Corporate Director, Guest Experience, Raffles & Fairmont Hotels and Resorts

Company Description

Raffles Hotels & Resorts
The Birthplace of stories and legends since 1887, Raffles is a legendary brand, steeped in history and loved by generations past, present and future.  Raffles, at distinguished landmark addresses around the world, is the vibrant heart of its destination, curating experiences that are culturally enriching, intellectually stimulating and always respectful of local communities, heritage and the environment. Its timeless elegance, refined manners and spirit of generosity ensure that every visitor arrives as a guest, leaves as a friend and returns as family.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

Join a dynamic team and be part of the Fairmont family – with 90+ spectacular properties, and 34 more in the pipeline, in 30 countries around the globe, stretching from the beaches of Hawaii, to the unspoiled national parks of Canada, to the heart of London, to the deserts of the United Arab Emirates. 

Job Description

Dual reporting to the COO Raffles and COO Fairmont, the Corporate Director, Guest Experience is a trusted operational advisor to provide expertise to senior leaders and advance global & regional strategic initiatives for Raffles & Fairmont hotels globally.

They are responsible for developing key business strategies and initiatives to drive hotel performance, advancement of the guest experience to support Raffles & Fairmont’s vision & long-term objectives in driving growth, increasing guest satisfaction metrics, facilitating brand compliance, and optimizing hotel quality performance.

• Provides Guest Experience leadership & direction to Raffles & Fairmont corporate and regional departments. The Director will further a culture of service excellence, innovation and maintain a commitment to be “best in class”.
• Lead and execute long-term guest experience optimization strategy to drive global KPI’s for guest satisfaction & quality. Work in collaboration with COOs to ensure alignment of overall strategy and synergy of initiatives related to improving the Reputation Performance Score and Quality score of the brands and their competitive positioning on these KPI’s.
• Regularly examine & evaluate Guest Reputation and Quality performance results, KPIs & leading indicators to identify and make recommendations on new opportunities / initiatives / best practices to enhance the guest experience & satisfaction being mindful of the impact on operational costs. Collaborate with and advise Operations on global and regional needs to drive performance.
• Monitor, with the Global Guest Experience team (Paris), the Brand’s competitive performance and assist with defining and updating the competitive set for Raffles & Fairmont in line with the Brand direction (both for RPS tools and Mystery Shopping tools / companies)
• Direct and support the Raffles & Fairmont Marketing team in the development of the annual hotel operating budget guidelines from a Guest Experience & Quality perspective.
• Take ownership and proactively establish the annual global Guest Satisfaction and Brand Compliance target setting practice. Researching market trends, liaising with key departments to ensure relevant information capture (D&TS, Commercial, etc). Liaise with brand COO’s to validate and communicate targets through VP. Operations to the hotels and new openings.
• Collaborate, and provide Guest Experience guidance & expertise to internal stakeholders through participation in various Raffles & Fairmont and Paris Corporate taskforces and committees on variety of Guest Experience business dimensions (i.e. Guest Experience, Brand Marketing, Loyalty, Internal Audit, Finance, Technology, Legal, Procurement, D&TS). Articulates, advocates and represents various stakeholders’ perspectives with the support of the COOs
• Represents Guest Experience in cross-functional company initiatives to ensure global & regional alignment. Liaison to global guest experience & other Brands Guest Experience leaders in establishing, revising global brand standards for Raffles and Fairmont, policies & procedures and direction on exemptions.
• Role model service excellence with a strategic focus on guest satisfaction & elevating the guest journey.
• Where possible and facilitated: benchmark competitive set; gain insights about services, amenities & tools that resonate with guests at competing hotels and make recommendations.
• Liaise with COOs on Brand Council structure and composition, assist with leading and steering the Brand Council participants in the perimeter and the assignment of Members for Brand Standards and Hotel Opening Task Force assignments.

The Americas Responsibilities

• Monitor and Track the Reputation Performance Score and other parameters (RPS Index, GSS) and the Spa Survey, MICE Survey, F&B Surveys to gather insights on impact (and as long as they form part of Trust You) of the hotels in the perimeter based on annual targets sent- create and communicate to the Hotels (GM / SVPO / GX Leader)
• Evaluate the Mystery Shopping program performance and information for low performing hotels, to provide direction and drive strategic decisions and corrective action plans for hotel in the assigned perimeter.

• Liaise regularly with the hotel Quality teams / Leadership on KPI’s performance (RPS and LQA) and log these interactions in Taskworld – work with the hotels on improvement plans and liaise these with SVP Operations for execution and follow up.
• Assist with on-boarding of key Hotel Executive Committee Leaders (e.g. GMs, DOPs, DORs, FO, FG) and Corporate leaders on Guest Experience tools.
• Act as a subject matter expert on the LQA / VOG / TrustYou tool and its development – personalization for Luxury. Hotel registration process / payment schedules / packages etc.
• Onboarding of Hotel Teams Guest Experience Leaders into the Guest Experience Culture and ensure efficient usage of the TY Tool – dashboards and analytics.

Other

• Monthly Global Quality Dashboarding for Raffles and Fairmont in cooperation with Rest-of-World Guest Experience Manager and COOs and other required reporting as directed
• Assist with steering Customer Care Tickets to the respective Hotels in the assigned perimeter and if required assign to VP Operations.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7-years Hospitality and progressive operations leadership experience (eg. Food & Beverage, Front Office, Housekeeping, Quality Assurance, Leadership Development Program)
• Strong guest experience, project & process management, professional written and verbal communications and interpersonal skills. Must be a team player
• Proven coordination and time management skills. Ability to work independently on multiple projects under tight deadlines
• Experience with research, data and root cause analysis. Understanding of social media and marketing an asset
• Highly skilled in computers, reporting, presentations and design, including Microsoft Office Suite
• Previous experience using Opera PMS (cloud/on premise), TrustYou, Profile Management/CRM tools, Taskworld, Teams, LQA/Forbes, Project Management tools, audit and analytics tools an asset
• Previous experience managing a budget
• Degree in International Hospitality Management (Master and / or Bachelor level) preferred
• Fluent in English, additional language skills would form an asset

Additional Information

• Office based in Toronto, ON
• Salary Range: The Ontario base salary range for this position is $115,000 - $130,000. Our salary ranges are determined by job and level. Within the range, individual compensation is determined by job-related skills and knowledge, relevant experience and/or work location.
• Job Vacancy: This position is currently vacant and we are seeking a qualified candidate to fill it.
• AI Disclosure: We use artificial intelligence to help screen and assess applications for this position. These tools assist our hiring team but do not replace human judgement. Hiring decisions at every stage of recruitment are ultimately made by humans.
• Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: we are an inclusive company and our ambition is to attract, recruit and promote diverse talent.