Varun Raikhy
Commercial and Revenue Management leader
About Varun
Varun Raikhy held a senior leadership position in revenue management at Hilton Worldwide until recently, responsible for commercial strategy and market share performance across a large hotel portfolio spanning Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. Over the course of his career he has worked across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East, giving him a genuinely global perspective and deep experience working across cultures.
Earlier in his career, one of his defining milestones was building a centralized Revenue Management Consolidated Centre for Hilton in Asia Pacific, relocating to Shanghai in 2012 to establish the function from the ground up.
He is skilled at architecting solutions across revenue and commercial disciplines, with a strong grasp of how the customer journey and commercial functions need to align to drive performance. He is experienced across multiple technology platforms, including business intelligence tools, property management systems, and central reservation systems and outside of work, builds his own automation tools, replacing software that would otherwise cost thousands, at no cost to himself.
He holds leadership certifications from Harvard and Cornell, including a recently completed Hotel Real Estate and Asset Management certification from eCornell, along with a BA (Hons) in Hospitality Management. He now runs an independent hospitality consultancy specializing in revenue management and commercial strategy. What keeps him energized is travel itself, having explored a great many countries, it's this constant movement and exposure to new places that fuels his drive as a hospitality leader.
Professional Experience
Varun's career spans over 25 years in hospitality revenue management, built entirely within global hotel brands. He spent the majority of his career at Hilton Worldwide, progressing through Revenue Manager, Assistant Director, and Director-level roles across Europe and Asia Pacific, culminating in oversight of Revenue Management for Hilton's International Franchise portfolio across EMEA. Earlier in his career, he worked in revenue management at Rocco Forte Hotels across multiple UK properties, and began his career in various revenue management roles at Marriott in the UK.
Across these roles, his discipline has consistently centered on revenue management, commercial strategy, and market share performance, spanning both centralized/consolidated revenue functions and large-scale portfolio leadership.
Key Achievements
Built a revenue function from zero to $600m. Relocated to Shanghai in 2012 to launch Hilton's Asia-Pacific Revenue Management Consolidated Centre.
Led a 500+ hotel portfolio. As Director of Revenue Management for Hilton's International Franchise Hotels, drove revenue performance and market share across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Türkiye.
Recognized at the top. Won Hilton's CREATE Award (2014) for commercial leadership, plus three consecutive Revenue Team of the Year awards (2007–2009).
25 years, no plateau. From Hotel Supervisor of the Year at Marriott (2001) to Director-level at Hilton., backed by constant self-development.
Builds what others buy. Codes his own automation and reporting tools.
Varun trains and advises hospitality professionals because he's done the job at scale, not just studied it. Building Hilton's Asia-Pacific Revenue Management Consolidated Centre from the ground up, relocating to Shanghai to stand it up, meant turning revenue management from a property-level task into a structured, data-driven commercial capability. That's the same shift he now brings to owners, operators, GMs, revenue managers, and commercial leaders: stronger forecasting, sharper market share, and centralized decision-making that doesn't depend on any one person in any one hotel.
His specialist areas span the full commercial function, from commercial diagnostics and pricing strategy, to distribution and channel management, revenue operations and governance, openings and lifecycle support, organisational build, and team training and development. Whether the need is a one-off audit, embedded revenue support, or building commercial capability across a team, the approach stays the same: clarity over jargon, every recommendation explained, every result measurable.