Why “We Always Do It This Way” Is Killing Your Hotel Sales Career

4 Moves That Set Top Hotel Salespeople Apart

By Sara Pinto, Director of Account Strategy

I’ve heard it time and time again from hotel salespeople: “I don’t want to learn a new system, what we use now is fine.”

I get it. Between juggling RFPs, chasing down group leads, managing BEOs, and trying to hit your booking goals, who has time to learn something new? But here’s what I’ve learned after years of working with hotel sales teams: that “fine” system you’re using? It’s probably costing you more than you realize—in time, in revenue, and in career growth.

Early in my career, I was that person. I had my Excel trackers, my email folders, my sticky notes. It felt manageable. But when I finally stopped to audit how I actually spent my time, I realized I was spending 60% of my day on administrative tasks and only 40% actually selling. That ratio should have been reversed. I needed some hotel sales tips.

In hotel sales, complacency is your silent competitor. You may not see it, but every unchallenged habit, every “that’s how we’ve always done it” moment chips away at your growth and innovation. That familiar routine might feel safe, but over time it becomes your ceiling—the thing that keeps you from breaking through to the next level.

Today more than ever, in our fast-paced, technology-driven industry, if you’re not willing to adapt and evolve, you’re already behind. The hotels that are winning aren’t just working harder—they’re working smarter.

If you want to differentiate yourself and accelerate your career, you have to be intentional. You need to adopt growth habits, challenge your own methods, and invest in evolving your craft. Below are four actionable moves that separate high performers from the “just doing their job” reps—and how you can start applying them today.

1. Make Learning Non-Negotiable (Daily Micro-Improvements)

The world of hotel sales is moving fast: new distribution channels, evolving buyer expectations, AI-powered tools, changing group booking behaviors. Staying static means falling behind.

I see this constantly: salespeople who mastered the game 5 years ago are now struggling because they haven’t adapted to how corporate travel managers research and book today. They’re still using the same pitch, the same follow-up cadence, the same tools—while their competitors are leveraging modern CRM systems, automated follow-ups, and data-driven insights.

Top organizations embed learning into daily workflows. In fact, those that do are 4.9× more likely to onboard sellers effectively and 3.5× more likely to have sales teams primed for success.

How to start:

Block 15 minutes each morning for learning relevant to your market:

• Read industry publications (Hotel Business, HSMAI newsletters)
• Listen to hospitality sales podcasts during your commute
• Study what your competitors are doing in their group packages

Choose one topic per week and experiment:

• Week 1: Try a new objection handling technique on price pushback
• Week 2: Test a different email subject line approach for cold outreach
• Week 3: Practice a new way to present F&B options in your proposals

Join a peer group where you share what you’ve tried and learned. Set up a 30-minute weekly coffee with your favorite colleague and do a knowledge share. What worked this week? What flopped? What did you learn?

If you do this consistently, even small gains compound into tangible performance boosts over months. One salesperson I work with started dedicating 20 minutes a day to learning new CRM features—within 90 days, she cut her response time to leads from 4 hours to 15 minutes. That directly translated to more bookings.

2. Invite Feedback & Foster Mentorship

Many hotel salespeople end up in echo chambers—doing the same thing, getting the same results, wondering why the bookings aren’t coming in.

Here’s the truth: you can’t see your own blind spots. External feedback is the lens that reveals them.

When I transitioned from property-level sales to working across multiple hotels, I realized how many bad habits I’d developed in isolation. Things that I thought were “efficient” were actually making me less effective. It took a mentor pointing it out for me to see it.

Coaches, mentors, or trusted peers can challenge your assumptions, point out weak spots (or hidden strengths!), and keep you honest. In the same way you push your prospects to improve their group booking strategies, push yourself to ask: “What am I missing?”

Suggestion:

At the end of every major deal—won or lost—or at the end of every week, ask three questions:

1. What worked well? (Maybe your site visit presentation was killer)
2. What didn’t? (Perhaps you lost the deal on pricing flexibility)
3. What’s one thing I could test/change next time? (Try offering a custom F&B package earlier in the conversation)

Schedule monthly check-ins with a mentor or peer you respect. Share a recent call recording or proposal. Ask them: “What would you have done differently?”

Over time, those feedback loops sharpen your instincts and raise your baseline. You stop making the same mistakes and start capitalizing on patterns that work.

3. Strengthen Your Soft Skills & Sales EQ

Hotel sales isn’t just about rates and room blocks—it’s about people. Listening, empathy, emotional control, adaptability—these distinguish a rep from a robot.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a salesperson lose a deal not because of price, but because they didn’t pick up on what the client actually needed. The planner was stressed about logistics, and the rep kept talking about the rooftop bar. The corporate buyer wanted simplicity, and the rep overwhelmed them with options.

The more technically proficient you become with your tools and systems, the more your soft skills become your differentiator.

Practice:

After every call or site visit, pause and self-reflect:

• Where did I miss signals? (Did they mention budget concerns that I glossed over?)
• What did their body language tell me? (Were they engaged or just being polite?)
• Did I talk more than I listened? (Rookie mistake—the client should talk 60-70% of the time)

Role-play tough situations weekly with a colleague:

• Practice handling: “Your competitor is $15/night cheaper”
• Rehearse: “We need to cut 20 rooms from the block”
• Work through: “We’re considering going with a different property”

Read books on influence, behavioral psychology, and storytelling:

• “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss
• “The Challenger Sale” by Dixon and Adamson
• “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller

Hotel sales is a human craft—the better you are at reading people and building relationships, the bigger your edge. Technology can help you manage your pipeline, but emotional intelligence helps you close deals.

4. Manage Your Time, Energy & Focus Like a CEO

Here’s what I see happening constantly: hotel salespeople spending 70% of their day on administrative tasks and only 30% on actually selling.

They’re:

• Manually entering data into three different systems
• Searching through email threads for old contracts
• Rebuilding proposals from scratch every time
• Chasing down details that should be at their fingertips

The best hotel salespeople don’t just manage tasks—they manage energy, priorities, and context. They protect their selling time fiercely.

How to take control:

Use time blocks for high-leverage work and protect them:

• 8:30-10:30 AM: Prospecting and outbound calls (when decision-makers actually answer)
• 10:30-12:00 PM: Responding to hot leads and RFPs
• 1:00-3:00 PM: Site visits and client meetings
• 3:00-4:00 PM: Pipeline review and follow-ups

Say no to low-value distractions that don’t move deals:

• Do you really need to attend that meeting, or can you get a summary?
• Can someone else handle that BEO revision, or are you doing it out of habit?
• Is manually tracking leads in Excel the best use of your time, or should you invest in a system that does it automatically?

Regularly audit your calendar: Are 80% of your hours going into activities that grow your pipeline or close deals? If not, something needs to change.

This is where modern tools make a massive difference. A CRM system that integrates with your email, automates follow-up reminders, and keeps all your account information in one place can give you back 10-15 hours a week. That’s time you can spend actually selling.

The goal isn’t to work more hours—it’s to make the hours you work count. By safeguarding your focus, you give yourself breathing room to innovate, learn, and reflect rather than getting consumed by the daily grind.

The Bottom Line: Growth Is a Choice

The day you stop challenging how you do your work is the day your growth stalls. But here’s the great news: change doesn’t require a massive overhaul. It just demands consistent, intentional steps.

I’ve worked with hotel salespeople who transformed their careers not by working twice as hard, but by working twice as smart. They invested in better systems, better habits, and better skills—and it paid off in bigger deals, faster closings, and ultimately, promotions.

When you start rejecting “we always do it this way” and begin iterating forward, you shift from average to exceptional. You become the salesperson that management wants to promote, that clients want to work with, and that competitors want to emulate.

Your Next Step: Take Action Today

Pick one of the four moves above and commit to it:

1. Learning: Block 15 minutes tomorrow morning for focused learning
2. Feedback: Schedule a monthly mentor coffee this week
3. Soft Skills: After your next call, take 5 minutes to self-reflect on what you could improve
4. Time Management: Audit your calendar right now—where are you losing hours?

Commit to applying it every day or week. Track your progress. After 30 days, revisit: What’s working? What’s next?

Tools Built for How You Actually Work

Part of evolving your craft means using tools that support your growth, not hold you back. If you’re ready to see how modern hotel sales teams are managing their pipelines, relationships, and time, we’d love to show you.

Matrix by M1 Intel was built by hotel owners who got tired of CRM systems that worked against their teams instead of for them. We designed it specifically for hotel salespeople who want to spend more time selling and less time on administrative busywork.

See Matrix in Action – Book a Demo

Or, if you’re not ready for that yet, download our free resource: “The Hotel Salesperson’s Time Audit Worksheet” to identify where you’re losing hours each week.

Download Free Worksheet

Want to connect? I’m always happy to chat with hotel sales professionals about career growth, industry trends, or how to break through to the next level.

Sara Pinto
Director of Account Strategy
M1 Intel

Connect with me on LinkedIn | Follow M1 Intel on LinkedIn

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