Acorns 2020: Ryan Doyle, 27

Director of sales, Park Regis, Birmingham

Nominator Emma Keeble

Hospitality has taken Ryan Doyle from the UK to the US, where he spent some time as a management intern with Marriott International in Indianapolis, at the age of just 19. He then landed his first operations manager role after graduating with a first-class degree.

Commercially he has been instrumental in growing the hotel’s sales revenue from £7.67m in 2018 to £8.54m in 2020. He achieved that growth by means of preferred commercial relationships with third-party agencies, such as American Express and Capita Business Travel. More recently he helped to set up and co-hosted the Birmingham Sales Squad, a networking group that meets each month and consists of more than 60 hospitality sales professionals based in Birmingham.

In view of the recent time spent locked out of hospitality, what did you miss the most?

As a typical salesperson, I’m rarely found behind a desk. I struggle being tied down to one place, so I missed ‘being out on the road’ and having face-to-face interaction with my clients, discussing business but also having a giggle. I am also a self-confessed lover of trade shows. Video technology has been a fantastic interim replacement for this, but I think we are all Zoomed out, and lockdown has shown that nothing can replace face-to-face interaction.

Do you think the hospitality industry could be more sustainable? Not just in terms of plastics and waste but in terms of careers and diversity, training and growth?

I am very fortunate in having always worked in hospitality companies that have taken a keen interest in the career development and personal growth of their staff; but there are still companies that do not value talent development.

Over the past 18 months I have been involved in a next-generation initiative by HBAA, which is the trade body for hotel booking agencies. The object is to ensure that the voices of under-30s in the industry are heard and to make hospitality events more inclusive and relevant for all.