Irshaad Mohideen’s rise in the hospitality industry reflects a sharp strategic mind and a passion for performance. With over nine years of experience across sales, digital marketing, and revenue management, he now serves as Assistant Vice President of Revenue at Atmosphere Core. From launching THE OZEN COLLECTION to leading complex clusters, Irshaad’s journey is marked by bold decisions and a forward-thinking approach.
In this exclusive interview, he shares how he is shaping data-driven adaptability and a deep understanding of market dynamics shape his success in one of the Maldives’ most competitive luxury hospitality groups.
To be honest I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be in hospitality coming from household background of hoteliers for parents I was quite specific in what I wanted. I did not, however, want to be pinned to one field of commerce. This led me to the field of revenue management. I began my career in revenue management at the bottom of the revenue ladder, the humble beginning of being a revenue executive. I still thank my first company and key mentors who truly groomed me at a young age and recognised my potential. With their guidance, I grew very quickly in sales, digital marketing and revenue management.
Within just a span of a few years I found myself being the cluster head of revenue for over 1000 rooms, 15 restaurants and bars and more. I still recall a feeling of being overwhelmed which taught me many things, yet surely with perseverance all obstacles can be overcome. Which has led me inexorably here to present day performing a vital function for a multi-million-dollar group, where every day is testament to challenging myself to be better.
The most significant experiences I can mention are handling a cluster at the age of 27 and playing a key role in beginning THE OZEN COLLECTION, part of the Atmosphere Core portfolio before hitting 30. These years have given me profound experiences, life changes and much joy to do what I love to do, which is competing at a high level in the field.
The industry will often look at REVPOR, REVPAR, ADR as the classic metrics, but I would largely categorise these as “Lag” indicators. We often try too hard to make sense of the past instead of analysing the risks and benefits of making decisions here and now to benefit the future. I would always consider the above variables yes but in combination with others to relate how they commercially impact our current course.
The most important metric is utilising this knowledge for “adaptability”. Maldives as a destination has changed its characteristics a few times in the recent past due to global events. To add, it is key to observe the fluctuations and changes in the market dynamics. Analysing future demand is the key metric I rely on to ensure we stay ahead of the competition.
I believe the biggest trend many industries are talking about is AI, particularly in the hospitality industry, the application of which is being explored as we speak, more interestingly in the field of revenue management. However, I believe that in its current state it will be only viable for augmenting and refining existing processes in all departments, such as reducing waste, increasing productivity & efficiency, thereby increasing profitability. Direct influence on commercial aspects may take a while as it would require AI models to be extensively trained in the field. It would be interesting to see the impact such technology will have in industry where the scope is untested barring existing RM tools.
Without going into much detail, I think the most challenging time would be surely the post-pandemic year as was for many hoteliers. It forced the industry to rethink the norm and indeed changed the market landscape, even in our horizontal industry airline operators changed. It was not a time to compete on ADR or REVPAR but simply an extremely competitive landscape even more so in the Maldives. We had to switch gear into what I call composition management rather than revenue management. We often forget that revenue management is not simply yielding rates or determining discounts as this is one small part of the function. Another key area would be to control the composition of your business, be it rate, inventory, discount, or market, controlling composition to the changing demand landscape is what allowed us to remain versatile enough to gain the best revenue mix.
Though on the surface, guest feedback doesn’t seem to have a relation to pricing, it actually has a notable impact. It is a direct influence on pricing and prices set in the market, i.e. guest feedback and reviews read by prospects often assign “reference” prices within consumer groups, which influences market forces on the perceived value for a brand, hotel or property. We use this to analyse and ascertain price positioning relative to whom we compete against and the markets that are due in bound. Without giving away too much detail it is an important element for us to determine our forward pricing approach across a portfolio.
