SHERATON GRAND Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway announced the appointment of Vikalp Raj as Director of Sales and Marketing. Vikalp comes with over 12 years of experience in sales and marketing domain with commendable knowledge and expertise. He will head Sales & Marketing vertical at the hotel, which entails increasing overall sales for the Hotel. He will be responsible for managing sales activities, the property’s reactive and proactive sales efforts and executing sales strategies, along with innovative marketing concepts in order to meet business goals. Since Vikalp was part of pre-opening of the property in 2010, it is an added advantage for him to showcase his excellence to the brand.
Prior to Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway, Vikalp was with JW Marriott Hotel Bengaluru for over five years where he joined as the Director of Sales and was involved in all stages through pre-opening, during the launch and post-launch of the property. Subsequently, he was promoted to the Director of Sales & Marketing and played a crucial role in developing marketing communication activities and providing customer intelligence in evaluating market and economic trends. He has been instrumental in executing excellent customer service to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty program.
Having come from a strong hospitality industry background, Vikalp has vast knowledge in various aspects in analyzing latest market trends, driving RFP process to source new businesses for the hotel and understanding of target audience segmentation to achieve set targets. He has also won “DOSM of the Year, South Zone” at Indian Hospitality Awards by BW Hotelier.
When not working on innovative strategies for business development, Vikalp enjoys going on long drives and watching movies. On his appointment, he expressed, “It indeed feels surreal to join Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway as it is more like coming back home since I was part of pre-opening of the property. I'm looking forward to working closely with a great team we already have, ready to address challenging situations in order to make the brand more successful.