Senior Catering Manager - Wedding Specialist

Senior Catering Manager - Wedding Specialist at Raffles Hotels & Resorts

Join the team responsible for crafting a fresh landmark that emphasizes cultural appreciation among colleagues and the pursuit of greatness. At Raffles Boston, we recognize the immense worth of our distinct cultural heritage, and we are dedicated to ensuring that it is comprehended and embraced by each team member. This commitment begins the instant a prospective colleague connects with us and extends throughout their entire journey with the hotel.

The Sr. Catering Sales Manager - Wedding Specialist is responsible for effectively soliciting and becoming familiar with all accounts in his/her market segments. He/she is also responsible for prospecting and closing on assigned accounts/territory to positively impact hotel revenues. Primary market includes handling of wedding related inquiries and leads, driving conversion on this business and management of logistics.

• Attend all required departmental meetings.
• Develop a full working knowledge of the operations of the hotel, including Food and Beverage, Guest Services and Reservations.
• Develop a complete knowledge of company and department sales policies and SOP’s, and ensure knowledge of and adherence to those policies by the sales team.
• Invite clients to the hotel for entertainment, lunches, and tours.
• Assist in implementing special promotions relating to direct sales segments, i.e. parties, sales blitzes, etc.
• Assist in the preparation of required reports in a timely manner.
• Conduct a professional, thorough site inspection of the hotel with clients, exhibiting key features and benefits of the property.
• Use your property’s computerized sales management system to manage the hotel’s business, including (but not limited to) generating reports, entering business, blocking space and building accounts.
• Meet and greet onsite contacts.
• Develop networking opportunities through active participation in community and professional associations, activities and events.
• Review meeting planner evaluations with the Director of Catering to ensure that issues receive follow-up.
• Prepare Event Orders (EOS) as per client needs, as assigned.
• Prepare Event floor plans as per client needs, as assigned.
• Responsible for meeting and exceeding personal sales food, beverage and rental revenue goals, monthly, quarterly and yearly.
• Develop existing clients and effectively solicit new sales prospects and former clients for the purpose of selling catering services and banquet space.
• Specifically handle the wedding market and secondarily manage social and corporate catering market.
• Develop list of prospective local clients through sales calls, sales blitzes, referrals or inquiries.
• Discuss catering requirements, calculate costs, negotiate price and prepare sales proposals, suggest menu modifications in response to customer needs, and up-sell services and resources to clients whenever possible.
• Solicit and maintain ongoing contact with active accounts to promote repeat business; continuous contact with former accounts to identify the need for additional catering services and to solicit repeat business.
• Promote catering services, food and beverage and banquet facilities through direct client contact to maximize profits from food & beverage revenues and meeting room rental.
• Maintain ongoing relationships with hotel clients and negotiate contracts and agreements.
• Establish client base of organizations, associations, social and corporate businesses through direct outside and inside sales effort.
• Clearly communicate details of events to client and hotel departments via banquet event orders and internal meetings.
• Conduct tours of the hotel function space and guestrooms; entertain qualified potential clients.
• Present for client events at the hotel to insure a smooth delivery of arrangements.
• Accurately forecast individual booking revenues and cancellations; accurately track consumption on all bookings.
• Assist the client in menu planning; coordinate food, beverage, meeting room set-up, and other services as requested by the client; ensure all requirements are communicated and completed to the clients specifications.
• Respond…