The question about who should lead the commercial effort has been a debate among hospitality professionals for a long time. Most hospitality leaders would agree that implementing Total Hotel Revenue Management has been more of a mythical destination than a reality, in part due to the territorial obstacles associated with merging the traditional sales, marketing, and revenue management roles into a singularly focused effort. But now the ultimate reset button, COVID-19, presents most organizations with a unique opportunity to build the organization that matches their vision, without the cost (and pain) associated with dismantling an existing team. The big question is: Who is the ideal commercial leader today and what is the most desirable career path an aspiring leader can take to get there?

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Kelly McGuire
Kelly McGuire
Principal Travel & Hospitality, ZS
Diego Fernandez Perez De Ponga
Diego Fernandez Perez De Ponga
Corporate Director Revenue Management Palladium Hotel Group
Ash Kapur
Ash Kapur
CEO, InTown Suites and Uptown Suites
Ira  Vouk
Ira Vouk
Hospitality Technology and Revenue Management consultant
Raul Moronta
Raul Moronta
CRME, CHIA, Chief Commercial Officer at Remington Hospitality
Jonathon Liu
Jonathon Liu
Director of Revenue & Marketing Strategy @ glh Hotels UK

A strong commercial leader should have a broad understanding of all three disciplines of Sales, Marketing and Revenue Strategy. Progressing through any of the disciplines is possible, however it is the underlying understanding how all three contribute to business success that is important. Having experience in multiple commercial tracks makes a more rounded leader, especially if those experiences are across different markets/business models. 

Klaus  Kohlmayr
Klaus Kohlmayr
Chief Evangelist and Development Officer, IDeaS
Max Starkov
Max Starkov
Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant
Trevor Stuart-Hill
Trevor Stuart-Hill
Founder and president of Revenue Matters
Scott Dahl
Scott Dahl
SVP Sales, Marketing, & Revenue Management at The Wurzak Hotel Group
Kevin Duncan
Kevin Duncan
VP, Product Management, Cendyn
Simone Puorto
Simone Puorto
Founder | CEO | Futurist

I've said many times that this might be just a semantic issue. Take marketing for example: a lot of what I do today would probably be more suitable for revenue managers. Some examples? Expedia Travel Ads. It's an advertising platform, but it's strongly connected to distribution. Who should run it? Someone like me or a revenue manager? Even more: metasearch ads. With these platforms moving from a CPC to a PPS model, they're -de facto-becoming distribution channels. Isn't this the realm of revenue managers? So my two cents is NOT that sales, marketing, and revenue managers should work together toward a common goal, but that we need to prepare the new generation of hoteliers to have a combination of skills from the three professions.

Silvia Cantarella
Silvia Cantarella
Revenue Management Expert and founder at Revenue Acrobats
Pablo Torres
Pablo Torres
Director at Teduka
Sharad Kapur
Sharad Kapur
Revenue & Distribution Strategist
Steven Rubin
Steven Rubin
Director of Hotel Asset Management at MetLife Investment Management
Chinmai Sharma
Chinmai Sharma
Global Head - Lodging, Ground & Sea, SABRE
Inga Latham
Inga Latham
Chief Product Officer at SiteMinder
Enzo Aita
Enzo Aita
Founder of FunnelTV The Travel Tech Channel
Federica Salvatori
Federica Salvatori
Revenue & Commercial Strategy and Founder of Federica Salvatori Consulting
Joe Ahmed Youssef
Joe Ahmed Youssef
EVP BI & Data Products, Hospitality, Amadeus
Oleksii Kapichin
Oleksii Kapichin
Revenue Management Expert
Harald Bindeus
Harald Bindeus
Commercial Leader | Marketing, Revenue Management, Sales |
IDeaS - A SAS Company

This World Panel Viewpoint is sponsored by IDeaS a SAS company
More information