Riana van Staden
Minneapolis
Summary
Result-oriented hospitality executive with over 20+ years of expertise across sales, marketing, catering, and convention services. I offer a proven track record in strategic forecasting, budget management, and cross-functional collaboration. Having dedicated a decade to the Hilton brand, I am a passionate leader committed to fostering high-performance cultures and driving sustained revenue growth.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
Work History
Director of Sales and Marketing
Royal Sonesta Minneapolis
01.2024 - Current
- Optimized 40,000+ sq. ft. of versatile meeting space, maximizing revenue per square foot through strategic booking windows and gapping management.
- Lead team and partnered closely with Meet Minneapolis to anchor major multi-hotel rotations and city-wide conferences.
- Managed a sophisticated up-to-8-year sales funnel, maintaining a consistent pipeline of long-term association and corporate business to ensure future occupancy stability.
- Negotiated high-value multi-year contracts with national associations and corporations, often involving complex concessions and sub-block management.
- Strategically negotiated and secured long-term contracts with four major airline crews, securing over 20,000 annual room nights, overseeing crew in my current role.
- Supervised large-scale RFP responses for groups requiring 300+ peak room nights, ensuring competitive positioning against convention competitors.
- Leveraged tools to track lost business trends and re-solicit previous groups with data-driven incentives.
- Oversaw banquets and catering efforts and overall revenue.
- Presented monthly pace and forecast reports to ownership, providing transparent analysis of market share and future liability.
- Implemented 'Proactive Selling' standards that mandated a high-volume solicitations, site inspections, and re-booking incentives for recurring groups.
- Executed digital marketing campaigns to drive inbound leads across multiple channels.
- Created marketing initiatives and activations to grow brand awareness maintaining 100% brand consistency.
- Managed the departmental P&L, balancing expenses and growing profitability.
Regional Director of Sales and Marketing
Hotel Indigo Minneapolis
01.2023 - 01.2024
- Opened IHG Hotel Indigo Minneapolis in 2023.
- Developed and executed regional sales and marketing plans to drive measurable incremental revenue and improve RevPAR index/market share across portfolio.
- Ensured all sales efforts align with the Hotel Indigo 'neighborhood story' concept, leveraging local culture to differentiate the properties in the lifestyle market.
- Provided guidance on the ideal business mix (Group, Negotiated Corporate, and Transient) to maximize revenue potential based on individual hotel capacity and market demand.
- Collaborated closely with the Franchise Revenue team and General Manager to align pricing strategies with sales efforts and inventory controls.
Director of Sales and Marketing
Hilton Minneapolis/Bloomington and Crowne Plaza Minneapolis Northstar
01.2015 - 01.2023
- Developed and executed comprehensive annual sales and marketing plans for each property to maximize Total RevPAR.
- Conducted regular SWOT analyses and competitive set benchmarking to ensure each hotel is priced and positioned correctly within its specific sub-market.
- Oversaw the combined sales and marketing budgets, ensuring high ROI on advertising spend and cost-effective lead generation.
- Presented monthly performance reports and strategic forecasts for ownership groups and stakeholders, explaining variances and recovery plans.
- Implemented systems that allow sales teams to refer business between properties, maximizing the share for the entire portfolio.
- Audit the sales funnel for each property, ensuring managers are hitting prospecting KPIs and maintaining a healthy closing ratio.
- Oversaw the effective use of CRM Delphi and Revenue Management Systems across all locations.
- Ensured each property adheres to its specific brand standards (IHG, Hilton) while maintaining a unique local identity.
- Collaborates with eCommerce teams to optimize SEO/SEM, meta-search performance, and OTA rankings.
- Directed the content strategy for social media channels and email marketing to drive direct bookings and reduce commission costs.
- Recruited, trained, and mentored Property-Level Sales and Events, fostering a culture of accountability and high performance.
Senior Sales Manager / Assistant Director of Sales
Minneapolis Marriott Southwest
01.2013 - 01.2015
- Solicit new business through channels including cold calls, networking, tradeshows and online prospecting tools.
- Interpersonal communication skills were used to collaborate with other departments to ensure successful events and return clients.
- Built rapport, negotiated and closed opportunities to meet financial goals.
- Identified new opportunities to fill revenue gaps and provide long term revenue stream.
- Strong awareness of market trends and relationships with planners and within hotel community.
Director of Catering
Sofitel Minneapolis
01.2011 - 01.2013
- Responsible for the execution of sales strategies to maximize hotel profitability while maintaining customer satisfaction measures of performance areas.
- Proactively oversaw the Catering team to prospect, close and facilitate catering business opportunities and event managing group business.
- Developed budgeting, forecasting and expense management analysis to achieve company expectations.
- Delivered timely reporting of all incentive sales results and programs. Promote hotel services through personal involvement in community and business networking organizations.
- Highly skilled at developing and maintaining relationships with key clients, organizations, and brand partners to maximize catering food & beverage sales to exceed revenue goals.
- Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring and training associates; planning, assigning, and directing work; evaluating performance; rewarding and disciplining associates; addressing complaints and resolving problems.
- Provide support and coaching for team members to drive high levels of performance, job satisfaction and personal growth.
- Developed and maintained banquet menus and pricing and ensure competitiveness with the goal to maximize revenue.
Education
Undergraduate - LAW
University of South Africa
Skills
- Proficient in MS Office
- TravelClick
- IDeaS
- DelphiFDC
- Cvent
- STR
- Commercial Analytics
- Multiple OTA platforms
- Social media platforms
Accomplishments
- Sonesta Corporation Star Performer 2025: Awarded "Exceptional" status (the highest performance rating).
- Top Achiever – Director of Sales 2024: Finishing the fiscal year at 123% of the annual revenue target.
- Hilton Award of Excellence 2019, 2021–2023
- GBTA President’s Award 2023: Honored by the Global Business Travel Association for distinguished leadership and service to the business travel industry.
Timeline
Director of Sales and Marketing
Royal Sonesta Minneapolis
01.2024 - Current
Regional Director of Sales and Marketing
Hotel Indigo Minneapolis
01.2023 - 01.2024
Director of Sales and Marketing
Hilton Minneapolis/Bloomington and Crowne Plaza Minneapolis Northstar
01.2015 - 01.2023
Senior Sales Manager / Assistant Director of Sales
Minneapolis Marriott Southwest
01.2013 - 01.2015
Director of Catering
Sofitel Minneapolis
01.2011 - 01.2013
Undergraduate - LAW
University of South Africa
Additional roles
- DoubleTree Bloomington Minneapolis – Senior Sales Manager
- Hilton Minneapolis - Senior Catering Sales Manager
- Hyatt Regency Minneapolis – Catering Sales and Convention Services Manager
- DoubleTree Park Place Hotel Minneapolis – Catering Sales Manager