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;

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.