lara berry

Responsible for maintaining and growing relationships with corporate groups of 200+ peak rooms. Effective in proactive solicitation, generating new account leads and converting those leads into contracts. Negotiated group room patterns, space to rooms ratio, and food and beverage commitments to book balanced business for the hotel. Maintained strong relationships with accounts having group contracts for events scheduled to be held AFTER Hurricane Katrina and effectively kept these programs on property.

Group sales for 47 Marriott Hotels in Georgia and Tennessee which included Convention hotels, luxury hotels, airport hotels, full service and extended lodging hotels and select service hotels. My role here included maximizing hotel profits, finding the right fit for customers and training new sales managers in a fast paced environment. Managing sales functions for 47 hotels required extreme attention to detail and superb time management skills. In addition to regular sales functions (site inspections, contract negotiations, new business solicitation) I assisted in training new team members on systems and processes as well as selling strategies (revenue maximization) for all 47 properties. Represented team as "Downtown Market" liaison, with two main hotels being the JW Marriott Buckhead and Atlanta Marriott Marquis. In 2004 I reached Marriott Chairman's Circle - an award given to the top 5% of sales people within the company.

Managed group sales for both corporate and social clients. Conducted site inspections, negotiated group contracts, food and beverage and account room rates for companies. Responsible for soliciting new business to maximize revenue. Regularly represented Marriott at industry events, networking functions and golf programs in the community. In addition to group sales, I was also involved in daily hotel operations including, but not limited to, “GM” on weekends and nights, payroll, scheduling associates, hiring and guest satisfaction.