Come Together*

I am delighted to announce that we have now been able to align the Hotel Marketing Association with HOSPA, the Hospitality Finance, Revenue Management and IT Professionals Association, as part of a new management agreement. It’s an exciting new proposition for commercial specialists within the hospitality industry, one that many of ours and HOSPA’s communities will see as not only sensible, but already reflected in the microscale of their own daily tasks.

It’s always been a bit of a cock-fight inside the meeting room, with Sales & Marketing clashing with each other, let alone with Revenue Management and Operations. It was especially pleasing to hear the thoughts of the panel at a recent HMA event, led by Simon Francis of Flock – The Marketing Transformation Company, all of whom suggested that the last 12 months had seen a much healthier, positive working relationship between departments.

I’m personally of the belief that brands and hotels should be implementing change by creating a Commercial title into their organisation chart if they have not already. This role’s sole responsibility is to effectively project manage Sales, Marketing, Revenue Management and IT to ensure that they are focused on delivering what is required to meet the universal goals of the company. Too long has this title been slanted in name towards Sales or Marketing or both, resulting in caginess for either discipline and an imbalanced direction in strategy.

This Commercial role, however high and mighty it needs to be to allow for politics, succession and audibility within the Branded/Group sector or for clarity and focus in a single business unit, I hope will find this new management agreement between HOSPA and the HMA of particular relevance and interest.

I look forward to spending time with people and organisations that want to discuss ways in which they can participate in events, networking and content within the HMA and HOSPA in the wider context. I’d also like to mention the National Hotel Marketing Conference in May 2016 at which I hope to see many familiar and new faces.

* Headline inspired by the collaborations of George Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016)