Catering and Conference Services Manager

Role Overview

Catering and Conference Services Manager at Marriott. This is a sales and operations role responsible for contracting, closing, and delivering local catering and social business while achieving revenue goals and ensuring service excellence.

Role Purpose

The Catering and Conference Services Manager contracts and closes local catering and social business, turns over business promptly for quality service delivery, achieves catering revenue goals through active upselling, implements brand service strategy, and drives customer loyalty through service excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Sales Management

• Manage sales efforts for the hotel including local corporate and social catering.
• Work collaboratively with off-property sales channels (Sales Office, Area Sales, EST) to ensure sales efforts are coordinated, complementary and not duplicative.
• Respond to incoming catering opportunities for the hotel.
• Identify, qualify and solicit new catering business to achieve personal and hotel revenue goals.
• Understand the overall market including competitors' strengths and weaknesses, economic trends, and supply and demand dynamics.
• Close the best opportunities for the hotel based on market conditions and hotel needs.
• Use negotiating skills and creative selling abilities to close business and negotiate contracts.
• Design, develop and sell creative catered events.
• Maximize revenue by upselling packages and creative food and beverage offerings.
• Develop menus that drive sales.

Operations & Execution

• Execute and support operational aspects of booked business including generating proposals, writing contracts, and managing customer correspondence.
• Manage catering sales revenue and operations budgets.
• Provide forecasting reports.
• Ensure successful performance by increasing revenues, controlling expenses and providing a return on investment for the owner and company.
• Develop a close working relationship with operations to ensure execution of strategies at the hotel level.

Customer Service & Relationship Management

• Interact effectively with sales, kitchen, vendors, competitors, local community, catering associations and other hotel departments to ensure guest satisfaction.
• Execute and support the company's Customer Service Standards and hotel's Brand Standards.
• Execute exemplary customer service to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty by assisting customers and ensuring their satisfaction before and during their program or event.
• Serve customers by understanding their needs and recommending appropriate features and services that best meet their needs and exceed their expectations while building relationship and loyalty.
• Gain understanding of the hotel's primary target customer and service expectations; serve customers by understanding their business, business issues and concerns, to offer better business solutions prior to and during the program or event.

Guest Issue Resolution & Brand Standards

• Participate in and practice daily service basics of the brand.
• Monitor effective resolution of guest issues that arise as a result of the sales process by creating mechanisms to channel issues to property leadership and other appropriate stakeholders.

Additional Responsibilities

• Perform other duties as assigned to meet business needs.

Qualifications & Experience

• High school diploma or GED with 2 years of experience in sales and marketing, guest services, front desk, or related professional roles.

OR

• 2-year degree from an accredited university in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or related major with no work experience required.

Additional Information

Marriott International is an equal opportunity employer, welcoming all and providing access to opportunity. The company actively fosters an environment where the unique backgrounds of associates are valued and celebrated and is committed to non-discrimination on any protected basis including disability, veteran status, or other basis protected by applicable law.