If hotels are your jam, then you will love to hear that they offer many amazing career paths. From concierge to reservation manager, you have many key roles to consider, all of which are vital to ensuring hotel operations run smoothly. With so many career paths available, it might be difficult to find just the right one. To help you get started, here’s a look at all the different jobs in this industry and the skills that will help you build a successful career.
1. Concierge
When people come to hotels, they often arrive from far off destinations, leaving them in the dark about what the area has to offer. You can ensure they receive info about all the key venues and services in the area by becoming a concierge.
By taking on this role, you will man the phones and answer patrons’ questions about shopping, dining, and recreational opportunities all around the hotel. As you determine their needs and zero in on their preferences, you can handle all the arrangements as well. You might need to buy tickets, make reservations, and even deliver items straight to their rooms.
In order to fulfill all their requests, you need unmatched customer service skills and the ability to think fast on your feet. You also need a strong working knowledge of all the businesses in the surrounding area and their commitment to customer satisfaction. Problem solving, patience, and attentiveness are a few other soft skills that will serve you well in this field.
2. Front Desk Supervisor
As a front desk supervisor, you are in charge of ensuring everyone can check in and out with ease. Your job duties will mostly center around supervising the front desk staff and ensuring they surpass all your guests’ expectations. By providing your team with guidance and support, you can ensure everyone has the best experience possible while staying at the hotel.
On an average day, you might spend some time:
- Delegating duties to your front desk team and filling in as needed
- Greeting guests as they come through the front doors
- Helping with check-in and providing their room keys
- Sorting and delivering mail plus providing phone messages
- Collecting payments and completing checkout procedures
You will also use your understanding of the hotel to anticipate customers’ needs and respond accordingly.
Time management, leadership, and customer service are the most important skills to have while fulfilling these job duties. Your ability to apply your critical thinking skills to solving novel problems will also come in handy, day in and day out.
3. Guest Relations Manager
As a guest relations manager, you will act as the main source of support for all the guests at the hotel. Your efforts will support the front desk staff in exceeding expectations at every turn. You may speak with the patrons after check-in, verifying their experience was up to par and gathering feedback for future improvements.
You will also need to respond to all concerns and complaints, providing prompt resolutions that keep guests satisfied with their hotel experience. Most of your correspondence will occur by phone or email, though in-person chats are needed from time to time as well.
No matter how you interface with your customers, you must be able to quickly present appropriate solutions to their problems. Your solutions should not only ensure their satisfaction, but also abide by hotel policies. Your communication skills will come into play through every phase of the process as you chat with guests and rely expectations to the rest of your team.
4. Hotel Event Planner or Conference Manager
Hotels don't only serve as a place for an overnight stay, but also as a venue for hosting a number of events. Each hotel may be equipped with a variety of facilities meant to host these events, such as large dining areas, conference or meeting rooms, ballrooms, and in some cases, concert venues. To help these events go smoothly and provide guests and hosts with the service they need, a staff member will be hired to help coordinate these events. Hotel event planners and conference managers are tasked with planning, managing, and executing whatever events are held at the hotel, whether they are weddings, award ceremonies, trade shows, or any other business or social event.
Event planning can be the ideal job for those looking for an exciting career that requires multiple skills to perform. The job requires strong attention to detail, the ability to communicate and negotiate effectively with both clients and vendors, budgeting skills to make the most of a client's funds, strategic planning to organize the event as well as plan for any contingencies, and the fortitude to juggle a multitude of tasks at once.
While education is important to develop the skills needed for event planning, another way to better prepare yourself for this position is by working various hotel events to gain a better understanding of how to plan and run events. This type of on-site work will help you to gain experience in the planning aspect, on-site delivery, and the supervising of the space during the event.
5. Housekeeping Director
Another crucial part of the hotel hospitality staff is the Housekeeping Director. In this position, you will be responsible for supervising all the housekeeping employees and staff, including hiring and terminating employees. Other duties in this position require training staff, performing regular inspections, and keeping within the budget of that department.
The Housekeeping Director will also need to assign duties for the housekeeping staff and manage daily and weekly schedules. They will also be required to report all of their observations to supervisors and supply requisitions for housekeeping materials as are necessary for the completion of the housekeeping staff's duties.
6. Banquet Manager
Another higher-level position in the hospitality industry is a Food and Beverage Manager. In this position, you would be responsible for the coordination, planning, and delivery of the beverages and food that the hotel will use in their functions. This will all need to be done while maintaining the customer service and budget goals set forth by the hotel.
Duties that are commonly associated with a Food and Beverage Manager include making a budget for the food, sales, and labor costs linked to the ordering and delivery of the food and beverage, making sure that you control costs while still delivering the required level of service. You will also need to manage inventory of non-consumable items such as linens, glassware, equipment, and other tableware, complete and oversee weekly staff scheduling, and supervise the day-to-day activities of the food and beverage staff. Food and Beverage Managers will also be responsible for a number of other front-of-the-house functions such as assisting in the menu development, the planning and setup of banquets halls and meeting areas, and following up with customer complaints or service issues.
7. Reservation Manager
Entering the reservation manager role puts you in charge of bringing people into the hotel in droves. You will work with the marketing and front desk team to keep the rooms full of happy guests. You may send over new rate plans and promotions to the advertising team, helping them drum up interest. Then, let the front desk know about any reservations coming their way.
To fulfill your job duties, you will likely use a computer to access and update the in-house reservation systems. Phone work is a given as well, as you reach out to all the different department heads. You will likely need to manage a small team of like-minded professionals, including those tasked with setting reservations for your clients.
While in this role, your time management, customer service, and teamwork skills will regularly help you out. You must have strong organization skills and the ability to accurately forecast demand for rooms. In creating these forecasts, you will need to use your understanding of the travel industry as a whole and tap into past data to make accurate predictions.
As you weigh your job options in the hotel world, just think about the impact you can make in each role. Through your efforts, you can help people make the most of their vacations, business trips, and other travels. All you have to do is select your ideal role and move toward securing a position at your preferred location.
