Bilingual Director, Hotel Openings and Transitions - CALA (Americas)

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POSITION SUMMARY

The Director, Hotel Openings and Transitions - CALA, is the Department Head for the Hotel Openings and Transitions Team in CALA as well as a key member of the Continent Lodging Services organization. The Director will lead the overall sustainability and success of the Hotel Openings and Transitions Team, including financial success, partnering with hotel leadership, HMSS leaders and CALA regional stakeholders. The Director, Hotel Openings and Transitions will lead overall team strategies and will be accountable for the team's long team results. This position will be responsible for managing hotel openings and transitions across all Marriott International brands in CALA. In addition, responsibilities will include partnering with Legal, Global Asset Management, MBS, OFS, Contract Administration, CALA Regional team and other stakeholders in the opening and transition process including the on the ground hotel teams executing the opening process. The Director will also be responsible for long term owner relationships prior to the official kick off of the hotel opening process.

JOB FAMILY CORE WORK ACTIVITIES

Expected Contributions

* Deploys and Manages the Hotel opening strategy aligning all key stakeholders to ensure an effective Hotel Opening or Transition.

* Consults with managed and franchise accounts executives/AVP's, CLS discipline leaders and other internal stakeholders to identify trends, successes and areas of opportunity.

* Represents the Hotel Openings and Transitions team as a key partner on the CALA Regional team.

* Reacts to the changing market, hotel and team dynamics to support the team's success and distribution of workload/assignments. Identifies trends, gaps or patterns in business process and lead strategies to improve product quality, service delivery and financial performance.

* Supports long term team and department goals and strategies.

Managing Execution/Building Relationship

* Provides recommendations and performance updates to AVPs, CLS leaders and OFS about the current and future state of support programs provided by the hotel opening and transitions team.

* Develops, implements and sustains various communications plans to drive awareness and support of the team.

* Monitor's team's performance results, financial results, and appropriate metrics to identify and manage business and financial risks.

* Communicates regularly regarding forecast and strengthen relationships and connectivity between groups/departments (Contract Administration, Global Asset Management, Franchise Operations).

* Educates department on brand updates and discipline specific initiatives that will assist the team with their transition processes.

* Manage high profile manage to franchise/brand to brand/divestiture/relicensing projects as needed.

* Provides proactive guidance and direction, communicates next steps, and assists with organized process flow via use of effective technology for a remote team.

* Serves as escalation point of contact for properties, above property leaders, training resources and opening managers.

* Facilitates and leads department meetings, calls, webinars, training sessions, etc.

Business Functional Goals

* Manages the distribution of workload and drive overall team efficiency and performance.

* Assist with the annual budgeting and rate calculation process for the transition support programs.

* Partners with HMSS Senior Leaders to drive overall department business goals and objectives.

* Leads recruiting process for open positions.

* Conduct observations of team members and deliver timely feedback to develop those team members.

* Identifies additional training opportunities and development plans to attain highest level of expertise.

* Lead problem resolution discussions with hotel and individuals to drive performance and achievement goals.

Administration

* Attend and participate in meetings representing the Continent Lodging Services Team.

* Maintain, distribute, and update all electronic documents and websites pertaining to transitions.

* Champion transition related directives and strategies and educate all applicable stakeholders.

* Execute and communicate annual revisions of FDD, brand standards, and Quality Assurance program.

* Identify ongoing transition needs.

* Act as liaison to owners & the management company.

* Perform other duties as assigned to meet business needs.

MI Managed to Franchise Managed Transitions

* Develop and maintain strong relationships with internal stakeholders assigned to process transitions (GAM, Legal, Information Resources, Revenue Management, Global Sales Team, Customer Care, Marketing & eCommerce, FOSSE/FSPMS/GPMS, MARSHA Reservation Team, Credit Card Ops, GPOS, Finance, Contract Compliance)

* Act as a Corporate Representative for the MI managed team and the incoming franchise management company.

* Facilitate the due diligence process and coordinate with MBS, Owner Reporting, Revenue Management, and Marriott's Global Sales Organization

* Provide direction to the ownership, market and senior leadership through policy interpretation.

* Engage the Shared Service Teams regarding offerings for incoming franchise management company.

* Lead weekly calls with the hotel team and incoming management company to maximize communication throughout the transition.

* Coordinate the additional support teams for the transition, inclusive of Learning & Development and OSR.

* Communicate transition activities to Area Vice President and Franchise Vice President.

* Conduct evaluations of the transition process, provide feedback and recommendations.

Brand to Brand Transitions

* Responsible for the brand to brand conversion process including coordination with internal stakeholders, business applications, pms installation and onsite training.

* Review the brand conversion process and provide recommendations.

* Facilitate bi-weekly conference calls with hotel team, above property team, and key Marriott teams

* Initiates process for the hotel to be created under the incoming brand's new MARSHA code and property unit number

* Coordinate the build out of internal Marriott systems (EPIC, Pricing Account Services, Marriott.com, OneYield, etc.)

* Provide guidance and direction on the de-identification of existing brand and identification of the new brand

* Implement brand training schedule

* Act as onsite escalation contact for the week for brand conversion.

Hotel Terminations

* Responsible for system exit process including brand integrity, guest service, and data management to ensure Marriott managed and Franchise managed hotels exit properly.

* Review divestiture process annually with legal.

* Direct all facets of the divestiture, including process communication, transition timeline, communicate to all departments associated with the transition, inclusive of area cluster teams, Marriott Global Sales, Area VP/Directors.

* Facilitate, direct and coordinate IR to ensure access and hardware removal for Marriott proprietary systems.

* Provide written documentation to the owner and the management company coordinating action steps to for the divestiture per the terms of the Termination Agreement.

* Facilitate conference calls with the stakeholders of the hotel to review exit process, enforce rules of engagement, negotiate and facilitate data requests, and ensure de-identification is completed.

* Manage and facilitate communications and the process within Marriott regarding divestitures, closing of sales and reservation systems, guest notifications, shared services, removal of proprietary items, energy contracts, and data requests.

* Partner with Marriott Rewards Redemption Department and Marriott's Legal Department to provide data content for inclusion in the term agreement. Provide direction to incoming management company per the signed determine Rewards Redemption Rate information for the Termination Agreement.

* Lead Hotel Exit Walk to ensure de-identification in collaboration with Regional designee and connect hotel management. Coordinate follow up to ensure outstanding proprietary items are removed from a non-Marriott branded hotel.

* Act as liaison for hotel ownership for problem resolution associated with the transition.

* Foster relationships with MI Area VPs/Directors, and owner/franchisee regional contacts of assigned transition hotels.

* Manage relationships with owners and management companies, which will improve adherence to process.

Management Transition Support/GM Activate

* Facilitate with the transition and/or creation of SFAWeb licenses.

* Obtain and review shared services expenses with incoming Management Company. Facilitate conference calls with respective discipline and communicate if service will continue or be canceled. Ensure Shared Service is properly executed through the terms of the agreement.

* Communicate with Marriott's Global Sales on the proper action steps to transition the hotel from their service.

* Facilitate conference calls to review the EID creation process and business application registration for the incoming management company.

* Provide recommendations for a successful transition, including the use of the Technical Training Service (Full service only) by the incoming Management Company.

Hotel Openings

* Oversee Critical Path and Countdown Process for all hotel openings

* Ensure Training is coordinated and resources are identified

* Conduct hotel redenies visits to ensure hotel fully expresses the brand on opening day

* Coordinate with all key opening stakeholders (CLS, Regional Team, Global Design, Brand, Asset Mgt, Pre Opening Sales) during the process

* Ensure all Brand Training material is up to date and Brand information is properly represented in the critical path and countdown

JOB SPECIFIC SKILL REQUIREMENTS

* Negotiate issue resolution.

* Strong Project Management skills, able to manage several projects at once.

* Strong Process Management skills.

* Possess excellent owner relationship skills.

* Complete working knowledge of Marriott systems: MARSHA, FOSSE, PMS, OneYield, MRDW, Outlook, etc.

* Possess substantial knowledge in Microsoft Office programs as well as the ability to navigate quickly through these programs to help produce results in a timely manner.

* Experience in providing a team direction and performing responsibilities via influence ability.

* Maintain a working knowledge of brand standards across all seven Marriott brands, job descriptions and culture.

* Demonstrate a working knowledge of pricing and yield management.

* Ability to lead a remote team.

* Exhibit an excellent analytical capability in operations and customer research data.

* Maintain excellent consensus-building, persuasion, and communication skills (written and verbal).

* Exhibit effective public speaking and presentations skills.

* Present ideas, expectations and information in a concise, well-organized way.

* Actively support the development, training and mentoring of associates.

* Manage the "quality" process in areas of guest service and associate satisfaction.

* Establish measure and monitor associate learning processes.

* Ability to manage upward, ability to lead and influence change.

* Effectively communicate to several levels of the organization.

* Exhibit excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills.

* Exhibit effective listening skills and willingness to resolve issues in a positive manner; encourage diversity of ideas.

* Demonstrate account management skills across an organization.

* Strong hotel/ market experience and/or knowledge with a familiarity of Marriott lodging products/ brands/ hotel operations.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Education and Experience

* Spanish required

* Portuguese preferred

* Luxury experience preferred

* Bachelor's Degree preferred

* Travel 90% of the time

* Plantation FL, CALA Regional Office

Marriott International is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture. Marriott International does not discriminate on the basis of disability, veteran status or any other basis protected under federal, state or local laws.