Gitane D'Souza

Partnerships Manager

Goa, India8 yrs 9 mos experience

Highly Stable

Key Highlights

Transformed Goa into Airbnb's key domestic market.
Established and led the Hotels Team for Airbnb India.
Drove strategic initiatives at IHG for key accounts.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Hospitality and Market Management expert with a focus on team leadership and strategic growth.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Market ManagementTeam LeadershipCross Functional CollaborationAccount ManagementMarket StrategySales Management

Other Skills

Key Account ManagementSupply BuildingMarket Share LeadershipEvent CoordinationMarketing SupportTeam ManagementMarket DevelopmentLogistics ManagementMarket IntelligenceStrategic InitiativesSales StrategyRevenue ManagementSales CoordinationMICE Business DevelopmentEvent Management

About

I'm a mission-led, people focussed leader who strongly believes happy and engaged teams are successful teams. I specialise in creating and leading high performance teams. At Airbnb, I've built Supply Acquisition teams, who can account for a significant share of Airbnb's Professionally managed listings. An experienced results-oriented leader who is great at building a world class commercial team and high growth business. As a Market Manager, I have been instrumental in making Goa the Key Domestic market for Airbnb, accounting for 25% of the Domestic Destination Business. As the Hotels Head, I have been instrumental in building the Hotel's & Service Apartment segment at Airbnb India. Specialties: Market Management | Team Culture | Team Transformation | Full Sales Lifecycle Management | Team Coordination | Employee Engagement | Customer Service Optimisation | Account Management | Business Partnerships | Supply Acquisition

Experience

8 yrs 9 mos

Total Experience

2 yrs 11 mos

Average Tenure

Current Experience

Airbnb

2 roles

Head Hotels & Service Aparments

Oct 2018 – Jul 2020 · 1 yr 9 mos · India

Hold the distinction for setting up and heading the Hotels Team in India focused on Hotels & Service Apartments for Airbnb India.
Played a key role in establishing the Hotels segment at Airbnb by identifying key partners and responsible for setting up a strong functional reporting structure, with a focus on Key Account Management and Supply building.
Made inroads into new accounts and led effective strategies for achieving market-share leadership by ensuring effective account planning and account intelligence for each of the key accounts.
Built the relevant hotel supply on the platform in key markets in India.
Exceeded the assigned targets and delivered the pre-defined quality and service benchmarks by performing monthly and quarterly reviews with Key Accounts to ensure performance as per set night targets.
Was a member of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and led effective initiatives for ensuring that Airbnb remains a safe space to work at.
Cross Functional collaboration - Supported the Comms & Marketing team for the 'Only On Airbnb' Campaign - bringing on the City Palace Jaipur. Also providing support managing the event logistics.

Key Account ManagementSupply BuildingMarket Share LeadershipCross Functional CollaborationMarket ManagementTeam Leadership

Market Manager

May 2016 – Oct 2018 · 2 yrs 5 mos · India

Built Goa as the key market for Airbnb with focus on high quality supply. Efficiently managed the entire gamut of people-centric functions including hiring of the new teams, expectation setting and training the entire team to ensure process compliance.
Responsible for setting up of the Goa Office space.
Additional responsibility of South India & West India and provided leadership and direction to a team of high-performing professionals, transformed the underperforming markets of West and South India to profitable one by strengthening internal competencies.
Responsible for establishing Goa as a key market for Airbnb. Airbnb is the market leader in alternate accommodation and unique supply in Goa, contributing to around 25% in the overall domestic business.
Cross functional Collaboration - supported the launch of the Goa Home Sharing Club Q2 2018 and Airbnb’s Goa Guidebook Q3 2017 events successfully. Managed the end to end responsibilities from on ground logistics, to addressing the operational issues and handling the event coordination.

Team ManagementMarket DevelopmentCross Functional CollaborationMarket ManagementTeam Leadership

Intercontinental hotels group (ihg®)

Key Accounts Manager - South West Asia

May 2012 – Jul 2015 · 3 yrs 2 mos · India

Key Accounts Manager - South West Asia.
Responsible for setting up the Global Sales office for South India & Sri Lanka.
Steered strategic initiatives for making IHG the number one preferred hospitality partner for a number of Key Accounts.
Responsible for mapping of opportunities through thorough market intelligence, evaluating the competitive trends and implementing the right mix of strategies.
Responsible for organising the IHG Showcase in Bangalore for 2012 and 2013. Help drive relevance to Key Accounts and showcase IHG properties across regions.
Identify & Nurture Key Accounts that would help drive MICE business to IHG properties across the Globe.
Represented key markets of South India & Sri Lanka, at the AMEA Commercial Workshop in 2012 and 2013 as part of the India GSO team.

Market IntelligenceStrategic InitiativesKey Account ManagementAccount ManagementMarket Strategy

Hyatt hotels corporation

Sales Manager

Jan 2010 – Jun 2011 · 1 yr 5 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Develop, manage and grow the total revenue, room nights and business opportunity from a specified list of National Accounts and Regional Accounts in specified territories in key domestic source markets covering corporate accounts throughout South Asia.
Communicate and work with the hotel sales teams to ensure network benefits are leveraged through intelligent use of the sales data supplied by the Strategic Marketing Manager.
Drive MICE business into Hyatt Hotels by offering solutions for various event formats.
Support the RFP process & be a ‘one-stop shop’ and problem solver for my managed accounts.
Organised the Hyatt Showcase in 2010.

Revenue ManagementSales CoordinationMICE Business DevelopmentSales ManagementAccount Management