Alessandra Leoni’s career has been shaped by more than three decades of working inside one of the world’s most demanding and constantly evolving industries. From frontline operational roles to senior leadership positions overseeing commercial strategy, revenue performance, and large-scale hospitality transformations, she has built a reputation for understanding hospitality from the inside out. Her journey reflects a rare combination of operational discipline, commercial awareness, and technological foresight—qualities that now define her leadership as Head of Hospitality at Focus on Hospitality, powered by Focus Group.
Having started her career in hands-on hospitality roles before progressing into leadership positions across complex hotel portfolios, Alessandra developed a practical understanding of the industry long before digital transformation became a boardroom priority. She witnessed firsthand how guest expectations evolved, how operational pressures intensified, and how hotels increasingly struggled to balance service excellence with the growing complexity of technology. Rather than viewing technology as a disruptive force, she recognized its potential to strengthen hospitality when implemented with clarity, purpose, and human understanding.
Today, Alessandra operates at the center of one of hospitality’s most important conversations: how technology can simplify operations without compromising the personal experiences that define the industry. Through Focus on Hospitality, she is helping hotels rethink fragmented systems, disconnected workflows, and reactive technology adoption by creating integrated solutions designed around the realities of day-to-day hotel operations. Her work combines technical innovation with deep hospitality expertise, ensuring that technology enhances rather than replaces the human side of service.
The following interview encapsulates Alessandra’s journey through hospitality leadership, her approach to building high-performing teams, her perspective on AI and operational transformation, and her vision for a future where connected technology, strategic integration, and human-centric experiences redefine what exceptional hospitality looks like:
- Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position
- What challenges have you had to overcome to reach where you are today?
I’ve been working in hospitality for over 30 years. It’s an industry that has undergone vast changes in some respects, but on the front of it – guest experiences remain at the heart of what we do. I’ve been fortunate to work across operational, commercial and revenue functions, having started as a housekeeper before serving the Super Bowl, presidential inaugurations and Commercial and IT teams across hotel portfolios.
From transforming +€3 million business to supporting the growth and development of a London portfolio, including multiple rebrands – the challenges have been numerous. Perhaps the most notable across all these fundamental business changes is the adoption and practical utilisation of technology in hospitality. For each evolution, the business has had to review and strategically determine the tech stack that is capable of delivering for our operations team, while centralising and optimising core processes for business expansion.
- Tell us something more about Focus on Hospitality and Focus Group and its mission and vision.
Focus on Hospitality is the dedicated hospitality arm of Focus Group, which is one of the UK’s top providers of essential business technology. We provide Hospitality businesses with custom IT infrastructure and services, supporting them with a digital makeover to help their properties’ run smoothly and meet guest expectations.
Our IT solutions are designed to blend right in with a hotel’s existing tech without causing headaches, covering everything from IT infrastructure, telecoms, cybersecurity, and even AI-powered CCTV. We aim to simplify the infrastructure so staff can stop wrestling with tech and start focusing on giving guests those amazing experiences
Our mission is to simplify tech, so hotels can focus on delivering excellence.
- How do you build and manage a motivated and effective team?
For me, it always starts with clarity of purpose. People need to understand not just what they are doing, but why it matters. In hospitality, everything connects back to the guest experience and ultimately to performance. When teams see that link, motivation follows naturally.
I also believe in building teams that are cross-functional and empowered. Hospitality doesn’t operate in silos, and neither should we. The most effective teams I’ve worked with bring together operational insight, commercial thinking, and technical expertise.
From a leadership perspective, it’s important to set clear expectations, create accountability, and give people space to own their outcomes. Energy matters; what passion and pace you bring, you often receive in return. When you create an environment where people feel valued, challenged, and part of something meaningful, performance becomes a by-product.
- Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for Focus Group?
Long term, my ambition is to position Focus on Hospitality as the most trusted technology partner for the hospitality industry. We are building more than a service offering. We are creating a community and a platform that genuinely understands the realities of running hospitality businesses.
The future of Focus on Hospitality and Focus Group within hospitality is about integration and simplification. Hotel, restaurants and every other hospitality venue are overwhelmed with fragmented systems, suppliers, and complexity. Our role is to bring that together into one cohesive strategy.
Personally, I see myself continuing to act as a bridge between hospitality and technology; shaping industry conversations, influencing technology adoption, and ensuring it always serves people, not replaces them.
- As a successful leader, how do you manage to strike a balance between your professional commitments and personal life?
The honest answer is, it’s not always perfectly balanced.
Hospitality is a demanding industry, and building something like Focus on Hospitality requires a lot of energy, focus, and resilience. What I’ve learned over time is the importance of being intentional with your time. When I’m working, I’m fully present. When I step away, I try to do the same.
I also believe that balance is not about equal time, it’s about sustainability. You need to create a rhythm that allows you to perform consistently over the long term without burning out. Therefore, I stay connected to what motivates me. My passion for hospitality, people, and performance keeps me energised.
- Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives Focus Group.
At its core, the culture at Focus Group is built around customer focus, accountability and continuous improvement. But what makes it particularly powerful, is how those values translate into genuine collaboration and real-world delivery.
There is a strong entrepreneurial mindset across the business. People are encouraged to take ownership, think beyond their role and challenge how things can be done better. That creates energy, momentum and a pace of execution that sets us apart.
Equally important is the collaboration across specialisms. We bring together expertise from IT, telecoms, connectivity, cybersecurity, energy and innovation, and when those disciplines align around a single customer, the value we deliver is significantly greater than any individual solution. That cross-functional capability is central to who we are.
A big part of my focus has been strengthening that collaboration, ensuring our teams are not operating in silos but working together with shared purpose, particularly when supporting hospitality clients where the technology landscape touches every part of the operation.
There is also a clear commitment to quality and standards, reflected in our certifications, our delivery capability and the long-term relationships we build with customers. That consistency is critical in a sector like hospitality, where reliability directly impacts the guest experience.
Through Focus on Hospitality, I have been focused on adding another dimension to that culture, bringing in hospitality-specific expertise and a sector-native mindset. In practice, that means understanding the operational and commercial realities of hotels, their teams and their guests. It means communicating in a way that resonates with operators, not just technologists. And it means designing solutions that are practical, integrated and aligned to how hotels actually run day to day.
Ultimately, it is about bringing together the scale, capability and technical depth of Focus Group with genuine hospitality insight. When those two things come together effectively, we are not just delivering services, we are supporting hotel teams to operate better, collaborate more effectively and deliver a stronger guest experience that drives improved profitability.
- What change would you like to bring to the hospitality industry if given a Chance?
I would change the way the industry approaches technology. Too often, hotels invest in technology reactively or in isolation, chasing trends rather than solving real problems. This creates fragmented systems, frustrated teams, and ultimately a poorer guest experience.
The shift I want to see is towards a more strategic, integrated approach. Technology should be built on strong foundations, designed around operations, and aligned with commercial goals.
I would remove the fear around technology. AI, data, automation, these are not threats to hospitality. When used correctly, they enhance the human element by removing friction and giving teams more time to focus on guests. If we can move from “more tech” to “better, connected tech”, the impact on the industry would be transformational.
- Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful?
AI is bringing change swiftly and we’re incorporating it to provide a much more intuitive platform that truly enhances operational efficiency, while supporting guest satisfaction and optimising revenue. By embedding conversational intelligence into everyday operations, teams have the information at their fingertips to deliver exceptional experiences, and business leaders instantly identify commercial value from every activity.
We’re leveraging our technological AI advancements to really bridge the gap between operational data and frontline service delivery. These simple solutions present real-time conversation prompts, identify upsell opportunities, provide comprehensive team performance analytics, and monitor guest satisfaction in real time – so teams can address the critical while delivering the personal touch.
- What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into the hospitality sector?
First, understand the reality of the industry before you try to change it. Hospitality is operationally complex, margin-driven, and deeply people-focused. If you don’t understand how it actually runs day to day, it will be very difficult to build something that adds real value.
Second, focus on solving real problems, not creating new ones. The industry doesn’t need more noise or more tools. It needs solutions that simplify, integrate, and deliver measurable impact.
Third, relationships matter. Hospitality is still a relationship-driven industry. Trust, credibility, and reputation will open more doors than any sales strategy.
And finally, be resilient. This is not a quick-win industry. It takes time to build trust, prove value, and scale. But if you stay close to the customer and remain focused on delivering real outcomes, the opportunities are significant.
Connect with me:
Alessandra.Leoni@Focusgroup.co.uk
on Linkedin
Alessandra Leoni, MIH | LinkedIn
linkedin.com/showcase/focus-on-hospitality-u
