Conference Services Manager

About Us

The Sheraton Orlando Lake Buena Vista Resort is part of a complex of four Marriott Properties in the Lake Buena Vista area. The Sheraton is located in the center of the magic, right between Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. At HEI, we recognize that our enormous success is solely the result of our greatest asset: Our People. Where people work is a choice. Against that choice, our greatest obligation is to ensure day in and day out that our associates have the compensation and benefits they deserve and industry leading tools, training and support that they need to excel. At HEI, simply said, we honor the privilege of our associates choosing us by investing in and making them more valuable.

Don't meet every single requirement of this job? At HEI we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still send in your information. You may be the perfect candidate for this or for other roles within our organization!

We value U.S. military experience and invite all qualified military candidates to apply.

Compensation

Tipped/Service Charge Eligible? No

Discretionary Performance Bonus Eligible? No

Overview

Create the desired conference and meet clients’ needs through active communication, planning, and team leadership.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• An understanding of both monthly forecasting and the annual budget process.

• Understand the importance of raising the meeting planner evaluation scores and implement effective methods to ensure exceeding meeting planner satisfaction.

• Optimize room rental charges.

• Consistently participate in the re-booking of repeat business by having a track record of long-term client relationships.

• Actively participate in industry related organizations (NACE, MPI).

• Thorough knowledge of sales techniques including strong closing skills as well as negotiating skills.

• Comfortable with hotel site inspections and client presentations.

• Excellent creative skills to provide innovative set-ups, menus, and functions for groups. Ability to generate creative and innovative menus while working closely with Chef on pricing specialty menus.

• Work closely with banquet department on operations and event execution, ability to quickly evaluate alternatives and decide on a plan of action.

• Provide overall direction, coordination, and ongoing evaluation of operations. Detailed execution of all banquet event orders generated by the Convention Services Department.

• Experience providing Audio/Visual equipment and operating Audio/Visual as a profit center.

• Excellent knowledge of computers, specifically Delphi, Word, and Excel.

• Monitor group room blocks and pick up, generate detailed resumes for the operating departments.

• Ability to work with outside vendors to ensure client satisfaction for all events/groups.

• Comply with attendance rules and be available to work on a regular basis.

• Perform any other job-related duties as assigned.

Qualifications and Skills      

• Prior experience in the field of hospitality with specific experience in catering sales is essential.

• Minimum of one year within the Hospitality Industry required.

• Must have experience at a similar size and quality hotel.

• Must possess computer skills, including, but not limited to, use of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Delphi.

• Knowledge of sales skills, revenue management, training, and motivation of peers.

• Knowledge of hotel features, benefits, and competing hotels within the market.

• Ability to execute appropriate action plans.

• Knowledge of hotel operations, including marketing plans, security and safety programs, personnel and labor relations, preparation of business plans, repairs, maintenance, budget forecasting, quality assurance programs, hospitality law, and long-range planning.

• Ability to work effectively under time constraints and deadlines.

• Effective verbal and written communication skills. Ability to adapt communication style to suit different audiences, such as effectively communicating with supervisors, coworkers, public etc.

Benefits

HEI Hotels and Resorts is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.