Meet the HSMAI Awards Europe 2023 Winners!

The winner of the Marketing Talent of the Year award is dynamic and result oriented, and has a proven track record of success. She has developed and executed comprehensive marketing strategies, driving substantial revenue growth.

She has demonstrated marketing initiatives, development and implementation of cooperative marketing programs, and has played a pivotal role in achieving a consistent 20% year-over-year revenue growth through innovative multi-channel campaigns targeting both B2B and B2C audiences. The winner is Marion Capelli, Director of Global Marketing at Preferred Hotels & Resorts!

The winner of the Sales Talent of the Year award is a person with true passion for the hospitality industry. She is not shy to take on additional responsibilities and has a drive for results.The winner has a solid understanding of the industry, has shown initiative and creativity, and delivers quality of service and an excellent understanding of the clients needs.

The winner has explored new ways, and uncovered new segments to increase market share. As a result, the winner achieved a +100% increase of confirmed groups and meetings business for some of her accounts.

The winner also took on the co-lead of bringing the sports industry closer and building relationships with key clients. Having in mind to support the hotels in developing this segment, the winner recorded a collection of insightful Podcasts with sports industry experts, that will be accessible to more than 6000 hotels worldwide. The winner is Sophie Muller, Key Account Director at IHG Hotels & Resort!

The winner of the Revenue Management Talent of the Year has shown dedication, creativity, and leadership that has significantly contributed to success. She has demonstrated unparalleled creativity and initiative in the role, an innovative approach to rollouts, auditing, and process improvement initiatives, and has shown a keen understanding of revenue systems’ impact on sales performance.

The winners focus on alignment and improvement underscores her role as a catalyst in driving the evolution of the revenue management practices on a global scale. The winner is Marina Maydanyuk, Revenue System Supervisor at The Club by RHG

The winner of the Best use of Employer Brand Award is a highly innovative brand, and one of the first to quote themselves as lean luxury hotels.

Through regular surveys among their employees, and during the hiring process, they found out where the needs and wishes of the employees were, and created an employee campaign to attract the right applicants.

The aim of the campaign was to show their brand as more than just a traditional employer, and to demonstrate that the hotel industry is no longer as outdated as its reputation. The campaign also underlined the values the brand stands for: Individuality, courage and togetherness, and that they were looking for the most diverse. The result was an increase of 25% applications across all age groups and locations.

Their employee campaign “Ready for a new Tattoo” was fun, innovative and completely on brand. The winner is Ruby Hotels!

The winner of the HSMAI Europe Sustainability Award is a property with a clear plan and implementation of different sustainable practices, such as reducing water usage, energy savings, use of recycled materials and a highly effective waste management system. The winning property also measures their results, by calculating and monitoring their carbon reduction and are constantly working on reducing their emissions.

Alongside their effort to become more sustainable they also balance the cultural heritage their property represents in a beautiful way. The winner is Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam, Accor.

The winner of the Sales Professional of the Year award is an inspirational and creative leader who has overperformed on her target consistently. Just on the activity level, the winner has overperformed by 200%, and the leadership style has inspired the team to adapt this. The winner has also shown a high level of creativity in ways of building relationships with customers, using storytelling, games and surprising twists that makes the customers remember him/her.

The winner also started a successful network with decision makers within travel with sustainability themes, where lectures from different participants in the network help inspire each other to develop travel to become more sustainable. The winner is Tina Käll, Corporate Sales Director, Strawberry (formerly Nordic Choice Hotels) Sales Cluster, Stockholm

The winner of the Revenue Optimization Professional of the Year award has, with her contributions and achievements in revenue management, significantly impacted the organisation. The winners leadership style and project management skills has motivated the team to amid tight deadlines while ensuring the continuity of day-to-day operations, and has also fostered a positive and collaborative team culture.

The winners ability to communicate and support the delivering of complex revenue strategies into clear and compelling narratives has significantly contributed to successful presentations and strengthened relationships with stakeholders. The winner is Jemma Hussain, Area Revenue Director at Aimbridge EMEA

The winner of the Revenue Management Team of the Year award has shown an outstanding way of adapting to the current market circumstances. The success has been driven by their work towards coaching and guiding Portfolio Revenue Managers, offering a structured onboarding and retraining program, ensuring they are up to date on the latest industry trends, as well as system training.

The structure of the winning teams organisation also enables them to escalate Hotel needs and ensure Sales and Marketing activities are embedded in the hotels, as well as improve productivity, reduce on property costs of Revenue Management and maintain stability with a track record of low staff turnover. The winner is IHG Revenue Service Europe, IHG Hotels & Resorts