Hotel Reservations Manager

About the Company

At Kuoni Tumlare, we deliver truly inspiring and innovative solutions and experiences that create value both for our Partners and Society at large. Our wide portfolio of products and solutions is built on 100+ years of destination management experience. Our solutions include series tours, technical visits, educational tours, Japanspecialist travel consulting, as well as meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions. Our product portfolio includes MyBus excursions at destinations as well as guaranteed departure tours devised and delivered by our Seat-in-Coach specialists, Europamundo (EMV) and MyBus Landcruise. We cater to a wide range of customer needs in close collaboration with our trusted suppliers and powered by our team of destinations experts - enabling us to make a real difference to the world.

About the Role

The Hotel Reservation Manager plays a pivotal role in leading the Hotel Reservations team, managing the staff responsible for booking, negotiating, and coordinating hotel services across destinations. This role ensures seamless execution of daily reservation activities and long-term strategic initiatives by guaranteeing service quality, efficiency, compliance, and customer satisfaction. Acting as a key link between strategy and execution, the Hotel Reservation Manager fosters strong relationships with hotel partners, optimizes hotel allotments, and ensures that processes, people, and performance are aligned to achieve business excellence.

Responsibilities

Business & Process Management

• Responsible for the Hotel Reservations team, overseeing daily activities to ensure service quality and alignment with market needs.
• Plan and monitor hotel reservation activities on a seasonal, monthly, and weekly basis, ensuring proactive follow-up on deadlines and consistency with company strategy, market trends, and customer expectations.
• Oversee hotel allotments to maximize availability, profitability, and operational efficiency.

People Management

• Lead, coach, and support the reservations team to achieve high performance.
• Foster engagement, collaboration, and open communication, ensuring clear information flow, constructive feedback, and effective alignment within the team and with other stakeholders.
• Support team development through continuous coaching, feedback, and recognition to build a high-performing and motivated team.
• Analysis & Performance Optimization
• Proactively monitor and analyse KPIs, SLA adherence, pending bookings, overall costs, volumes, and margins to identify strategic improvement opportunities and guarantee excellent quality standards.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to optimize hotel supplier costs, drive revenue growth, and maximize profitability.
• Lead the development and implementation of lean standard procedures to enhance operational efficiency, ensure compliance, and foster operational excellence through data-driven decision making.

Reporting Structures and Key Relationships

• Reporting to the General Manager
• Working closely with Hotel Procurement Manager
• Daily interaction with all local departments, European Destination Offices and Worldwide Sales teams

Key Activities

• Maintain deep knowledge of the hotel market, including trends, customer expectations, and company policies.
• Plan hotel reservation activities in advance, ensuring allotments and pre-bookings are managed efficiently.
• Schedule and oversee hotel booking activities according to deadlines set by HQ.
• Ensure adherence to reservation procedures by both Team Leaders and team members through regular audits and monitoring.
• Facilitate clear and effective communication with the General Manager, other departments, and the team.
• Act with a dual focus on customer satisfaction and compliance with company policies, maintaining strong relationships with Sales and hotel partners.
• Manage the team and continuously monitor workload allocation, providing support, assessing efficiency, and tracking KPIs.
• Ensure new staff members are effectively onboarded and trained to foster a healthy and collaborative team environment.
• Analyze team performance using company tools, identify development areas, ensure adherence to deadlines and SLAs, and monitor key targets while optimizing team performance to maximize margins and quality.
• Handle escalations and complex hotel reservation issues, ensuring timely and effective resolution.
• Need to ensure full oversight of all hotel payment processes and compliance with hotel cancellation policies to avoid any penalties.
• Identify opportunities to enhance overall team performance, hotel allotment management, and reservation processes.
• Promote a culture of accountability, proactivity, and excellence, encouraging innovation and problem-solving across the team.
• Support cross-functional initiatives to optimize hotel operations, improve service delivery, and enhance overall customer experience.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in hotel reservation management is essential.
• Strong network of hotel contacts and well-established relationship across the hospitality sector.
• Proven leadership skills, with experience managing and developing high-performing teams.
• Excellent analytical skills, with the ability to monitor and interpret costs, volumes, and performance metrics.
• Experience in process improvement, lean operations, and operational excellence initiatives.
• Effective communication and stakeholder management skills across multiple departments and regions.
• Ability to plan, prioritize, and execute operational activities.
• Strategic mindset with a focus on efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction.
• Fluent in English and Italian; additional language skills are a plus.

What We Offer

• Opportunity to work in an international environment.
• Diverse & Inclusive culture.
• Learning and training opportunities for growth.
• Dedicated Employee Engagement Activities.
• Flexible & Hybrid Working.