Senior Account Manager - Chains

The Company “People don’t take trips – trips take people” … and we’re in the business of planning and organising trips all over the globe for almost half a million travellers each year. We’re G2 Travel, a wholesale tour operator with a network of offices spanning Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. We’re not a corporation and don’t behave like one – results are achieved through collaboration and teamwork – a place where everyone gets noticed. We believe that work should be enjoyable, stimulating and fun!

The Role

The Senior Account Manager - Chains will be managing and developing the relationship with our hotel chains across FIT and connectivity. Create and follow strategies, explore and implementation of new chains, looking at supply and optimisation in order to maximise opportunities and increase G2 Travel’s market share. As a senior team member, this role will include mentoring and advising our account managers and other team members to help them succeed.

Key Activities:

• Responsible for the overall commercial activities and results within your chains including relationship management, contracting within set deadlines, regular business reviews;
• Be the chain expert of your assigned chains, create and follow a strategic plan ensuring we are optimising the partnership as a whole;
• Provide guidance, advise and training to account managers and other team members on best practices, implementing policies and procedures for the department;
• Working closely with destination management teams, connectivity team, sales, operations, reservations and other internal teams making sure they are up to date on all chains for FIT;
• Following leads for new chains, contracting and integration of new chains;
• Tracking competitor movements and market trends to identify growth opportunities;
• Checking competitiveness and act on price comparisons;
• Keep internal teams updated on progression with new chains we are negotiating with, any barriers to overcome and when we are expecting them to be signed;
• Negotiate exclusive deals, overrides and value adds with chains and work with these to identify any marketing opportunities with chains as a whole or regionally;
• Daily/Weekly/Monthly monitoring of production of chains including regular reporting on chain performance, competitiveness, availability and pricing;
• Keep manuals;
• Liaise with Yield Managers to help with optimisation of rate plans, rates and availability where required;
• Represent the company at meetings and trade events;
• Assist Global Head of Chains with analyses, reports and presentations where required;
• Support with ad hoc projects.

The Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in hotel/hotel chain contracting/account manager or a similar role;
• Well-established network with international/global hotel chains;
• Fluency in English, both spoken;
• Exceptional negotiation and analytical skills with the ability to interact and influence at all levels of an organisation;
• Strong commercial skills with a good working knowledge of hotel distribution channels and technology;
• Significant and recent experience managing hotel chains and ability to build and maintain strong relationships with them;
• Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines independently as well as in a team, in a fast-paced environment;
• Ability to build and maintain positive relationships amongst internal and external stakeholders;
• Clear and effective, both verbal and written, communication skills are essential;
• IT proficiency including good working knowledge of Microsoft office;
• Proactive and results driven;
• The role will require international travel.