Hospitality Director

**Position Overview**:
**The Hospitality Director** plays a central role in the smooth accommodation planning and logistics for all invited guests of the festival. Sitting within the Operations department and working in close collaboration with Guest Relations, this role is responsible for developing and executing the guest accommodation strategy—ensuring efficient, accurate, and thoughtful hotel assignments based on guest type, program needs, and partner agreements.

This role requires a seasoned communicator and a highly organized leader with strong logístical planning skills, the ability to handle sensitive guest information, and to manage large-scale hotel allocations while ensuring a seamless guest experience.

**Key Responsibilities**:
**Guest Planning & Accommodation Strategy**:

- Lead the planning and execution of all accommodation-related logistics for invited guests (filmmakers, jury, VIPs, talent, industry, etc.)
- Collect, consolidate, and verify guest data from Guest Relations and Programming teams.
- Coordinate hotel room blocks with partner hotels, ensuring alignment with guest categories and strategic needs.
- Oversee the intelligent distribution of guests across festival accommodation partners, taking into account rank, relevance, schedule proximity, and personal preferences (e.g., placing jurors together, proximity to venues, etc.)
- Maintain a master accommodation tracker, ensuring up-to-date visibility across all bookings and room assignments.
- Oversee accommodation arrangements for third-party stakeholders, including members of the extended team, consultants, and contractors as directed.

**Stakeholder Collaboration**:

- Work closely with Guest Relations to ensure accommodation arrangements align with travel itineraries and guest categories.
- Coordinate with Fleet and Transport teams to ensure guest location data informs shuttle and transportation planning.
- Collaborate with the Partnerships team to uphold hotel deliverables and benefits.

**Communication & Supervision**:

- Serve as the primary liaison between festival departments and hotel partners, maintaining clear, timely, and professional communication.
- Supervise a small team handling data entry, hotel confirmations, and guest communications related to accommodation. Provide hotel partners with detailed check-in lists, schedules, and guest preferences in a timely manner.

**On-Site & Pre-Festival Responsibilities**:

- Ensure all hotel rooms are properly reserved, labeled, and prepared prior to guest arrivals.
- Be on-call to address hotel-related guest issues, overbookings, or last-minute changes. Monitor hotel occupancy and forecast potential shortfalls or overflows.

**Qualifications & Requirements**:

- Minimum **6+ years** of experience in operations, hospitality management, event logistics, or accommodation planning—preferably in a festival, large-scale event, or tourism setting.
- Strong experience managing hotel blocks, guest data, and logístical mapping.
- Exceptional organizational and data management skills; extreme attention to detail.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, especially with high-level guests and partners.
- Discretion and sensitivity in handling confidential guest and talent information.
- Proven ability to manage multiple stakeholders and deadlines under pressure.
- Proficiency in Google Suite (especially Sheets), and experience with CRM or accommodation software is a plus.
- Ability to work extended hours during the festival period.

**Bonus Points**:

- Experience working with international VIPs, talent, and high-profile guests.
- Familiarity with the hotel/hospitality scene in [Festival Location or Gouna].
- Multilingual ability and cultural sensitivity in guest handling.

**About Elgouna Film Festival**:
El Gouna Film Festival, founded in 2017, is one of the leading festivals in the MENA region. GFF aims to showcase a wide variety of films for a passionate and knowledgeable audience, while fostering better communication between cultures through the art of filmmaking. Its goal is to connect filmmakers from the region with their international counterparts in the spirit of cooperation and cultural exchange. The festival is committed to the discovery of new voices and strives to be a catalyst for the development of cinema in the Arab world, especially through its industry arm CineGouna Platform.