From Marketing Assistant to Director: My Hotel Group Success Story

Director of Marketing at Paramount Group of Hotels.

From 2000-2007, I worked at Paramount Group of Hotels. Initially I was employed as Marketing Communications Manager and worked my way up to the position of Director of Marketing.

A Fantastic Team

I learned the hotel craft at Paramount Hotels as it was my first role in hospitality, an industry that stuck! This was a fantastic team and office environment and I made many life-long friends here. They say you need to be cut out for the hotel business, which I agree with! Some of the best hoteliers, sales managers and revenue managers that started at Paramount are still at the top of the industry today.

21 Hotels in 2007

During my time, I was responsible for strategic and tactical marketing for 21 individual hotels as well as group-wide activity. Day-to-day, I managed the marketing budgets, helped achieve group sales targets and maximised return on investment. We positioned and promoted the brand in the four-star short break, conference, corporate, wedding, leisure and golf markets.

Mastering the Art of Marketing

My Paramount days were pre e-commerce. I honed the skills of copywriting and promotions through national newspaper ads, loyalty programs and printed brochures.

Hotel photoshoots, direct mail and sales literature etc. were at the core of our marketing– driving in-bound calls to the call centre. Our sales team carried with them the collateral I created, to sell big conferences and corporate accommodation to big businesses.

On being made Director of Marketing, I wrote the group’s first comprehensive marketing plan. On paper, I aligned the marketing objectives to the business objectives–something that, remarkably, hadn’t been created before. Now in my late 20s, I was responsible for £100K marketing budget (big money back then!) and set big targets in short breaks booking revenue, something I’m still delighted I achieved.

Creativity sells.

I helped create the group’s first website and was a regular presenter at the annual internal conference. One team-building conference video I created was used to secure funding from our venture capitalist owners–perhaps one of my proudest moments.