Career Summary

Best Western International, Haiti/Dominican Republic, Caribbean Islands- May 2017–To present

Cluster Hotel General Manager

Outline-

Portfolio comprised of two hotels in the NAC region/CARICOM. Operationally leading a luxury 200 room lifestyle hotel in Port au Prince, Haiti and a 150 -room luxury villa in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic each comprising of 2 restaurants, 2 banquets, lobby shops, spa & leisure facilities respectively. Full CRM, P&L, FF&E and Annual Budget responsibility. Keeping the focus on brand standards and values.

Responsibilities-

Oversight of Rooms Division, Food & Beverage, Maintenance, Accounts, Lobby Shops and Rentals, Gym and Spa with a focus on customer service, appearance and adherence to group SOPs.Spearheaded new feature launches within the Best Western Group pertaining to Best Western International Gold, Diamond, Platinum and Bronze memberships.Assisted in increasing customer loyalty and building close long term client/guest relationship.
Created and achieved goals in building guest programs and after sales service when new features of the Best Western membership programs when launched.
Assisted in connecting hotel guests and members with the best of BWI hotel technology while providing them with guidance, adoption and change management assistance.
Initiated the telemetry support systems to fulfil particular demands of the hotel guests/clients.
Elevated the in-room entertainment guest experience by offering personalised content with instant accessibility and easy to implement, via a strong and reliable network.
Created a sharing platform, a service in accordance to Best Western Tech and Marketing team enhancing a social community for assistance to guests and regular clientele in real time for their tailored needs.
Overseeing tasks of inspection and repairing’s with the maintenance team- electrical, plumbing, health and safety standards and determining renovations.
Controlling activities like parking space allocation, waste disposal, building security, staff facilities, insurance plans and service contracts.
Initiated and implemented the use of mobile apps for laundry and food services for hotel guests.
Implemented new technologies in various operational steps such as enabling contactless transactions and automating check in/checkout.
Implemented Loyalty programs and packages with cash back incentives and promotions.
Increased incremental revenue by leveraging under utilised areas making space for revenue potential and added growth, which in turn assisted in extra income for the hotel.
Recruitment and ongoing management/scheduling/performance management of all staff.
Creating departmental objectives with seasonal variation and incentives.
Analysing data to evaluate customer satisfaction and trends in identifying areas for improvement.
Maximising occupancy at the highest rates and up-selling ancillary hotel services.
Performing on-going staff training- products/services, locality M/R, fire regs, HSE and customer services. 4 Compiling weekly/monthly MI reports as well as revenue forecasts to the BWI Boards.
Presented sales, revenue, and expense reports to the Board of Directors.
Provided reports, ad-hoc analysis, annual operating plan budgets, monthly cash forecasts, and revenue forecasts.
Supervising, collaborating, organising and implementing procedures with Building contractors,District Managers, RSM (Regional Service Managers), pertaining to BWI branding and marketing.
VIP guest movements, tracing needs and requirements, greeting them and listening to their feedbacks. 4 Conducting Due diligence, structuring, negotiating, feasibility, closing and monitoring service protocols, feedback’s, SOP’s and PIP’s. Asset related operations, Investments and Governmental obligations.
Efficient utilisation of economic and operational resources with availability of facilities in order to generate greater output to hotel organisations.
Supervision of major purchases of equipment and tools, replacement and supplies for smooth operations.
Generation of growth and consolidation of assets by increasing income, reducing expense costs, increasing productivity and training staff. Maintaining and renovating facilities, where applicable, as well as updating service systems, programs and procedures for pre-opening. KPI’s,SEO’s, MR,GOP,NOP,PI,LI.

Achievements/Projects-

Managed 2 hotels pre construction, (1 luxury hotel and 1 business hotel with restaurants and banquet facilities. Creating, conceptualising the pre-opening hotel checklist and concept design.
Sourcing local contractors, construction partners/vendors, securing permits.
Site cost evaluation and projection, manpower, materials, engineering feasibility reports, construction timetable, project initiators, and architectural building design measurements as per BWI.
Budget control and costing, layouts, installation methods and techniques. Safety compliances, addressing changes as per brand standards, working with regulatory bodies and inspectors to ensure compliance.
Market analysis, penetration index, search engine optimisations, security and surveillance, hotel brand message and voice board, PPC and social media ads. Sourcing tech solutions and experiential offerings for marketing and revenue growth.
Collaborated with building contractors, BWI brand team and owners during the renovation and refurbishment phase.
Reduced cost on the PMS and IT related equipments. Generating a gross profit of 36% (kitchen78%) with wages accounting for 20% of expenditure. Reduce food cost by 19% from Aug 2017 onwards. Reduced cost by 18% on maintenance expenses.
Restructured the Food & Beverage department and saved USD $30k pa. in payroll costs.
Developed monthly F&B traditional/online promotions-Afternoon Tea and Seasonal Vegetables.
Increased the sleeper-diner ratio from 21% to 27% running team member incentives at reception.
Incrementally increased revenues by USD $29k per month between August 2017 to February 2021.
Recused beverage costs by 0.6% to bring it in line with budgets.
Achieved 94% in the employee satisfaction survey December 2017-2019.
Achieved 90.2% across the Index in February 2018-2019 QA audit (94% in Food Safety and 91% In the annual BW audits).Conceived and executed the new Shisha Lounge at the BWI (Port au Prince).

Earlier Assignments

Welcome Group of Hotels and Resorts, GmbH, Dubai, UAE- 208 Guest Rooms- April 2015-April 2017

Hotel General Manager

Chelsea Group of Hotels and Hotel Apartments, Dubai, UAE- 338 Apartments- March 2010-April 2015

Hotel Resident Manager

Royal Zanzibar Beach Resort, Zanzibar, Tanzania / Mombasa, Kenya- 374 Villas- Feb 2009-Feb 2010

Cluster Director of Rooms and Revenue

Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok, Thailand- 393 Guest rooms- Nov 2007-Jan 2009

Rooms Division Manager

Waldorf Hilton, London, UK- 298 Guest rooms- Oct 2005-Oct 2007

Front Office Manager

Grand Hyatt, Delhi/ Hyatt Regency Kolkata, India- 390 and 233 Guest rooms- Oct 2002-Sept 2005

Asst. Front Office Manager