Hospitality CRM & Loyalty Specialist

SUMMARY:
Develop the group CRM roadmap. Own and administer the SHR CRM as the group's single guest database

POSITION INFO:
Dream Hotels & Resorts lives by its 8 core values. Our team is dedicated to being reliable and accountable, fostering empathy to understand others' feelings and collaboratively find solutions, and prioritizing sustainability in environmental, financial, and social aspects. Rooted in humanity, trust, dynamism, excellence, and joy, we celebrate diversity, prioritize integrity, embrace creativity, pursue quality, and foster a joyful work environment to connect people with our surroundings and each other. These play a part in our day-to-day decision making & operational requirements. Job Overview: The CRM & Loyalty Specialist owns the group's guest relationship marketing capability. The position is responsible for turning guest data into revenue by building segmentation, automation and relevant member communication across the Dream Hotels & Resorts portfolio. This includes personalised customer lifecycle communication that moves guests from prospect and first-time booker through pre-arrival, stay, post-stay, repeat booking, reactivation and direct-booking loyalty. The role should progressively reduce dependence on broad, undifferentiated email blasts and increase targeted, automated and behaviour-led guest communication. Key responsibilities CRM strategy Develop the group CRM roadmap. Own and administer the SHR CRM as the group's single guest database, including user access, data structures, profile fields and integration health with Windsurfer CRS and connected booking engines. Build lifecycle communication strategies. Define segmentation frameworks. Develop contact and frequency rules. Maintain CRM campaign calendars. Lifecycle automation Build and optimise automated journeys including: welcome; enquiry abandonment; booking abandonment where technically possible; booking confirmation\/supporting communications where applicable; pre-arrival; upsell\/cross-sell; post-stay; review\/feedback; birthday\/anniversary; repeat-stay; lapsed guest; win-back; loyalty communications. Campaign management Build, test and deploy email\/SMS\/other approved direct communications. Segment audiences according to campaign objectives. Personalise content and offers. Manage campaign QA. Ensure links, tracking, creative and data selections are correct. Loyalty Act as the day-to-day operational owner of StayVantage, the group's tiered loyalty programme, across enrolment, tier progression, benefit fulfilment and member communication. Manage the StayVantage roll-out programme, including member migration from the legacy database, launch communication, tier assignment and the first 12 months of member lifecycle messaging. Serve as the central point of contact for property teams on StayVantage, including training support, enrolment targets, benefit redemption queries and escalations. Drive member acquisition, activation, repeat-stay behaviour and recognition initiatives. Work closely with Reservations and Revenue Management to protect the member rate advantage, increase repeat bookings and drive direct booking share. Analyse member behaviour, value and opportunities to improve loyalty economics and guest value. Database health Monitor consent, deliverability, opt-outs and database quality. Support duplicate management and data hygiene. Work with IT\/system partners on data integration. Maintain POPIA-compliant marketing practices and consent governance. Analytics Use CRM, loyalty and guest data to measure performance, identify guest behaviour trends, commercial opportunities and planning insights, and provide commercially relevant recommendations. Produce monthly CRM and loyalty performance reporting covering database growth, active and marketable database size, engagement, deliverability, conversion, campaign revenue attribution, automated journey revenue and loyalty programme KPIs. Translate guest data into actionable recommendations for property General Managers and the marketing team, rather than simply producing dashboards. Analyse campaign and journey performance, including open, click, conversion, revenue per send, revenue per recipient and repeat booking behaviour. Monitor member performance, lifecycle journey effectiveness and guest lifetime value where data permits, using insights to improve CRM and loyalty activity. Use data analysis, trend identification and AI-supported insight generation to inform campaign planning, guest segmentation, loyalty optimisation and strategic steering across the portfolio. Key deliverables for success: CRM-attributed revenue Database growth Active\/marketable database size Email\/SMS conversion Revenue per recipient Automated journey revenue Repeat booking rate Loyalty enrolment Member activation Member revenue Unsubscribe\/complaint rates Deliverability EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATION 3-6 years' CRM, lifecycle or lo