Q. What’s your role now?
"Since the start of April, I am Regional Head of Revenue. While still looking after a small number of properties I am now also responsible of achieving results for the properties in my region (UK&I, plus Barcelona and CDG) with Bart reporting directly into me and Aart and Iracema for the UK properties they look after."
Q. How did you get to where you are?
"Now that’s a long story. I started my career in aviation and worked for nearly 13 years with Delta Air Lines, mostly in a GDS support role. I left the airline industry briefly to work as a Sales Manager for TotalStay, now part of WebBeds, in the Benelux.
After this I joined Monarch Airlines as a senior revenue manager analyst, made a 1-year exit to join Hilton as a Cluster Revenue Manager, before becoming a revenue manager back at Monarch, leading a team of 6. Unfortunately, Monarch went into bankruptcy, and I re-joined Hilton. I know, a bit of a yoyo. After about 2½ years I decided it was time to move on and joined Amaris Hospitality, a hotel management company. Then Covid hit and after spending time in my garden and later being let go by Amaris I joined the Orange family in January 2021."
Q. What do you enjoy most about Revenue Management?
"I just love the challenge to do better than previous year, to do better than your direct competitor and to do better than my predecessor with a certain hotel/flight route. And yes, this also works the other way. If somebody takes over a hotel/flight route and does better than me, I will be reserved happy for them 😉.
I say I’m not competitive, but my family disagrees, and I guess I will have to agree with their disagreeing. I still have a screenshot of the top 5 highest revenue operating flights from when I was at Monarch Airlines, with the top 3 being flights within my portfolio. Okay, these were flights to/from Sharm Al Sheik, but somebody else had that route before me and also after deducting costs on this old A330, they were still the highest profitable flights in history."
Q. What advice would you give to anyone wanting to pursue a career in Revenue Management?
"You’d need to like numbers and have a logic thinking mind. We’re very approachable and always willing to explain our thoughts for the decisions we make. So, if anybody has an interest, I’d say ask questions and if somebody is really interested in pursuing a career in Revenue Management, we may be able to book a slot and go into a little more details of the systems and tools we use and our thought processes."
Q. How can the Hotel Teams support the Revenue Managers in delivering great results?
"Keep us up to date with local information. You are on the ground, you know if a new hotel is opening, or one closing. You may know of an event happening within the vicinity that will draw extra demand, or an event being moved to a different date. So let us know, send us a quick message and we can adapt our strategy based on your info."
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