Biggest Challenges Faced by a Director of Sales and Marketing at Santa Monica Proper Hotel
Erin, Director of Sales and Marketing at Santa Monica Proper Hotel, cites the "post-covid-19 world" as the biggest challenge, noting the industry's upheaval impacting labor, supply chains, and consumer behavior. This makes forecasting—a cornerstone of the hospitality industry—nearly impossible, forcing adaptation to "unprecedented times" and reliance on unreliable historic data.
Executive/Leadership, Overcoming Challenges, Industry Realities, Data Analysis, Problem-Solving
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Erin Bennett
Director of Sales and Marketing
Santa Monica Proper Hotel
Boston University 2008
UCLA EMBA 2023 (expected graduation June 2023)
Hospitality Administration
Hospitality, Restaurants & Events
Sales and Client Management
Took Out Loans, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. The post-COVID-19 world has significantly impacted the hospitality industry, creating unpredictable challenges in forecasting, staffing, and meeting market demands.
2. The labor market and supply chain disruptions have added complexity to the role, requiring adaptability and innovative solutions.
3. Using historical data to predict future trends in hospitality is now unreliable, demanding more creative and agile approaches to decision-making
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
The biggest challenge for me today is living in a post-COVID-19 world. It's not specific just to hospitality; hotels, the hospitality industry as a whole, was hit really hard.
It shifted so many things: the labor market, supply chain, and even consumer behavior, and the type of consumer who's going to come to your hotel. It's been very difficult to forecast into the unknown for several years now.
This has made it challenging to staff and deploy resources against a demanding market, and no one anticipated how crazy travel would become. Even now, it's still a challenging time because we live in, and it's the most overused word, unprecedented times, especially in the hospitality world.
Trying to use historic data to inform the future is almost impossible now, which is how we've done things for so many years. That creates a challenge and a barrier.