S.A. On Tour: Durban

Samantha Williams is an award winning revenue specialist and currently holds the senior management position of Commercial Director at Profitroom. Before joining Profitroom she worked as a senior revenue and product manager working with a mixed portfolio of over 75 hotels and prior to this held sales and marketing manager positions for leisure resorts and hotels in the UK. Highly respected and with a strong background in hospitality, revenue management and leadership she has worked across numerous hotel marketing and management disciplines and is able to relate to the challenges that hoteliers face. 

She is passionate about helping hoteliers maximise and grow their revenue and is an advocate for personalised, automated processes and integrated systems that help to make the sales process easy for employees and more engaging for guests. At Profitroom Samantha leads on the strategic and operational activities to deliver transformative, tangible results for leisure hotels and resorts in the Africa, Europe and beyond.

For over 20 years, Michael has been developing and training leaders and entrepreneurs around the world. Having resided in the UK for 16 years and presented leadership training in over 25 countries, he has a wealth of international experience and practical know-how.

Working with government departments, businesses, corporates, NPO's as well as sports teams to build leaders, strengthen companies, envision, and inspire.

Michael is an adventurer at heart, together with a small overland team he has driven in a 4x4 from London, UK to Cape Town in South Africa, climbed Kilimanjaro, and visited 66 countries.

Alan Campbell, Sales and Marketing Director at ANEW Hotels & Resorts, already had an illustrious background before joining the fast-growing hotel group.

Alan is a big fan of challenging the norm, especially in business. “I believe that you should constantly wrestle with your own business and your own way of doing things.” He also values his team, believing his number one function is to make sure they’re motivated and empowered at all times. “The people I’ve worked with have been largely responsible for my success in life, and I don’t see that changing. I am blessed to have amazing people around me. I think that I’m good at figuring out how to make them better and how to extract as much value out of them as I can. So for the most part, I’m the jovial joker, but I’m also very target and results-driven.”

lan is also a big fan of the great outdoors and loves the juxtaposition of staying in hotels with camping. Alan can be found walking his rescue dog Quin on the beach or on a wine farm in his spare time. He is also a big supporter of the South African wine industry and continues his love of football, either playing the game on the pitch or watching his favourite team, Liverpool, in action.

With over 15 years of experience within the hospitality industry, Eben’s continuous passion for wanting to assist property owners to achieve their dreams complemented by his love for technology, has always been the recipe for his success. In the many years Eben has spent working at Ankerdata Hospitality Systems as an employee, later COO, and now managing partner, he understands the importance of communication, catering to the client’s needs, and after-sales support. These factors have not only shaped the face of the organization but highlighted the core values of Ankerdata, which are Honesty, Integrity, Transparency, and Accountability. Eben strongly believes, your Guest is our Guest!

It all started back in 1987 when I finished high school and had to complete 2 years military service before starting my career. As an in-service trainee with Karos Hotels, I received a certificate in Hospitality Management from Wits Technikon. I have worked for various private and corporate hotels in South Africa.

The following cities have given me the opportunity to follow my career; Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Kathu, and Rustenburg covering either leisure or corporate properties. A highlight of my career was opening the 5 Star Royal Marang Hotel outside Rustenburg for Soccer World Cup 2010 and hosting the English Soccer Team. Other highlights have included working for 2 x boutique properties with private ownership resulting in attention to detail and focus on service.

I am currently the Club Director at Zimbali Heritage Place where I look after 15 villas on behalf of 195 owners.