SENIOR EVENTS & GROUPS MANAGER – Maternity Cover

The Mercure London Earls Court hotel is a newly renovated property in Southwest London. The property is a large conferencing & group hotel comprising a total of 508 keys, across two distinct brands within Accor, Ibis & Mercure. As the property is a combo there are 226 Ibis rooms & 282 Mercure rooms. The London Suite is the main ballroom for all types of events. The London Suite is extremely versatile and plays a pivotal role in the property’s overall performance. The London Suite is divisible into nine separate meeting rooms, which when combined can be one of the largest pillar free spaces in London for events up to 1200 guests. The F & B outlets in the property have been created by PARIS SOCIETY. The F & B space named Barnaby’s, is perfect for social events and either the Barnaby’s Kitchen or Barnaby’s Lounge Bar can be semi or completely privatised for groups, events or additional catering / meeting space for larger residential bookings/ functions.

The Senior Events & Groups Manager is responsible for managing a team of five in Events & Groups. Managing the team and their performance is key in this role. Ensuring enquiries are distributed, answered and held effectively. Working with the team to convert/contract business, plan and distribute BEO’s in a timely manner is essential for the operations team and overall success of events in house.  

There will be an individual focus on incoming enquiries that are complex, with higher numbers of guests / rooms and that are of a certain revenue value e.g. VIP events & groups, buyouts, large city wides, sporting events, awards dinners, multi day events etc.

The Senior Events & Groups Manager will support by coordinating and distributing the daily, weekly & monthly hotel BEO packs and as well as leading BEO meetings (or supervising a member of the team in delivery) - They will be responsible to communicate and provide feedback between the commercial and operational teams.  The Senior Events & Groups Manager will provide help and support to the team of five events professionals through coaching & mentoring, delivering training and leading by example when it comes to role execution and results. 

They will assist the Director of Sales & Marketing to energise and drive the team with closing days, demand generation weeks and other sales initiatives. There will be a focus on driving standards across the team which includes but not limited to; BEOs quality, maintaining & evolving E-proposals/proposals, data tracking (promotions & cross sells) and financials - post masters (PM’s), deposits payments & schedules and monthly hotel credit meetings.  The Senior Events & Groups Manager will provide excellent customer service during every element of the event or group enquiry process, taking the initial enquiry, negotiating rates, contracting and pre – event, during event and post event planning.

They will need to be dynamic and have good attention to detail coupled with strong selling, negotiation & organisational skills. Good communication skills are required to coordinate with relevant hotel departments as well as the customer to ensure a seamless and consistent high level of service throughout the sales & event cycle. They will recognise opportunities to maximize revenue through upselling, conversion, and drive repeat business. The Senior Events and Groups Manager takes personal responsibility to adhere to sales and event brand standards for enquiry handling, event planning, pre & post-event.

Duties:

• Hires, develops and retains a diverse workforce to deliver excellent product and services together with the Director of Sales and Marketing.  Creates and sustains a work environment that focuses on fair and equitable treatment and associate satisfaction to enable business results with the management support
• Supervises inbound enquiries from direct clients, agents, DMC’S & CVB. Delegates supervision of enquiries, through coordinator to team, managing response times, proposals, data entry into Delphi, activity tracking to conversion
• Assists team development, through BOB Meetings, BEO meetings, weekly catch ups and quarterly reviews for STIP Scheme
• Manages distribution on MICE platforms / Promotions and enquiry generation
• Builds the unit’s top line revenue by focusing the Event Planning team on the post-contractual sale of products and services. Maximises revenue by ensuring team up-sells contracted products and services to event planners and identifies opportunities for revenue maximization
• Manages the daily operation of Event Planning to achieve or exceed budget expectations.  Monitors wages and expenses and makes ongoing adjustments as needed to achieve goals.  Ensures accuracy of Forecast and Pace reports and works to provide excellent critiques for financial expenditure and departmental performance on a monthly basis
• May work with highly complex or high profile groups when financial impact will be significant.
• Works closely with the Director of Sales & Marketing on the Group & Catering Strategy for the hotel
• Leads the catering menu development process with Ops team and Head Chef
• Effectively manages client budgets to maximize revenue and meet client needs
• Managing the monthly, quarterly and yearly departmental target related too catering, room hire and group room nights/revenue
• Managing the teams overall SIP-Individual goal and collective team goal 
• Oversees the Event Planning function and related staff to ensure the planning and delivery of successful hotel events
• Ensures products and or services provided by Event Planning meet or exceed guest expectations and builds customer loyalty through product and or service excellence
• Displays leadership in guest hospitality, exemplifies excellent customer service and creates a positive atmosphere for guest relations

• Competitive salary
• Extra annual bonus or SIP Quarterly on team performance
• Entitle of 28 holiday days (bank holidays included) 
• Employee benefit card offering discounted rates in Accor Hotels worldwide
• Develop your talent through learning programs by Academy Accor
• Free Bonus Breaks Voucher
• Friends & Family Rates
• Eye Test Vouchers
• Private Healthcare 
• Opportunity to grow within your property and across the world
• Friendly working Environment
• Ability to contribute to local community and make a difference through our Corporate Social Responsibility activities, like Planet 21