Morgans Hotel Group · Four New York City Hotels

Rebuilding the Travel Trade Relationship

Sales Manager, New York City Portfolio · Spencer Allen

The Challenge

Where the brand stood

Morgans Hotel Group's identity had leaned heavily into nightlife, and it had cost the brand standing with the segment most hospitality companies depend on: corporate travel. Travel agents and corporate travel managers - the channel that fills rooms Monday through Thursday - had drifted away. Shortly before I joined, ownership brought in several sales leaders from Ritz-Carlton to realign the commercial organization, and a new 10% discounted rate for travel agencies had just been introduced as part of that reset.

My Mandate

Four hotels, one relationship to rebuild

As Sales Manager for the four New York City properties, my job was to represent the brand directly to the travel agent community, rebuild relationships that had gone cold, and make sure the new discounted rate was actually visible and bookable across the GDS channels agents used every day. A rate that exists on paper but doesn't load correctly, or that no one trusts enough to sell, doesn't move revenue.

Impact

Travel Industry Room Revenue

54%

Increase in room revenue from travel industry sales alone, across the four New York City hotels - excludes corporate accounts sourced and RFP-season volume

How It Was Achieved

Portfolio

4 Hotels

New York City properties represented to the travel trade

Key Agency Partners

Ovation · VWT · Frosch

Ovation Travel, Valerie Wilson Travel, and Frosch Travel - rebuilt into strong, repeat-visit relationships

Industry Role

Board Member

Young Travel Professionals - joined, then earned a board seat to represent the brand to next-gen agents

How It Got Done

Getting back in the field

Started with the basics that had been missing: in-person call center visits and boutique travel agency visits across New York City. Trust with this channel isn't rebuilt from a desk - it's rebuilt by showing up.

Young Travel Professionals

Joined the Young Travel Professionals group and quickly established strong relationships with Ovation Travel, Valerie Wilson Travel, and Frosch Travel. I later became a board member, betting that a younger generation of agents would align more naturally with Morgans' brand identity than the traditional corporate travel buyer - and used that seat to represent the brand directly.

Spring gathering, Hudson Hotel rooftop

Hosted a spring gathering for the Young Travel Professionals group on the Hudson Hotel rooftop, with food and beverage catering. It landed well and translated directly into more site inspections and repeat visits from agents who now had a reason to come back.

Introducing data to the sales floor

Brought a new layer of account analysis to the Morgans sales team by leveraging Hotelligence data. With production numbers in hand, I could quickly identify corporate accounts being routed through the travel agencies I was visiting - and either hand them to the corresponding sales manager or build them into entirely new prospect accounts.

Expanded scope, expanded results

The rebuilt trade relationships, better account intelligence, and a rate the trade could actually find and trust delivered a 54% increase in room revenue from travel industry sales alone across the four hotels - before factoring in the corporate accounts sourced through that channel or the RFP season that followed. My responsibilities also grew over the year to include all transient sales negotiations and RFP ownership for the portfolio, right around the time Morgans Hotel Group's parent company was sold to SBE/Accor.

Sales Manager, New York City Portfolio, Morgans Hotel Group. Scope covered the brand's four New York City hotels, spanning travel agency relationship management, GDS rate distribution, transient sales negotiations, and RFP ownership. The 54% figure reflects room revenue growth from travel industry sales alone across the four-hotel portfolio; it does not include corporate accounts sourced through that channel or revenue from the RFP process, which followed as a separate expansion of responsibilities. July 2026