A graduate of the class of ’07, Myles Carr is now Franchise Operations Manager – NSW for AccorHotels, looking after 26 hotels across the region. He says his degree provided him with the foundation skills to feel confident to put up his hand up for the position.
“If someone had told me that eight years after graduating I would have worked in six or seven hotels, with each position different and better than the previous, I would never have believed them,” says Myles.
In his current role, he is AccorHotels’ representative for the New South Wales region, which oversees a portfolio of 26 hotels. It involves integrating new hotels into the network; providing assistance to franchisees for sales and marketing, revenue management, procurement and Accor-related systems; and assisting management in the continued growth of the network.
Myles was previously Multi Hotel Revenue Manager for Accor Sydney Olympic Park Hotels (2014–2016), where he managed annual top line revenue in excess of AU$50 million. In addition, he was on the committee in charge of 200-plus staff and responsible for recruiting, training and developing the next generation of revenue management professionals.
For two years prior to that he was in the same role, but at the iconic Pier One Sydney and Harbour Rocks Hotel, overseeing the transition of both properties from Mirvac to the Accor model. Further, repositioning the Harbour Rocks Hotel as an MGallery by Sofitel property.
Myles says that whatever your position, there is always a need to listen, learn and question, and his advice is: “Get a mentor you respect and make sure you catch up with them every two months and to continually reskill, retrain and re-educate.”
Myles aspires to be a general manager sometime in the future. “I know what is required of the role and with my previous experiences and future opportunities I will develop the required skills to one day succeed.