Senior Hotel & Villa Curator

Job Description Senior Hotel & Villa Curator 

Location Remote (US based)

Reporting to Curation Director

The Senior Hotel & Villa Curator (SHVC) will play a pivotal role in contracting a curated portfolio of hotels and villas across The Americas. As the on-the-ground representative for Mr & Mrs Smith in the region, the SHVC will personally visit and review properties, and actively participate in networking events and tradeshows. This role involves close collaboration with the Curation team and the Regional Hotel & Villa Partnerships Manager to identify and convert business opportunities, prioritize onboarding, and drive the commercial success of newly launched properties.

Responsibilities

• Product acquisition, through commercially and data-driven decision making – a 360 review including demand analysis, seasonal relevance, price sensitivity, protecting the existing collection performance, enhancing market competitiveness, and more.
• Contracting hotels and villas to keep up with high demand, negotiating the strongest commercials and additional advantages, such as exclusivity, preferential inventory access, and what Smith Extra the property can offer to guests. Plus, competitiveness for all launched products, including rates, offers, and inventory availability.
• Researching and proactively reaching out to hotel and villa owners, selling our story, leading all commercial discussions, conducting initial technical discussion, and starting the onboarding process.
• Build business cases and execute trips to meet expectations of 1-2 trips per month as well as regular attendance at industry events.
• Be the voice of newly launched hotels in The Americas, ensuring representation across the business and conversion optimization.
• Work closely with your onboarding pod, a cross-functional unit, to prioritize and optimize results for new launches.
• Always strive to find ways to make efficiency gains, however marginal; implement them seamlessly and communicate them effectively to the team.
• Compile bi-monthly reports to showcase progress and highlight pain points. Maintain a can-do attitude and be solution-driven.
• Regular attendance at trading meetings, partnership meetings, and participation in retrospective meetings.
• Help to resolve and/or mitigate key risks.

Requirements

• In-depth understanding and respect for the brand.
• A high level of commercial acumen, and an analytical and commercial mindset. 
• At least seven years of experience in senior-level negotiation and hotel-contracting experience, preferably within boutique or luxury travel.
• The ability to travel regularly to meet monthly expectations and targets. 
• The desire to track the success of the launch process with data and influence it.
• A growth-mindset with the flexibility to constantly question our ways of working and adapt our processes to ensure the best performance of all teams.
• An established network of boutique or luxury hoteliers and industry contacts.
• The ability to work in a fast-paced team, prioritising a busy workload, identifying and implementing effective strategies once stuck on a launch.
• An understanding of hotel distribution, rates and inventory management is a must.
• The ability to balance a busy workload efficiently and professionally.
• A can-do attitude, team player, collaborative individual with an adaptive mindset. 
• Attention to detail and exemplary follow-up.
• Strong Communication Skills: Capable of adapting communication styles to effectively engage with diverse audiences, both internal teams and external stakeholders.
• Confident Individual: Proactive in opening doors and pursuing hard sales opportunities with assertiveness and determination.
• Familiarity with Salesforce, Google Drive, Microsoft Office (Excel proficiency is a must), Asana and quick adoption of new databases and systems.
• Fluency in a second language is required, ideally Spanish.
• A driving licence and the ability to drive cars domestically or internationally.
• A passion for boutique hotels, embracing change and our pillars.