In The Spotlight with...George Radev

For this week’s ‘In The Spotlight' feature, we speak to a young gentleman who was recently promoted to Reservations Manager, after years of perseverance and hard work within the Reservations team at InterContinental London – The O2.

George Radev joined the hotel in April 2017 from another IHG Group hotel, where he was working in Switchboard. He was very excited to start his new role as a Reservations Agent as his previous role was very phone-heavy, and he wanted a customer-service role that offered a combination of bookings and admin.

In October 2018, he received his first promotion to Group’s Executive. The daily responsibilities involved in his role changed significantly during this time and turned to focus more on selling, negotiation, bookings that were larger in size and value, and he was introduced to proformas and contracts for the first time.

George excelled in this role as he loved managing client’s group requests within the wider Reservations system and seeing how one booking impacted the hotel’s bottom line. By nature, George is highly independent, focused, and loves consistency and provision in everything he does. Within these roles, he felt there was room for improvement, and although only in his early 20s at the time, he felt confident enough to facilitate and push for bettering of the hotel’s reservations and booking processes.

In October 2019, George was then promoted to Assistant Reservations Manager, where his role combined what he’d learnt as a Reservations Agent and a Group Executive. This is when his daily responsibilities started to incorporate team management, which is what George fell in love with. From looking after large group accounts to assisting his team with reservation enquiries, George’s leadership skills thrived in this new position.

He speaks about a time in his previous roles, where he felt inspired and motivated, particularly by previous Managers – and wants to ensure he offers that same level of support to his team. What really inspires George is continual improvement and seeing the flow of processes and sense of teamwork evolve over time.

“I’ve had amazing examples within the last 5 years at InterContinental London – The O2 from my Revenue and Reservation Managers – one thing that’s always kept me here is the team. It’s been somewhat of a family to me.”

In January of 2022, George was then promoted to Reservations Manager, a position as Head of Department where he is now in charge of the Management of the Reservations team. He absolutely loves his new role where he has taken on more responsibility and can combine everything, he has learnt so far since joining ICO2 into one comprehensive role.

From looking after the hotel’s reservations, overseeing and making decisions on the pricing strategy, segmentation of guests and groups, learning how to forecast revenue management, creating and managing hotel rate codes, managing revenue targets, improving processes and set-ups and working in line with IHG’s reservation system and strategy.

Outside of work, George enjoys gaming, listening to music, relaxing at home, recharging his batteries with a lie-in, spending time in nature, rollerblading and experimenting with food, particularly vegan pastry treats!

We are continually inspired by George’s amazing attitude and are so proud of all his hard work!