Netherlands: Cycas Hospitality has announced a further round off appointments at properties across Europe.
Petra Baer has been appointed GM of Cycas’s first property in Belgium; the Residence Inn Brussels Airport (opening March 2021). Fluent in seven languages and with a strong background in hotel operations, she joins from Marriott International, where she spent 22 years working across a range of the group’s brands.
From September, Philip Steiner will take up the GM position for Cycas’s upcoming Moxy and Residence Inn by Marriott double-decker hotel in Slough (opening April 2021). Since joining Cycas two years ago as director of accommodations and serviced apartments, he has been instrumental in introducing new operational systems across its portfolio to support the company’s European expansion. In recognition of his hotel operations expertise, in February 2020 he became the first-ever winner of HSMAI Europe’s Young Talent of the Year Award.
Earlier this year Cycas’s central hotel support team was strengthened by the appointment of Martin Hird as group director of sales. He joined from Interstate Hotels & Resorts, where he spent five years helping shape the sales function and was responsible for 30 hotels across the UK market. With 14 years’ experience of providing strategic sales solutions across a diverse portfolio of brands and markets, he reports into Cycas’s commercial director Neetu Mistry.
Wayne Androliakos, chief operating officer of Cycas Hospitality, said: “Our business is named after the Cycad palm; a plant prized for its resilience and adaptable nature, which allows it to continue growing in even the toughest conditions. Whilst 2020 has been an unprecedented time for the hospitality industry, Cycas remains focused on building and developing a pipeline of incredible talent to match our exciting European pipeline. We’re delighted to be joined by some of the very best people in the industry. And, with Cycas set to open ten new hotels over the coming year, we’re confident these appointments will help ensure we’re in the strongest position to maximise each hotel’s full potential.”
The recruitment drive follows the company’s appointment of five regional experts across France and Germany earlier this summer in advance of the opening of Cycas’s first two French properties – a dual-branded Hyatt hotel by Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport – this autumn.
