Playa appoints new commercial director for the UK and Europe

Commencing her role with immediate effect, Catena’s remit will include driving sales performance for Playa Hotels & Resorts’ individual brands across all markets, maintaining and improving partner relationships, building new and meaningful relationships across a variety of sectors, as well as ensuring key partners are fully trained on the product and visit select Playa properties regularly to keep knowledge fresh and usable.     

Working closely with Lucy Abdul, Commercial Manager UK & Ireland, Playa Hotels & Resorts, Catena brings a wealth of experience to the team having previously worked with TripAdvisor in the UK and for Cara Hotel Marketing, which involved managing an extensive portfolio of more than 70 hotels in the Caribbean for the UK and European markets. Originally from Italy, Catena studied Foreign Languages at the University of Bologna and is fluent in Spanish, Italian and English. 

Commenting on her appointment, Catena says: “I’m delighted to be working with Playa Hotels & Resorts. My representation experience within the Caribbean lends itself perfectly to this commercial remit and I can’t wait to work with the team to help drive Playa and its brands within the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy and other emerging European markets.”

Anders Sparkhall, Commercial Director, Playa Hotels & Resorts also comments: “We are delighted to have Silvia join the team, I’ve no doubt that her valuable experience will be an asset, helping us to continue our drive for increased sales performance year on year across all of our brands and in all of our key markets.”

Catena’s appointment comes within a period of significant growth for the Playa Hotels & Resorts European team both from a commercial standpoint and with increased agent engagement within individual markets in mind. Playa now has dedicated commercial drive in emerging markets such as Italy, Portugal and Spain, plus a newly appointed market manager in the region of Spain to complement its established teams in Germany, the UK, Ireland and France.