Job Roles
Neil Braude
Director of Revenue. The Cavendish, London. Training & Qualifications: Diploma in Hospitality Management, On-the-Job Neil’s grandparents owned a hotel in Cape Town before he was born. ‘Maybe hotels are in my blood,’ he says. But what he thought was just going to be a nice, easy job walking around talking to people turned out to be a vocation involving hard work and long hours. It can’t be too bad. Neil hopes to one day become the General Manager of a small London property. Maybe it’s the three ‘really good’ GMs he credits with guiding him through his career. For now, Neil holds the key position of Director of Revenue of the 4-star Cavendish, London, essentially deciding the best price for a room at any given time using the hotel’s electronic revenue management system. ‘My role has changed a lot in the last 18 months due to the economy as we can’t rely on people coming to London just because it’s a great city. So I get involved in the marketing of the hotel including dealing with the online travel agent, ebookers. com, to discuss promotions we can add to their website. I also work with the Sales Team and of course, our Operations Team, who should know how many guests to expect so they can have the right number of staff ready to meet their needs.’ Changing technology is what makes his job so exciting. ‘Revenue is influenced by technology, through websites and even iPhone apps. All this is changing the way hotels do business, and it’s a great time to be involved.’
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