Most hotel tech sales decks are written for a general manager or a revenue manager. At a hotel group, the person whose calendar decides whether your revenue, distribution or sales tool gets a hearing is increasingly the commercial director. The title has spread fast, and many vendors still do not know what fills that person's day.

This post walks through one working day, hour by hour. It is not a real person's diary. It is a composite built from the duties in published job descriptions, from Mandarin Oriental's Director of Commercial Strategy listing and Odyssey Hotel Group's Portfolio Commercial Director listing, and from HSMAI research on the commercial function. Each block of the day ends with what it means for a vendor trying to sell into it.

Who this person is

Mandarin Oriental describes the role as a leader of "all revenue-generating functions, including sales, marketing, revenue management, and distribution". Odyssey, which operates hotels under Marriott, IHG and Accor brands in Germany, gives its portfolio commercial director "end-to-end accountability for commercial strategy and execution" across a blended portfolio of full service and MICE-driven hotels, and makes them a "trusted advisor to hotel owners and asset managers".

The role is no longer rare. In the HSMAI Foundation's 2024 study of 204 commercial professionals, 65% of hotel companies with a corporate office had a Chief Commercial Officer or equivalent, and 80.6% of participants rated having a commercial strategy as extremely important. HSMAI Americas notes that one driver was the need to reduce leadership headcount, which made putting sales, marketing and revenue under one head a sensible business decision.

So the commercial director is the person who replaced three department heads in the org chart. That is the first thing a vendor should understand: their time is scarce because they inherited three jobs.

The day, hour by hour

07:30 Pick-up report and pace

The day starts with numbers. Mandarin Oriental's listing asks the director to analyse "business trends, booking pace, market share, and competitor performance regularly". In practice that means checking the overnight pick-up, pace against budget and last year, and anything odd in the channel mix before the team logs on.

What it means for vendors: this is the moment your product either appears in their morning view or does not. If your data lives in a separate login they never open at 07:30, your tool is invisible during the most important part of their day.

08:30 Revenue strategy call

Next comes the call with revenue management on pricing and inventory. The Mandarin Oriental listing names this collaboration directly: pricing, inventory management, channel distribution and market segmentation, worked through with the Director of Revenue. At group level, this may cover several hotels in one call.

What it means for vendors: the revenue manager is still your daily user, but the commercial director is the one deciding whether the strategy changes. Our post on what a hotel revenue manager looks at every week covers the user side; the commercial director wants the summary and the decision.

10:00 Sales pipeline and key accounts

Odyssey asks its commercial director to "oversee account management and achieving sales targets". For a MICE-heavy portfolio, mid-morning is group and corporate business: which RFPs are open, which accounts are behind, where the sales team needs a push.

What it means for vendors: sales tools, CRM and event software are judged here on whether they make the pipeline readable in ten minutes. A demo that spends 20 minutes on configuration screens misses the point.

11:30 Marketing and channel spend

Mandarin Oriental's listing asks the director to evaluate "effectiveness of sales channels" and optimise budget allocation accordingly. This is where OTA cost, metasearch spend, brand.com campaigns and loyalty contributions are weighed against each other.

What it means for vendors: if you sell a booking engine, metasearch or marketing tool, this is your budget line. Show your effect in the same terms the director uses to compare channels: cost of acquisition per booking and net revenue, not clicks.

13:30 Operations alignment

Odyssey calls the role the "primary commercial liaison with Hotel Operations". After lunch, the director is often with general managers and operations leaders, making sure a group block, a promotion or a rate change can actually be delivered on property.

What it means for vendors: a commercial director will ask what your product demands from operations teams. If go-live needs front office time during peak season, they will hear about it from the GM, so bring the answer before they ask. See a hotel general manager's day for the other side of that meeting.

15:00 Forecast and budget work

Both listings put forecasting and budgeting at the centre. Odyssey asks the director to "lead forecasting and budgeting processes"; Mandarin Oriental asks them to manage the annual sales budget and control spending through monthly forecasts. From late summer, this block grows until it takes over whole weeks.

What it means for vendors: budget season is when next year's software lines are set. A vendor who first appears in November is often asking for money that has already been allocated. Our guide to hotel tech sales cycles and seasons maps when to be in the conversation.

16:30 Owner and asset manager reporting

This is the part of the role vendors most often miss. Odyssey's listing requires "structured owner communication, including monthly and quarterly reviews, clearly articulating performance drivers, risks, and opportunities", and wants experience "working directly with hotel owners, asset managers, or investors".

What it means for vendors: the commercial director has to defend every investment to someone above them. Give them a number they can put in an owner report. Our posts on what an asset manager wants from software and building a business case a hotel owner approves show how to shape it.

18:00 Team and the week ahead

The day closes with people: coaching commercial team members, recruiting and planning next week. The HSMAI Foundation study listed analytical thinking, communication, interpersonal skills, adaptability and influence as the five essential competencies of a commercial leader. Only one of those is about data.

The day at a glance

What this means for how you sell

• Sell one outcome, not three features. HSMAI found 54% of participants named topline revenue optimisation across all revenue-generating assets as the key outcome of commercial strategy. Frame your product as a contribution to total revenue, not a better screen for one department.

• Fit the stack they already run. Mandarin Oriental's listing names SynXis, IDeaS and Delphi. The director will ask what you connect to before they ask what you do.

• Arm them for the owner meeting. A one-page summary with a defensible revenue figure is worth more than a long deck.

• Clear the IT and security path early. The commercial director sponsors the deal, but the hotel IT director and security review decide how fast it moves. Our security questionnaire readiness checklist covers that stage.

• Map the group, not the hotel. A hotel group account plan should name the commercial director, the regional revenue leads and the owners they report to.

Selling to this buyer is one part of a wider system: who you target, how you position and how you price. Our hotel tech GTM strategy guide sets out how the pieces connect, and selling to a single hotel versus a hotel group covers how the motion changes as accounts grow.

If your deals with hotel groups keep stalling after a strong first meeting, the free leak audit will show where the sponsor loses momentum and what to fix first.

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