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- Oversee the running of a hotel, from staffing to catering and customer service
- You'll often work long hours and be on call at evenings and weekends
- Exciting, challenging work with opportunities to travel overseas and work in luxurious surroundings
Hotel managers run everything from budgeting and marketing to staff recruitment and building maintenance.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
- Set budgets and forecast income
- Decide business targets and marketing
- Fire safety and building security
- License regulations as they relate to the hotel
- Oversee larger corporate bookings and events
- Manage staffing and resources
- Organise building maintenance
- Deal with customer complaints and comments
- Health and safety, including environmental health
In larger hotels, department managers would report to you. These departments might include housekeeping, event management, human resources, catering and maintenance.
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
Early starts, evenings and weekends are common. You may have to travel to meet suppliers, contractors or corporate clients.
You'll need
This role would be ideal for someone with persistence and determination, initiative, patience in stressful situations, thorough and attention to detail, flexibility and openness to change, customer service skills, and knowledge of human resources, employment law and business management.
You can complete a qualification like a foundation degree, higher national diploma or degree in subjects such as hotel management or hospitality management. Then you would enter hotel management through a management trainee scheme.
To be a hotel manager, you could also do an advanced apprenticeship in hospitality or a higher apprenticeship in hospitality management.
You may get this job by starting in a junior position like front of house manager or events manager. You could apply for promotion as you get more experience.
CAREER PROSPECTS
Your career prospects will depend on the size of the business, your experience and whether you are willing to relocate.
In larger hotel chains, you could move into regional management or specialise in areas like corporate finance or training. You may also have the chance to work overseas with an international hotel group.