A chat with Mr. Toitot!

"I love to have the opportunity to open the eyes of young hospitality professionals and make a difference to the generation responsible for the future of hospitality!”

Third year student Nav Singh, sat down with lecturer Mr. Frédéric Toitot to talk with him about his life as a hospitality professional as well as lecturer here at the hotelschool. Read about what inspired him to work in hospitality, what he enjoys most about it, why he loves to teach, and what brought him to the Hotel Management School Maastricht!

Working as Revenue Manager

Mr. Toitot, as you may already know, is from France: “For the last 20 years I have been living in Paris and since the summer of 2019, I have been making the commute to Maastricht to be a lecturer here. My major experience lies in hotel revenue optimization, one of the subjects I teach at HMSM. I have been working at Accor, a global hospitality company with French roots, for most of my career. At Accor, I was in charge of revenue management in the learning and development division. I designed and rolled out all programs and certifications for revenue management, pricing, distribution, and digital marketing to Accor hotel managers on the 6 continents. Prior to this, I was in charge of strategic revenue management projects at Accor headquarters in Paris, and prior to that I worked in the hotel rooms operations in cities like London and New York for Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts.

"The best aspects of revenue management are the elements of managing demand pricing, monitoring the performance of a hotel, solving real business problems through revenue management all while trying to be more efficient than the competition.”

The inspiration to work in hospitality

"I had the desire to have a job with not a lot of routine, where I could travel, the aspect of meeting people and the aspiration to work for the big brands of the hospitality world. All in all, I wanted to discover the wonderful world of hospitality!"

Teaching at Hotel Management School Maastricht

“Teaching is really a part of my DNA” says Mr. Toitot when asked about why he chooses to teach. “My mother was a teacher and while I  never wanted to be a teacher per se, I feel it is still part of me and I have an aptitude for it. I enjoy standing up and sharing what I am passionate about to young and passionate individuals. I love to have the opportunity to open the eyes of young hospitality professionals and make a difference to the generation responsible for the future of hospitality!”

Networking is very important, as we as hotel school students know by now, and this is exactly how Mr. Toitot found his job here as a lecturer: “Some of my friends who worked here in senior positions were in search of a lecturer. This was very serendipitous, as at the time I was happy to take up the job as a lecturer to fulfill my need to teach, especially in countries that are not French speaking. The cherry on top of the cake is the fact that the Hotel Management School Maastricht has a great reputation and that made me very proud to have this opportunity!”

In the end, Mr. Toitot has had an incredibly interesting journey around the world diving into the world of hospitality, and more specifically revenue management, and is now here to share his knowledge and experiences. We are all very happy to have you and your expertise be part of our acquisition of hospitality knowledge!