ARMA – Melissa Kalan
After successfully completing the Australian Hospitality Traineeship Scheme through the former All Seasons Harbour Rocks Hotel in Sydney (now part of MGallery collection) and the Sydney Institute of Technology, Melissa graduated with the most outstanding student award in Tourism and Hospitality.
She also received the prestigious employee of the year award not long after with the All Seasons Hotel Group.
Melissa then began her career with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Sydney (now the Stamford Circular Quay) in Reservations in 1992 and in 1996 was awarded employee of the year in recognition of her dedication and commitment to quality service.
After gaining experience across many areas of the hotel, Melissa was appointed Reservations Manager – and so began an exciting career in revenue management.
Trained by Marriott in Washington DC, Melissa went on to become the Director of Revenue Management for both The Ritz-Carlton, Hotel Sydney and Double Bay overseeing the implementation of revenue management systems, staff training and effectively applying revenue management strategies to significantly increase rooms revenue at both properties, in particular at The Ritz-Carlton, Double Bay.
In recognition of Melissa’s revenue management abilities she was charged with implementing best-practice techniques at various Ritz-Carlton properties in the Asia Pacific region. These included training and providing recommendations to hotel management for a successful revenue management strategy and system integration. These properties included, The Ritz-Carlton Singapore, Bali, Seoul and Osaka.
After a property management takeover, and to further broaden her career in revenue management, Melissa was successful in obtaining a revenue management position with Qantas Airways in 2000.
Trained by Qantas in revenue management, Melissa worked in Domestic on various routes including the prime Sydney – Melbourne route. She also gained experience in International revenue management managing the UK/Europe routes and the profitable QF1 & QF2 for a number of years.
Over her time at Qantas, Melissa was part of various project teams and improved the function of the airlines revenue management system by designing a traffic light system to prioritise changes in demand patterns from forecast across routes.
After Qantas Melissa established RevPAR Support & Recruit. Qualified in Human Resource Management, this venture gave Melissa exposure to many properties and their need for well qualified revenue management employees and training support.
With a passion for revenue management and training Melissa established ARMA – Australian Revenue Management Association to provide expert assistance to industry by offering a central place of independent revenue management advice and training services that support all sectors of the accommodation industry.
The ARMA signature online foundations certificate has been validated by numerous industry testimonials as quality and engaging online learning.
ARMA’s community of revenue management focused organisations have said she de-mystifies the revenue management process by pitching training material at exactly the right level for their employees and organisational needs, with quality material, customised e-learning solutions and real life broad industry experience.
Melissa Kalan also wrote the first nationally accredited (by ASQA) short course in yield management and developed and facilitates the Graduate Certificate of Revenue Management, university level course in partnership with Torrens University Australia.
Melissa also founded the annual APAC Revenue Management Summit a collaborative conference with like-minded professionals focused on education.