Director Franchise Operations - North & West Europe (UK&I)

Job Summary

The Director Franchise Operations - North & West Europe (UK&I) works with a portfolio of open Hotels to proactively enhance performance and also works collectively with the New Hotel Openings team to ensure pre-opening hotels open in accordance with expectations.

This individual works with franchisees, management companies and hotel management teams to develop action plans and implement successful and measurable programs to assist in meeting Revenue, Product, Service and Brand requirements. 

They are expected to:

• Share good practice information on the use of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (WHR) programs and tools. 
• Advise on a host of sales and marketing topics, as well as product and service improvement (utilizing Medallia, CRM, and Count on Me! service culture).
• Work with other internal departments (Sales & Marketing, Revenue Management, Training, Central Operations, Architecture, Design & Construction, Sourcing & Sustainability, Finance, Business Development, Legal and Human Resources) to coordinate direction and support as needed. 
• They must be able to review, analyze and create a complete strategy for delivering brand value and hotel performance support for their portfolio.
• They should have excellent presentation skills and the ability to facilitate effective meetings with multiple stakeholders.

The objectives of the Director are aligned to our WHR strategic priorities and KPI's will be measured as follows:

• ENHANCE OUR OWNER VALUE PROPOSITION
  Brand engagement through Business Review Meetings
  Quality assurance 
  Guest feedback – OSAT, OSR, NPS
  Commercial contribution
  Accounts receivable
  Wyndham Rewards

• GROW OUR SYSTEM
  Property retention
  Business development referrals
  Brand compliance & training

• ADVANCE OUR VALUE-DRIVEN CULTURE
  Wyndham Green
  Wyndham People Standards     

Successful candidates must prove their right to work in the UK.

Responsibilities

Franchise Operations Support
•    Acts as a primary contact for hotel management companies/ owners regarding brand positioning, standards, programs/ requirements (incl. education), support departments regularly and consistently communicating with Principal Correspondents, Asset Managers, Market Managing Directors, Regional Directors and others representing hotel ownership. 
•    Works with Legal, Finance, Central Operations and Business Development to tackle issues related to ownership changes, insurance, monitoring and enforcement of outstanding hotel fees, and retention and renewal processes.
•    Uses performance reports to analyze and prioritize their portfolio based on opportunity to improve, creates action plans for Operations, supports and tracks trends/ KPI performance throughout the year and adjusts their plan accordingly.
•    Conducts Hotel Business Review Meetings. Prepares pre-visit documentation and analysis in advance.
•    Conducts on-property visits with the management/ ownership of the hotel, develops and records detailed action plans for implementation by the hotel in SalesForce. 
•    Follows up with all hotels within 30 days to ensure all action items have been implemented properly. Documents incomplete areas and distributes to hotel management/ ownership representation.
•    Coordinates, plans and conducts hotel level training, mandatory Leader compliance training, General Manager Orientation (HMP) and other programs developed as needs arise.
•    Ensures awareness of and assists with the deployment of brand related tools, training, programs and resources including current and future brand standards and potential budget/ investment assumptions.
•    Works directly with Central Operations/ Quality Assurance to ensure standards are properly met.
•    Assists hotels in maximizing the use of the Wyndham Community functionality to ensure proper service levels to all hotel guests resulting in increased loyalty including analysis of key Medallia statistics and Wyndham Rewards data to develop operational plans to improve in all areas identified.
•    Conducts consultations focused on overall Product & Service, compliance to brand standards, hotel sales and marketing opportunities.
•    Visits hotels as necessary to review revenue, product and service objectives, and Brand Standards, possibly completing multiple visits for hotels that do not meet revenue objectives.
•    Works with Revenue Management to identify hotels with revenue opportunities, and coordinate actions and messaging. Works closely with the hotel sales team to significantly improve top line performance and RevPAR Index trends, up to and including SWOT meetings with these targeted.
•    Prepares monthly activity reports and quarterly expense analysis.

Responsibilities (cont'd)

New Hotel Openings
•    Works with the New Hotel Openings team  to ensure a best in class opening process. 
•    Conducts frequent communication with the hotel's General Management, and team members. 
•    Works with the WHR Commercial and New Hotel Openings teams to ensure proper selling strategies in all group and negotiated segments. Uses key booking statistics to insure proper levels of post opening revenues.
•    Coordinates awareness and booking activity with appropriate Global/ Regional Sales representatives. 
•    Conducts pre-opening consultation and site visit. 
•    Ensures proper opening set up and training as it relates to brand standards and quality.

People
•    Executes directives of the WHR vision, mission, goals and objectives, and demonstrates through ongoing and direct motivation, communication, group dynamics and leadership.
•    Acts as an ‘ambassador’ for the company, by adopting Count on Me! behaviours and demonstrating WHR values (Integrity, Accountability, Inclusive, Caring & Fun) taking a positive lead to promote and represent the company and its brands.  
•    Represents the Company at industry events and networking opportunities. Leverages internal WHR leadership counterparts to ensure that their portfolio receives and implements the tools and programs needed in each respective property.
•    Ensures Wyndham Green and WHR philanthropic agendas contribute to the communities in which we live and operate.
•    Ensures compliance with Wyndham People Standards and promotes HR franchise resources.  

Scope/ Financial Responsibility

• This individual will have a broad liaison throughout the organization and externally at all levels and functions and will therefore forge and nurture strong relationships with decision makers at the highest level.
• This person will exercise a level of autonomy and their actions will have a significant impact. They will act as an ambassador for all departments as part of a unified WHR team and will be expected to identify, access and influence the necessary resources to drive business results. They are the most senior point of contact for key hotel/ management company stakeholders and therefore play an integral part in strengthening the Company’s value proposition and the growth of the organization in the region.

Abilities/ Key Competencies/ Skills

Alongside the professional competencies outlined below, the successful candidate will demonstrate the fundamentals of Wyndham’s Count on Me! Service Culture to be Responsive, Respectful and Deliver a Great Experience.  This will form the cornerstone of their approach as they carry out all tasks with the Count on Me! Building Blocks in mind;
Compassionate, Engaged, Dependable, Courteous, Inclusive, Hospitable, Prepared and Personalised.

• Influence - Possesses influencing skills to create a positive foundation for on-going relationships.
• Collaboration & Relationships - Initiates, builds, and maintains lasting professional relationships based on mutual respect and understanding, fostering a collaborative approach to working.
• Innovation - Takes an innovative and creative approach that applies the best fit solution for the situation in hand.
• Communication - Communicates clearly and effectively in writing and in person. Fosters an open and honest communication style and has strong presentation skills. Able to adjust communication style to various stakeholders.
• Analysis - Able to read, analyse and understand numerical or verbal data to assess a commercial situation and present a compelling business case based on real information.
• Business Acumen - Demonstrates good knowledge in commercial and financial fundamentals, is able to predict the impact of particular activities on the bottom line of the business. Engenders credibility and respect within the hospitality arena thereby enabling immediate recognition as a key player in the industry.
• Driving Results - Sets high goals for personal and group accomplishment, using measurement methods to monitor progress toward goal attainment, identifying and understanding issues, problems, and opportunities. Develops effective course of action and appropriate solutions. Makes purposeful observations and recommendations to create positive improvements for the team and/ or guest. Obtains and assigns resources to achieve desired results. Adjusts action based on changed priorities. Holds people accountable for results.
• Flexibility - Is adaptable and accepts change, is able to cope with an evolving business landscape applying the best fit solution to each unique situation.
• Valuing Diversity - Is able to consider, understand and empathize with the priorities and challenges of others. Shows the highest standards of honesty, integrity and discretion and creates trust with all team members, clients and customers.
• Leadership - Demonstrates the qualities of leadership and people management, and is able to motivate and inspire others.
• Consultative - Makes purposeful observations and recommendations to create positive improvements and advances for the team and/ or customer.

Experience/ Certificates/ Education

• The candidate would ideally be a graduate with a Hospitality degree, or have equivalent demonstrable professional experience.
• Experience in a similar role or a minimum of 3 years of experience as General Manager of a +110-bedroom economy or mid-segment hotel of an international hotel brand.
• Expertise in franchising or hotel management, and an in depth understanding of the hospitality sector are essential.
• Significant operations experience and commercial understanding.
• Significant experience in planning and development of business procedures and processes, budgeting and forecasting, especially with a multiple territory focus is required.
• Experience with direct P&L responsibility for revenue and GOP/ EBITDA.
• Experience working with multiple brands in a multi-unit or regional role is preferred but not required.
• Extensive senior leadership and people management experience.
• Fluency in English is essential.
• Proficiency in Opera Cloud and Revenue Management systems.
• Proficiency with SynXis is preferred but not required.

Organisational Relationships

The Director Franchise Operations - North & West Europe (UK&I) reports to the Senior Regional Director, North & West Europe.