Director of Sales - Hotel

The Director of Sales is a hands-on, revenue-driven leader responsible for maximizing group, business travel, and airline crew production for our property in Austin Town Lake. This role is heavily focused on active selling—personally prospecting, negotiating, and closing key account. 

Key Responsibilities;

Sales & Revenue Generation

• Proactively sell and close group, business travel, and airline crew business, with personal room-night and revenue targets.
• Develop and execute a comprehensive sales plan for assigned segments (corporate groups, SMERF, associations, sports, government, airline crew, and negotiated corporate transient).
• Respond to leads quickly and professionally, preparing tailored proposals, contracts, and presentations that emphasize location, service, and value over new-build product.
• Use displacement analysis and revenue strategies to protect high-demand dates while filling need periods.
• Collaborate closely with Revenue Management to optimize rate, space, and date mix across group and transient channels.

Market & Account Management

• Build and maintain strong relationships with key local, regional, and national accounts, including airline crew schedulers, travel management companies, consortia partners, and corporate travel managers.
• Leverage Sales and brand relationships to capture enterprise accounts, RFP opportunities, and multi-property deals.
• Conduct regular sales calls, client entertainment, site tours, and roadshows to grow account production.
• Act as the primary hotel contact for key airline crew and business travel accounts, ensuring service consistency and quick resolution of issues.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Serve as the on-property sales leader, partnering with the General Manager to set strategy, forecast, and pace targets.
• Provide coaching and direction to any sales/coordinator support, ensuring they follow the Way of Sales process and brand standards.
• Lead or actively participate in weekly revenue strategy meetings, sharing market intel and adjusting tactics as needed.
• Champion a sales-focused culture across the property, aligning front office, reservations, and operations on upsell and service priorities.

Brand, Systems & Process Expertise

• Demonstrate strong working knowledge of IHG systems, including but not limited to:
• Merlin (brand/enterprise resources, performance tools, promotions).
• Opera PMS (or current PMS) for group blocks, inventory, and rate loading.
• Delphi for Group, Catering and Volume Account bookings.

Guest & Client Experience

• Work with Operations to ensure groups, crew, and corporate travelers receive consistent, reliable experience.
• Personally greet VIP and high-value group contacts, especially for first-time or airline crew accounts.
• Anticipate and address any client concerns and use service recovery and value-adds where appropriate.

Qualifications & Experience

• 4+ years of hotel sales experience, including significant group and business travel background; airline crew sales or crew contracting experience strongly preferred.
• Prior experience with (Merlin, Opera PMS, sales tools, and the Way of Sales methodology).
• Proven track record of exceeding sales goals, securing corporate and group agreements, and growing market share in a competitive environment.
• Strong negotiation and contract skills, including understanding of displacement, attrition, and cancellation clauses.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and relationship-building skills; comfortable with both in-person and virtual selling.
• Proficiency with MS Office and hotel CRM/sales systems; experience with airline portals/TMC tools is a plus.