Hotel and Leisure Management

Mario Ovsenjak

Mario is a leading hotel operations strategist with more than 15 years’ experience of delivering and maintaining highly-profitable properties for the UK’s hotel market.

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Since 2014, Mario Ovsenjak has made his mark as a Hotel General Manager for Cheshire-based Bespoke Hotels Ltd, the UK’s largest independent hotel group and the operator of 114 properties worldwide.

Mario works for ESA Risk as part of the MONT Hospitality Management team, offering services alongside ESA Risk’s Hotel Management Consultant Nicola Trew, co-founder of London-based hotel management consultancy VROOM.

With his extensive industry experience, Mario is expertly positioned to advise clients on how best to navigate the hotel market successfully, identifying opportunities to maximise returns on investment whether that is through streamlining operations or building on past successes.

By analysing performance to date, he can identify operational weaknesses and put forward recommendations to improve performance and profitability.

This can include developing an effective pricing strategy that stimulates customer demand and maximises revenue at peak times. In addition, he can advise on a profitable sales strategy that identifies additional revenue streams and new markets to expand the business.

Mario can also help clients ensure a new opening remains a viable business. He can advise on the property’s entire commercial set up, including setting the rate strategy from the opening onwards, setting up teams and hotel facilities, and managing full operational accountability.

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Initially employed by Bespoke Hotels Ltd as a trouble shooter, Mario has the expertise and the proven track record of turning distressed hotels into a profitable business. He is also expertly placed to help clients maximise opportunities for growth within existing, already profitable units.

His main responsibility at Bespoke Hotels Ltd is overseeing the overall operations of two of the management firm’s prestigious properties – the five-star boutique Hotel Gotham in Manchester and the Vincent Hotel Southport, a unique lifestyle hotel and wedding venue.

Mario’s decisive and effective management of operating costs, ability to identify and develop new revenue streams for business and savvy use of sales and marketing to boost demand has resulted in both properties achieving exceptional performance and profitability.

His effective stewardship of Hotel Gotham has seen the boutique property become a high achiever in the market so much so that it surpassed its financial profit line performance three years ahead of schedule.

Mario’s ability to maintain high levels of performance and strong profitability, even during challenging, economic conditions, is reflected in Hotel Gotham’s consistent occupancy rate of 92% pre-Covid-19.

The critical reception the flagship property has received is testimony to his achievements. The Hotel Gotham has won 19 prestigious national and international awards, including Europe’s Best New Hotel (Boutique Hotel Awards) and World’s Best New Hotel Opening (International Hotel Awards).

Five years on from its opening, and despite operating in a fiercely competitive market, Hotel Gotham is ranked 22nd on Condé Nast’s recommended places to visit in the UK.

In the case of the Vincent Hotel, Mario was instrumental in securing the Southport property for the hotel group’s bespoke managed portfolio and has successfully driven its commercial operations forward, which has seen profitability improve by 16% within the two-year contract.

He works closely with the hotel group’s board on new signings and has played a decisive role in the pre-opening team of the Hotel Brooklyn, a 190-room luxury property in Manchester. He also has responsibility for the further expansion of the flagship Hotel Gotham Collection.

Before joining Bespoke Hotels Ltd, Mario oversaw the opening of Hotel Xenia London, a 90-bedroom luxury boutique property in Kensington. He also has previous experience of managing operations at the Colonnade Hotel London, the Corus Hotel Hyde Park in London and the Holiday Inn in Basildon, Essex.

He’s demonstrated through the contracts signed with hotels that he can step in as a management consultant and achieve quick wins, while implementing medium-to-long-term businesses strategies and commercial measures to foster sustainable long-term growth.

The professional insights he can offer could be the difference between a hotel’s success and its failure. At a time of foreseeable economic uncertainty, many properties are unsustainable under their current management and will need assistance to survive and thrive, either by finding a niche in the market or identifying areas for improvement.

Latest posts by Mario Ovsenjak

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Lawyers, accountants, advisors, investors, senior
management. You name it, we help them find the answers
they need. Ready to discover how we can help you?