Abella Bezit
Dubai
Summary
Team player, growth-focused and accomplished hospitality professional with 15 years’ experience in directing all aspects of operations, sales, marketing and business development for hotels, OTA, wholesalers, and DMC across Asia, Indian Ocean, and Middle East.
4D distribution and revenue specialist
Instrumental in designing and implementing business operations and establishing policies and guidelines in multiple industries.
Repeated successes in recruiting and leading operation teams, sales teams, purchasing teams across multiple countries locally and remotely.
Expert in delivering excellent customer service and strengthening relationships with key stakeholders.
Instrumental in defining business objectives and supporting the organization to achieve its goals.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
Work History
AREA DIRECTOR LEISURE
Rotana Corporate Office
06.2022 - Current
- Accountable for the commercial strategy of 6 key leisure properties and for the support of 8 midscale hotels and apartments.
- Lead monthly business reviews and support as a key contact to General Managers to establish and drive their leisure strategy, enhance the product offering to match markets expectations.
- Enhanced communication between sales and revenue, fostering collaboration and cross-functional teamwork to achieve company objectives.
- Monitored regional performance metrics, providing timely feedback and implementing corrective actions when necessary to ensure goals were achieved consistently across all locations.
- Work hand in hand with the Area Revenue Director to analyze and present the hotel revenue performance (STR, forecast review) and increased revenue growth with the implementation of innovative marketing strategies and sales techniques.
- Conducted competitor analysis to highlight competitor strengths and weaknesses and forecast projected business.
- Plan and execute activation of new markets through brand roadshows and events with Key partners.
- Lead GSO office activities to reinforce product awareness across key markets through successful sales deployments in Germany, France, Russia, Kazakhstan and UK.
- 8% growth in RN 23 vs 19 and 18% growth in Revenue 23 vs 19
- 10% market penetration
- 2023 Budget exceeded by 4%
DIRECTOR OF SALES Europe
Darina Holidays
01.2022 - 06.2022
- Responsible for opening the European Market & Rest of the World - luxury offline, XML and Traditional Tour Operators
- Setting up the Europe sales team
- Setting & implementing the strategies for each market and working hands in hands with UAE properties to optimize conversion
- Attending/Preparing/sharing weekly yield and sales meetings
- Attending all major Travel & trade shows in France, Germany, Israel
- To date - 4 Major Operators signed with additional 60 millions AED sales from Europe.
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Seychelles Travel
01.2021 - 01.2022
- Responsible for planning and developing a vision and strategic plan for vaccination tourism and PCR testing solution and launch including the opening of the office in Dubai - full P&L responsibility and department head sourcing and recruitment
- Developed the revenue and pricing strategy to optimize sales through multiple channels for standalone and packaged products.
- Developed sales framework and operation cost efficiency of company resulting in $450 000 in monthly sales and 82% margin (+23% improvement MOM) – 31% operation cost reduction.
- Drove IT developments – implementations - Integration.
- Acquired and developed key relationship with major Indian Ocean hotel chains, tourism board, airlines and market travel agents – Israel, Turkey, GCC and Russia.
- Maintained and developed strategic partnerships with key suppliers from UK, Key wholesalers, OTAs and Tour Operators in ME and Europe and supervised the XML onboarding.
- 100% directly contracted suppliers
HEAD OF DATA MANAGEMENT & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Royal Vision Group (Hedge Fund)
01.2017 - 01.2021
- Responsible for setting up the sales and marketing department from recruiting, training, coaching and creating the company sales processes, reporting systems and CRM implementation
- Plan and conduct strategic market research to identify and secure new business development opportunities
- Led algorithm accuracy from 70% to 93% for trading decisions by guiding team on data analytics processes
- Attained company key account and first client institution worth 50M account management which resulting in overachieving targets by 135%.
HEAD OF CONTRACTING
Stuba
01.2014 - 01.2017
- Responsible for setting up the contracting team, data team from sourcing, recruiting, training, coaching across key UK destinations and drive the strategy to switch third party suppliers to direct contracts - spearheaded team 38 across UK, India, USA, Thailand and Indian Ocean.
- Strengthened a partnership approach with luxury hotel chains in UAE, USA and Europe.
- Designed and delivered performance updates, business reviews and business growth opportunities.
- Optimized efficiency of distribution channel by leading the IT product team and support them with connectivity.
- Designed rate and availability competitiveness reporting tools to improve rate competitiveness by 40% and acquired key channel managers and CRS within the B to B landscape.
- Revenue targets exceeded by 26%
- Provided effective leadership and guidance to managers across departments while creating and employing key management tools to optimize employees' performance, retention rate.
SENIOR MARKET MANAGER
Agoda HQ
01.2010 - 01.2014
- Established the contracting team office for Indian Ocean in Mauritius based in Bangkok (year 1 and 2), Argentina and Israel (year 2 and 3) to open 800 hotels within regions
- Organized events and workshops to train general managers and revenue managers on optimizing the use of company system/tools and encourage partners to invest
- Hired, trained, coached and led contract managers to achieve ABV, conversion and profit targets
- Established and implemented key processes for opening new markets as per Agoda standards and culture as key success steps across the organization - ''The conversion success'' training
- Created key performance metrics to monitor and optimize remote team results and increase ROI
- Established partnerships with DMCs, local travel forums in the destinations to drive qualitative traffic and establish the company as an additional key partner for hotels
- Worked closely with the product team on campaigns to refine traffic for each destination and improve conversion rates and ABV
- 100% third parties switched to direct contracts - 82% availability - 86% competitiveness, margin surpassed by 40%.
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Rotana Hotels & Resorts
01.2009 - 01.2010
- Opening team of the Highest hotel of the world, 482 rooms, 72 floors, reporting to the General Manager
- Responsible for implementing the sales and marketing strategies within all segments with a Mix of 60% Corporate and 40% Leisure (GCC-US-UK-German Market) with 18 Millions US Dollars yearly budget
- Development of new business and reinforce key account relationship within all segments
- Optimization of market share performance as well as weekly review of budgets, forecasts, and target goals
- Production and implementation of the annual sales and revenue plan in conjunction with the Director of Revenue
- Identify sales & marketing opportunities and ensure Sales planning strategies, tactics and activities are well implemented to achieve Sales and Marketing Targets
- Monitor team performance against strategy and delivery of sales tactics
- Actively Prospects and guides team in searching for attractive new business
- Negotiate major deals and support team negotiations
- Recommends to the General Manager all methods of maintaining, increasing the business volume which includes advertising, sales promotions, publicity and community relations.
Education
Post Graduate Diploma - Revenue Management
Glion Hotel School
01.2005
Bachelor's degree - Sales & Marketing
University of Nantes
01.2003
Skills
- Microsoft Expert
- Salesforce Administrator
- Opera/Micros
- SAP Finance
- Harvard managed mentor
- Data analysis / Business analytics
- Pricing strategy
- Strategic planning
- Organizational design
- Luxury Hospitality
- High Profile customer Management
- Change management
- P&L management
- Recruitment & performance
- Product Strategy Development
- Large & Remote team leadership
Other Experience
- Bar Manager - Groupe Barriere La Baule
- F&B Manager - Glion Hotel School
- Boutique Manager - Vito Bello
Hobbies and Interests
- Piano: Conservatoire de Casablanca
- Horse Riding: Silver Spur - La Ferme Equestrian
- Horse ball Team of Herbignac
- Bodyweight
Languages
French
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
English
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
Timeline
AREA DIRECTOR LEISURE
Rotana Corporate Office
06.2022 - Current
DIRECTOR OF SALES Europe
Darina Holidays
01.2022 - 06.2022
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Seychelles Travel
01.2021 - 01.2022
HEAD OF DATA MANAGEMENT & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Royal Vision Group (Hedge Fund)
01.2017 - 01.2021
HEAD OF CONTRACTING
Stuba
01.2014 - 01.2017
SENIOR MARKET MANAGER
Agoda HQ
01.2010 - 01.2014
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Rotana Hotels & Resorts
01.2009 - 01.2010
Post Graduate Diploma - Revenue Management
Glion Hotel School
Bachelor's degree - Sales & Marketing
University of Nantes
Similar Profiles
MA ESPERANZA HARPOOLMA ESPERANZA HARPOOL
Sportsbook Customer Admin Support at Caesar's Digital Corporate OfficeSportsbook Customer Admin Support at Caesar's Digital Corporate Office
Melissa TippleMelissa Tipple
Human Resources Assistant Chief Administrator at TSTECH Americas (Corporate Office)Human Resources Assistant Chief Administrator at TSTECH Americas (Corporate Office)
Angela SanchezAngela Sanchez
Pet Care Specialist at Pet Smart Corporate OfficePet Care Specialist at Pet Smart Corporate Office
MOHAMMED ANASMOHAMMED ANAS
Freelancer at Stefab.comFreelancer at Stefab.com
ERICK SAIMON MMBAGAERICK SAIMON MMBAGA
Ramp Operations Team Leader at Dnata, The Emirates GroupRamp Operations Team Leader at Dnata, The Emirates Group