Director, Partner Relations (Hotels)

Ensemble Travel Group is a leading travel agency consortium of top-tier agencies throughout the U.S. and Canada that was established in 1968. Acquired by Navigatr Group in June 2022, Ensemble provides members with access to exclusive offers, unique hosted tours, partnerships and superior marketing opportunities with best-in-class suppliers, and proprietary travel platforms such as ADX that offers agents instant commission visibility, one click insurance and more to improve efficiencies and earnings. Ensemble maintains offices in Toronto and New York.

Ensemble is seeking a dynamic and results-driven Director, Director, Partner Relations (Hotels) to join our team and play a key role in shaping and expanding our hotel supplier partnerships. Reporting to the VP, Hotel, this leader will be responsible for cultivating and managing relationships with hotel suppliers, developing innovative programs to enhance supplier value, and driving revenue growth through strategic initiatives. The ideal candidate will possess a deep understanding of the hotel industry, exceptional relationship-building skills, and a proven ability to develop and execute supplier strategies that deliver measurable results. This is an exciting opportunity to join a forward-thinking organization at the forefront of the travel industry.

Strategy & Relationships

• Maintains and grows relationships with hotel suppliers and partners.
• Proactively identifies, pitches and secures new hotel suppliers; conducts onboarding.
• Cultivates chain/brand & property-level relationships that drive preferred program participation, special offers, enhanced commission and marketing leads.
• Develops and rolls-out new hotel supplier programs, communicating supplier value, opportunities and ROI offered by Ensemble.
• Collaborates with hotel suppliers on innovative programs, such as agent incentives and promotions; tracks, analyzes and reports outcomes. 
• Partners with events to plan and produce hotel supplier events.
• Align with Member Relations to ensure adoption of preferred hotel partner programs. 

Business Management

• Develops and implements soft dollar monetization strategies and tactics.
• Owns hotel supplier business reviews, including ongoing tracking and monitoring of key programs, course correction and overall delivery of hotel supplier value and profit targets.
• Sells marketing and advertising packages; partners with marketing to meet sales targets and ensures results for Ensemble hotel suppliers; leads hotel supplier post-mortems and marketing reviews. 
• Pitches hotel suppliers on programs that drive increased revenue for the company, including effectively communicating Ensemble’s successful track-record and vision for growth.
• Negotiates hotel supplier agreements and partnerships, meeting revenue and profit improvement targets.

Communications

• Audits current hotel supplier communications and develops go-forward strategy in partnership with marketing and advisor services. 
• Leverages existing communications channels and develops new ones to increase revenues.
• Oversees effective dissemination of hotel supplier product knowledge to our travel advisor network; works with advisor services to build awareness and share information through existing and new channels, like events, social media and proprietary technology.

Industry Leadership

• Maintains an in-depth knowledge of the hotel industries market conditions and competitive set; understands competitors’ strengths/weaknesses and takes actions to innovate and be best-in-class.
• Attends events as an Ensemble representative. 

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years' experience in procurement or travel managing hotel supplier relationships with budget accountability of $2M+.
• Proven track-record building best-in-class programs that have grown revenues or improved profits.
• Demonstrated experience successfully pitching new concepts and programs to diverse audiences at multiple levels; must have the ability to take a “yes” from a successful pitch and systematically build relationships, inspire confidence and deliver on promises.
• Polished and professional demeanor with experience as a company representative in high-profile and public environments.
• Product knowledge management experience, including synthesizing, organizing and disseminating supplier information to audiences across broad geographical territories.  
• Ability to convert relationship capital into revenue and profits for the company.
• Expert relationship manager with experience building and protecting brands.
• Experience from the hotel industry is a must.
• Experience in the luxury space an asset.

Professional Characteristics

• A builder who is entrepreneurial and creative with proven ability to go beyond traditional approaches.
• Has a roll-up your sleeves approach with the flexibility to move quickly and navigate across teams and levels both internally and externally. 
• Excellent communication skills; demonstrated ability to persuasively communicate at multiple levels.
• Exceptional listening skills with the ability to take constructive feedback and make positive change for stakeholders.
• Analytical and facts-driven. 
• Collaborative and confident with sound judgment; has a straightforward style and can quickly generate trust with stakeholders.
• Unquestionable integrity, high energy and a sense of urgency; embraces change. 
• A results-driven and forward-looking perspective; holds self and others accountable.

We are committed to providing employment accommodation in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If you require accommodation due to a disability at any stage of our hiring process, please advise us when completing your application.

We thank all candidates for their interest however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.