Complex Director of Catering

HRI Hospitality - New Orleans, LA

Full-time - Senior

New Orleans, LA

About the position

The Complex Director of Catering at The Barnett Hotel and Maison Metier in New Orleans is responsible for leading the sales efforts to exceed banquet and catering revenues. This role involves strategic planning, execution, and revenue generation for all catering and convention services, ensuring that monthly sales goals are met while providing high-quality customer service.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Catering Manager(s) and Conference Services Manager(s) in achieving and exceeding budgeted goals in food, beverage, and room rental revenue, profit, and occupancy for the total hotel.
• Ensure Catering Manager(s) and Conference Services Manager(s) adhere to professional and timely correspondences, proposals, contracts, and follow-up.
• Responsible for accurate and timely production of the property catering pace report and catering productivity report.
• Responsible for the training and development of newly hired Catering Manager(s) and Conference Services as it relates to catering-specific topics.
• Work with the Director of Sales on the development of quarterly booking goals for Catering Manager(s) and Conference Services Manager(s).
• Work with the Director of Sales on the catering revenue and expense budget/forecast reports.
• Work with the Executive Chef and Food and Beverage team to ensure that Banquet and Catering Menus are creative, innovative, and priced appropriately for the market.
• Attend and actively participate in yield management meetings with the goal of optimizing the catering mix of business.
• Carefully review all catering contracts to ensure proper contribution to catering profit.
• Identify trends, research the competition's products, services, and pricing, and use it to develop strategic business plans.
• Work with Catering Manager(s) and Conference Services Manager(s) to ensure the optimization of room rental and audio-visual revenues.
• Actively participate in community and industry-related organizations.
• Monitor sales performance of Catering Manager(s) and Conference Service Manager(s) and coach and counsel toward success.
• Work with the Director of Sales on the completion of the Annual Marketing Plan and Quarterly Owner Review presentations.
• Partner with the Director of Sales to develop sales strategies for maximizing catering revenue.
• Partner with the Corporate Marketing Manager to develop promotions to drive catering revenue during need periods.
• Participate in management meetings to discuss budget and forecast.
• Conduct weekly sales calls to existing and new accounts, as well as uncover new business through various means.
• Build and strengthen relationships with existing and new accounts to enable future bookings.
• Arrange site inspections of the hotel for new accounts.
• Maintain accurate sales records in the hotel sales system to provide complete history and enhance future prospects.
• Respond to all sales inquiries within 24 business hours.
• Execute and support the operational aspects of business booked.
• Responsible for negotiating catering sales contracts and the implementation and setup as required.
• Actively and creatively up-sell each catering event to maximize revenue.
• Analyze historical, current, and future hotel/market trends and develop strategies to maximize function space occupancy.
• Partner with the operations team to coordinate customer specifications and effectively respond to customer issues.
• Adjust work schedule as needed to meet business demands, including early morning, evening, and/or weekend hours.
• Supervise execution of banquet events which may include working on weekends, evenings, or holidays.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent industry experience.
• Minimum 2-3 Years as a Director of Catering or Sr. Catering Sales Manager level with demonstrated wide-ranging knowledge of food and beverage and meeting room setup.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills including leading and participating in formal presentations.
• Strong negotiation skills and the ability to cultivate leads, build relationships, and achieve financial expectations.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to handle multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment.
• Extensive knowledge of all aspects of catering and conference services.
• Extensive knowledge of creative and profitable menu development.
• Strong computer skills, including Microsoft Office, Delphi, or other hotel sales systems.
• Understanding of budgetary and fiscal responsibility to the department.
• Knowledge of all operational areas of the property.
• Ability to provide strong leadership, mentorship, training, and coaching & counseling skills.
• Strong desire to deliver high-quality customer service.
• Detail-oriented and organized as it pertains to accuracy and efficiency.

Nice-to-haves

• Envision knowledge.