If you sell software that touches group business, meeting space or events, the person who lives in it every day is the sales and catering manager. They answer RFPs, walk planners through ballrooms, write banquet event orders and then hand everything to the banquet team and the kitchen. They are also one of the least understood users in hotel tech, because most vendors only ever meet their director of sales.

This post walks through a typical day, hour by hour. It is not one person's diary. The timeline is assembled from duties listed in real job descriptions, from published sales and catering (S&C) software documentation and from industry research, so every task below is one that a hotel has actually written down. If you read our day with a hotel general manager, this is the same exercise one floor down.

Who this person is

Two live job ads show the shape of the role. The Ben, a 208-room Autograph Collection hotel in West Palm Beach operated by franchisee Sage Hospitality, asks its Social Catering Sales Manager to generate, secure and service weddings, galas, reunions and other social events, from the first inquiry through the event's completion. Blossom Hotel Houston, a 267-room Curio Collection property managed by Crescent Hotels & Resorts, describes a Catering Sales Manager who prospects, tours, writes proposals and contracts, and manages corporate meetings, social events and weddings "from initial inquiry through turnover and execution".

Note that phrase. This user sells the event and then makes sure it can be delivered. That double job explains almost everything about how they judge software.

A sales and catering manager is the hotel employee who sells group, meeting and event business and then turns each booking into instructions the banquet, kitchen and front office teams can execute.

7:30 a.m. Overnight inquiries

The day starts in the inbox. Inquiries arrive from the hotel website, brand channels, email, phone and third-party sourcing platforms. The Ben's ad sets a clear standard: respond to inquiries and leads "promptly, ideally the same day or by 10:00 a.m. the following business day". So the first job is triage, before ten.

Speed matters because planners measure it. Cvent's analysis of its 2026 Planner Sourcing Report, which surveyed over 1,650 planners, says most planners expect an RFP response within four business days, and that 63% hold to that standard for events of up to 50 attendees. The same article cites VenueSuite's 2025 MICE Benchmark: venues answering within 30 minutes convert at 60%, falling to 52% for next-day responses and 44% once 24 hours have passed.

Lead quality is the bigger complaint. In Amadeus research with more than 315 hotel and venue sales leaders, published in May 2026, 63% named finding qualified demand and 60% named lead quality from third-party channels as the biggest barriers to growth. Much of the morning goes on sorting real business from noise.

9:00 a.m. Checking space and pricing the proposal

For each qualified lead the manager checks the function diary, holds space, checks guest room availability for any room block and builds a proposal. At a full-service hotel that one document covers menus, beverage packages, audiovisual and room rental. The Ben's ad lists planning and upselling "space requirements, timelines, menus, beverage selections, décor, entertainment, audiovisual needs" in a single line.

This is where the S&C system earns its keep. Amadeus describes Delphi as built on Salesforce CRM and lists automating BEOs and banquet checks among its features. It separates full-service hotels, those with more than 5,000 sq ft (465 m²) of meeting and event space, from select-service properties with less. Planners punish vague proposals: Cvent reports that 22% of planners say proposals lack transparency and 21% say venues do not answer custom questions well.

Pricing usually involves someone else. The Blossom ad lists Revenue Management among the departments the role works with, and the Amadeus report found that sharing account intelligence and demand signals was the top collaboration priority, cited by 54% of respondents. Our look at what a revenue manager reviews every week shows the other side of that conversation.

11:00 a.m. Site tour

Then the manager leaves the desk. Both job ads list site tours as core work, and The Ben asks for "engaging, personalized site tours" that show off its event spaces and food. Before a planner books a tour, they have usually done the walk online. Cvent names the top three factors that trigger an RFP: meeting room specifications (50%), images and video (48%) and floor plans and diagrams (46%).

For a vendor this matters twice. The tour happens away from a desktop, so mobile access counts. And the content that wins the RFP in the first place, such as diagrams, capacity charts and photos, often lives in a different tool from the proposal.

1:00 p.m. Contract, deposit and BEO

After lunch comes paperwork. The Ben's ad asks for "complete and accurate banquet event orders, contracts, resumes, and other required paperwork". A banquet event order (BEO) is the internal instruction sheet for a single function: room, set-up, timings, menu, guest count and charges. The event resume pulls everything for one group into a single document.

The BEO is where sales hands over to operations, so a mistake here shows up in the ballroom. That is why S&C vendors sell automation of this step. Tripleseat says its platform was designed by a former sales and catering manager and that its founder, Jonathan Morse, was a catering and sales executive at Starwood Hotels. It lists room blocks through Guest Room Control and integrations with property management systems including Oracle's OPERA.

3:00 p.m. Handover meetings

Mid-afternoon belongs to other departments. The Blossom ad names Conference Services, Banquets, Culinary, Sales, Revenue Management and Front Office. The Ben adds pre-convention meetings plus Rooms and Food and Beverage. Every one of those teams reads the same BEO.

This is the moment that exposes weak integrations. If the group block in the S&C system does not match the PMS, the front desk finds out at check-in. Our post on why integrations sell hotel software explains why buyers ask about this before anything else.

4:30 p.m. Traces, follow-ups and the pipeline

Late afternoon is follow-up. The Ben's ad asks the manager to keep "client records, account notes, traces, and sales activity within the hotel's sales system". A trace is a dated reminder on an account or booking: call the planner back, chase the signed contract, confirm final numbers. The Ben sets revenue, productivity and activity goals for the role, so this work is measured.

Staffing decides how much of it gets done. Among planners in Cvent's 2026 report, 28% say slow RFP responses are directly linked to understaffing at venues.

Evenings and weekends: the event itself

Both ads ask for flexibility on evenings, weekends and holidays. Weddings and galas happen after the office day has ended, and the person who sold the event is often there to see it run. Inquiries keep coming too: Cvent cites VenueSuite data showing that nearly one in five MICE inquiries arrives during evenings or weekends.

What this day means if you sell to them

Two findings should shape your pitch. In the Amadeus survey, more than half of sales leaders said ease of use is the most important requirement for sales technology, ahead of connected data and automated workflows. And 86% said they already use AI, with personalising proposals, market insights and qualifying leads as the top uses. A demo that saves this person fifteen minutes before 10 a.m. will beat one that shows forty reports. Our guide to a demo that survives operator scrutiny applies directly, and our discovery call questions cover how to open the conversation.

Large buyers take this category seriously. In May 2025 Amadeus announced that Accor would implement Delphi across its premium brands, starting with Pullman, Mövenpick and Swissôtel. Group sales tooling is a real chain-level purchase, which is why the S&C user belongs in your wider plan, as set out in the hotel tech GTM strategy guide.

If sales and catering managers love your demo but deals still stall with their director, a free GTM leak audit will show where the conversation drops.

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