can connect with people. “Work hard and play hard” is the motto of the team. Nurture the team with a positive attitude, support people.

Candidate Requirements

  • 3-5 years in a similar position in a similar sized and star rated hotel.
  • Experience in managing multiple departments/teams.
  • Excellent knowledge of hotel systems e.g. Opera PMS/S&C
  • Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite
  • Digital marketing understanding (desirable)
  • Written and verbal fluency in English. Fluency in another major language and added advantage
  • Analytical and numerate
  • Must be eligible to work in the country
  • Willing to travel (30-40% Travel to US and Europe)
  • Ideally an Undergraduate degree in a relevant field such as Hospitality Management, Tourism, Marketing or Finance

For more information or to apply, plase contact Mara at mm@madisonmayfair.com or call on +44 20 8600 1169

Is Hospitality really the most stressful industry in the UK?

Posted on by Katherine Wyles

April is Stress Awareness Month, and after a number of publications last year reported that 57% of hospitality employees regularly experience high levels of stress, we want to ask if hospitality really is the most stressful industry in the UK? 

The most stressful industry in the UK? 

In July last year, a report from addiction and rehab specialist Delamere, on the toxicity of the hustle culture, gave a breakdown on stress in various industries. This report was picked up in a number of other articles at the time, and presented hospitality as the most stressful industry in the UK. According to the report, 57.1% of “Accommodation and Food Service” workers reported poor mental health, more than Health and Social Care and Manufacturing which rounded out the top three places. The data to back this up were attributed to Lifeworks’ monthly Mental Health Index. These figures tend to vary by month and while Hospitality is no longer considered the worst offender in terms of workplace stress, it still rates consistently low in areas such as Average Hours Worked and Work-Life Balance.  

The impact of stress on retention rates 

Long Hours and Work-Life Balance, contribute highly towards levels of stress, which can eventually lead to burnout, especially if the level of commitment to the business and its culture begins to wane. Inevitable this can lead to reduced productivity and employee retention levels.  

Last year, we published The Battle for Retention which looked at a number of other factors that can affect employee turnover. 

Advice on how to tackle stress in the workplace consistently revolves around how to spot it in yourself, and in your employees. As individuals, we all have a responsibility to ourselves to recognise when we are working too hard or neglecting our personal commitments. Hospitality Action is a charity that supports hospitality employees both inside and outside of the workplace. In their Advice Hub, they share expert advice and information on how to get further support on a range of issues, including Stress.  

 Signs of stress can include:  

  • Difficulty sleeping 
  • Feeling irritated with family, friends or co-workers 
  • Drinking more than usual 
  • Struggling with work deadlines 
  • Feeling isolated and lonely 
  • Physical symptoms such as: panic attacks, headaches, chest pains, indigestion, dizziness, nausea, sweating, breathing problems 

Mental health charity Mind recommends some ways to manage it including:  

  • Identify your triggers – Try to prepare for stress by recognising what sets it off 
  • Organise your time – Make a list of your tasks and approach them in order of urgency 
  • Be clear about your limits – While it isn’t always possible to say no to things, let people know if you don’t have the capacity to fulfil their demands 
  • Try to take a short break – it may seem counter-intuitive to take a break when you are stressed but if you can allow yourself one, this can help how you feel
  • Develop interests and hobbies – Outside of work, try to make time for what you enjoy to take you away from stress 
  • Get enough sleep 
  • Stay physically active 
  • Eat a balanced diet 
  • Spend time in nature 
  • Build a support network – having friends and family, or finding support at work to talk through why you feel stressed can make a big difference 

Employers also have a duty to instill a workplace culture that can help spot the signs of stress and empower them to engage with employees on a more personal level, especially if they are seeing symptoms of stress in the team or in individuals. According to the Health and Safety Executive, signs of stress in a team can include:  

  • Increase in arguments amongst staff 
  • Higher staff turnover 
  • More reports of stress 
  • More sickness absence 
  • Decreased performance 
  • More complaints and grievances  

In individuals, leaders may notice a change in the way people act or feel, such as:  

  • Taking more time off 
  • Arriving for work later 
  • Being more twitchy or nervous 
  • Mood swings 
  • Being withdrawn 
  • A loss of motivation, commitment and confidence 
  • Increased emotional reactions – being more tearful, sensitive or aggressive

In addition to the free support for hospitality employees, Hospitality Action also offers a number of support packages including Stress and Resilience Training, designed to bolster the resilience and wellbeing of your employees. 

If you would like support with your people strategy in 2023, Madison Mayfair are here for you. With a superb track record in finding the right people for the right role, we have long standing relationships with clients and candidates and we can help guide you through challenging and sometimes stressful times.  

If you would like to chat about your people strategy, please contact us on +44 20 8600 1180.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chat Button