What is hotel management
What is hotel management
Hotel Management
An introduction to Hotel Management
Discover what goes on behind the scenes of a hotel; and where you can find the best career opportunities in hotel management and hospitality management.
What is hotel management?
At its heart, hotel management is about taking responsibility and providing leadership, to ensure the hotel trades profitably while guests’ expectations are exceeded. There are two key tiers of management, and at the top is the General Manager (GM).
The General Manager sits at the heart of a successful hotel business. It is an exciting and rewarding role, and one that is in high demand as the world’s leading hotel brands accelerate the roll out of new hotels and concepts.
An internationally recognized hospitality degree is an ideal first stepping stone to the General Manager’s office; but to reach this goal you must work your way up, gaining leadership expertise in operational departments, while also developing a sound knowledge of finance, planning and organizational development.
Some aspiring General Managers opt to study a specialized hospitality MBA as a way of accelerating their progression.
What are the hotel management jobs I can do?
A hospitality degree puts the entire hotel at your disposal in terms of potential career paths.
A hotel is a highly complex operational entity – you serve your guests in real time, so every department and team must be functioning smoothly at all times.
Below we list some of the most important pieces of the hotel jigsaw. At the head of each you will find a manager overseeing the operational teams.
The key departments in a hotel
The key departments in a hotel
Front office
The welcoming face of the hotel, and its nerve center, this team handles check-in and check-out, as well as answering any questions the guest may have about their stay. Interpersonal skills are absolutely vital for a front office role, as very often this is the only face-to-face contact the hotel will have with its guests.
Housekeeping
The cleanliness, maintenance and presentation of the rooms and public areas are essential to creating a good impression on the guests, and leading to those all-important positive reviews online! Attention to detail is everything, which is why hospitality management students will be asked to “make up” dummy hotel rooms as part of their practical arts training – the idea being that you can only manage such services if you know how to do them yourself.
Food & beverage
Most hotels, particularly at the luxury end of the spectrum, offer a range of F&B services from cafeteria style self-service to fine dining. These various outlets require managers, and from there potential career paths can lead to an F&B Director’s position spanning a portfolio of hotels. Many individuals also use the experience they gain in hotel F&B operations as fuel for their entrepreneurial ambitions.
Revenue management
Still a relatively recent specialization, but one which is becoming a cornerstone of the organizational structure of a hotel. As Frank Gueuning, Senior Lecturer and Program Manager at Les Roches, puts it, “The revenue manager is pretty much the number two position in a hotel right now, behind only the General Manager (GM).”
As its name suggests, the role is all about maximizing revenue from the property; and it’s as much about having a vision for the commercial possibilities as it is about scanning spreadsheets.
“…the revenue manager is pretty much the number two position in a hotel right now…”
Human resources
Hotels need talented staff, and the role of human resources is to find, attract and retain them. Given the “people skills” involved, it’s perhaps not surprising that hospitality management graduates make good HR managers.
What is the difference between hospitality and hotel management?
It’s a common question. The answer is that hotel management – as the name suggests – is a discipline focused on the functional operations of a hotel; for example rooms division, front office and others.
The hotel sector is one of the world’s most geographically diverse industries – try to find a town or city that doesn’t have at least one hotel. It also continues to grow strongly, with recent analysis by consultants Oliver Wyman showing an additional 10,000 hotel properties in the development pipeline between 2021 and 2023 – with these primarily focused on the luxury and upscale segment.
The hospitality industry has a much broader focus. It includes hotels, but also other parts of the travel industry, the experience economy… in fact any customer-facing sector where making a good impression counts.
Given the exceptional interpersonal skills they acquire through their studies, it is quite common to find hospitality management graduates bringing their expertise to marketing and sales roles, as well as human resources and talent management.
What Is Hotel Management?
You know hotels are one of the most obvious and significant perspectives of a country’s infrastructure and also involved with the tourism industry. The difference of knowledge in hotel management is greater than the experience gained from any other profession since the industry has an aggregate of different skills like food and beverage service and management, housekeeping, sales and marketing, front office operation, accounting, and many other functions. The improvement of corporate activity, leading to a greater number of business trips and the desire to travel on holidays has made the hotel industry a very competitive one.
Hospitality or hotel management graduates are extremely employable, applying their skills in careers such as events, hotel and conference management, sales and business promotion, and forestry and fishing management.
Hotel Management
Hotel management can also be defined as hospitality management, hotel and tourism management, or hotel administration.
In general, Hotel or Hospitality Management means the management of hotels, bed and breakfasts, resorts, cruise ships, and other hospitality services and also cover everything from the front desk and housekeeping to facility maintenance and finance. It involves supervision the operations as well as attending to guest needs.
In other words, hospitality management may define as a service industry. Its task is to make shareholders wealth by providing service and satisfying guests. In Industry, the portion includes, among others: hotels, restaurants, private clubs, managed food service, event planning, tourism-related businesses, and travel providers.
Importance Of Hospitality Management
Hospitality is significant in the business industry, especially in the hotel industry. It directly affects customer satisfaction and so will affect a business. A customer usually does not like a hotel that provides poor and bad services. You know good hotel management can also affect a country’s reputation as it tells the quality of the service of a country. It can also help to increase tourism in one country.
Education Requirements For Hotel Management
Skills Require
If you want to enter the hospitality or hotel management industry, then you should have the power to “sell” the lifestyle of the resort and hotel chains. It is important that you can illustrate the type of feelings that tourists can enjoy at a particular hotel or resort. You will need to be constantly growing capability to attract people which can make a hotel competitive with others in the city. You should be an effective communicator, and you should also have experience in brand marketing.
Bottom Line
I hope you have understood the importance of hotel management and a hospitality manager plays an important role in supervision the administrative tasks of a hotel, resort, or casino chain.
References:
Last Updated on January 23, 2022 by
Magalie D. is a Diploma holder in Public Administration & Management from McGill University of Canada. She shares management tips here in MGTBlog when she has nothing to do and gets some free time after working in a multinational company at Toronto.
What is hotel management all about?
A hotel manager is confident, approachable and adventurous. They aren’t afraid to try new things. Excited to experience new cultures. And they know the importance of teamwork.
If you want a career that’s full of challenges, interesting people and exciting developments, hotel management could be just what you’re looking for. Here’s all you wanted to know about hotel management.
What is hotel management?
Managing a hotel comes with a range of responsibilities. You must be able to adapt to new challenges, help different departments and ensure the hotel maintains a standard of excellence. As a hotel manager, you will be responsible for overseeing and having a strong knowledge of finance, planning, service and organization. While you have a team of managers working alongside you, as hotel manager you have to lead rather than follow. You must also make sure your staff are managing their time and departments efficiently, whether that be through improving their monthly profits or simply ensuring a guest’s expectations are exceeded.
You must have strong attention to detail, leadership and teamwork skills. At some hotels, depending on the size and type, you may find yourself dealing with a lot more day-to-day tasks than you would at a more prestigious place. You may also have less contact with guests, but you’ll spend time monitoring the business through regular meetings.
An evolving industry
The world of hospitality continues to expand. It is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries, and will create over 80 million new jobs over the next ten years. The travel and tourism sector will account for one in nine jobs by the year 2026.
A hotel manager needs to know the current industry trends. They are aware that their hotel needs to evolve and change in order to stay current. At our recent Glion Luxury Conference, hospitality leaders told our students about what it takes to keep up-to-date. “To be successful, you have to create emotions,” said Philippe Tardivel. “Whatever you create has to be extraordinary, and you have to go the extra mile.”
A hotel manager operating in the modern marketplace faces the challenge of creating positive emotional experiences at a time when automation and AI are becoming commonplace in hospitality. Today’s travellers still want the human aspect, but they also want efficiency and hassle-free processes. It’s the hotel manager’s responsibility to combine these two elements in a way that benefits both the guest and the business.
What do you need?
You need a range of soft and hard skills to be a successful hotel manager. Furthermore, you also need to gain first-hand experience of the industry. Many future managers embark on internships to gain more experience, working at hotels of varying ranges, reputations and locations. This is also a great way to complement your degree.
If you can, open a hotel
An excellent experience for any budding hotel manager is to take part in a hotel opening. It can be the new site of a leading brand or a boutique independent, either way seeing what it takes to get a hotel started gives you a true understanding of all the moving parts. Unlike taking a job at an established hotel, where you have processes in place to learn and master, at an opening hotel, you’re responsible for installing or even creating those processes.
From registration cards to restaurant menus, the smallest and biggest elements, that you would usually take for granted, will need researching and creating, all to a deadline. It’s usually all hands to the pump and it’s a great opportunity to cross roles and gain experience in different departments as you take on duties outside your comfort zone. It may even be that you can’t work in the hotel, as it’s not finished, so you’ll be doing all of this from a nearby office.
The skills you need to have include communication, teamwork and organization. However, you also need to understand and appreciate the challenges every department faces. It is important you spend time working or shadowing each part of a hotel, from finance to housekeeping. This ensures that you will have the awareness and experience to assist these departments when you become a manager.
Taking the next step
To find out what hotel management is all about, you could choose one of our programs. Our Bachelor’s degree in International Hospitality Management will provide you with hands-on learning, industry contacts and valuable internships. You could then further your skills with an MSc degree or MBA in Hospitality.
Take the next step
Do you have a specific query you would like to ask us? Please fill in the contact form below and let us know the nature of your enquiry, and a member of our team will respond to you as soon as possible.
Hotel Management: A Complete Industry Overview
By Hotel Tech Report
Last updated May 16, 2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Did you know that big hotel companies like Hilton and Marriott usually don’t manage their own hotels? It’s ok if you didn’t. The structure of hotel management companies and the broader hospitality industry is dramatically different than most industries and most employees within the industry don’t fully understand how it all works. Fear not, after reading this article you’ll be an expert in no time.
Most travelers will never even know that the front desk agent who checks them into a Hilton Garden Inn does not actually work for Hilton Worldwide! How can this be?
Pictured: The James New York Nomad, a Highgate-managed hotel
Defining the Hotel Operations Landscape: Owners, Franchisors, and Management Companies
Running a hotel is no easy task, and to do it well, you need a diverse variety of skills and resources. To maximize performance, profitability, and the owner’s preferences, many hotels use various entities to manage different operational aspects. Hotels generally fall into one of four ownership categories:
Privately owned and operated: For the owner, this model requires the most hands-on hotel operational work. At privately owned and operated hotels, the owner takes the lead on all aspects of the business: hiring staff, maintaining the physical asset, running a hotel marketing strategy, and more. The owner could be an individual or an ownership group.
Leased: Unlike at privately owned and operated hotels, the owners of leased hotels lease the physical asset to a different company who handles all aspects of the operation. The owner simply collects rent for the building and has no involvement in the hotel side.
Franchised: Owners who want a more hands-on approach and don’t want to turn their physical asset over to someone else to operate might opt for the franchise model. Franchisors sign agreements with hotel brands for access to benefits (or limitations, depending on how you look at them) like brand standards, marketing power, reservation systems, and design guidelines. Franchisors often run the day-to-day operations themselves, like hiring employees and handling payroll, and they pay a franchise fee to the brand. Popular hotel brand franchises include Hampton, Holiday Inn Express, and Red Roof Inn.
Pictured: Carneros Resort & Spa, managed by Aimbridge Hospitality
Many hotels across the world have separate ownership and management entities in order to maximize the effectiveness of both components. Owners can focus on the real estate piece while management companies focus on the day-to-day operations.
What Benefits Does a Hotel Management Company Provide?
We’ve established that management companies run hotels on behalf of the owner, but what exactly does that mean? What do hotel management companies do? Depending on the specifics of the property, a hotel management company can:
Hire employees and handle payroll via a platform like Hcareers
Run all operational departments, like front office, housekeeping, sales, and food and beverage
Manage relationships and billing with vendors
Adjust room rates and run promotions
Perform preventive maintenance on the property and recommend capital expenditures
Develop budgets and produce financial reports for owners
Curate the hotel’s online presence (reviews, social media) and implement marketing strategies
In some cases, coordinate renovations or expansions
If the hotel is branded, then some of these responsibilities are handled by the brand. Brands typically provide marketing support, on-property technology for staff and guests, and guidelines for furnishings and decor.
Pictured: AC by Marriott Seattle, managed by Crescent Hotels & Resorts
Regardless of brand affiliation, the management company is usually not involved in major decisions about the physical asset. The hotel owner or ownership group (often a real estate investment group) decides when to buy or sell properties.
How Do Hotel Management Companies Make Money?
As a hotel owner, one of the most important points of discussion when negotiating a contract with a management company is the fee structure. Hotel management companies make money in a few ways: an incentive fee, a base fee, and/or a percentage of gross revenue.
Depending on the type of hotel, the services the management company provides, and the owner’s goals, the management company fee structure can vary greatly from property to property. When hotel management companies receive compensation that reflects the property’s performance, they have a vested interest in running the hotel at maximum efficiency.
Pictured: Hilton Atlanta Airport, managed by HEI Hotels & Resorts
Top 10 Hotel Management Companies
There’s no “typical” hotel management company; you can find management companies that specialize in certain brands, certain types of hotels, and certain geographic areas. Some management companies operate a handful of hotels; some operate hundreds.
Let’s explore the top ten management companies in the United States in terms of number of guestrooms managed (guestroom and property counts in the US, source):
The largest hotel management company in the US is Plano, TX-based Aimbridge Hospitality, with a whopping 182,000+ guestrooms and 1,400+ hotels in their portfolio. Aimbridge merged with the former second-largest hotel management company, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, in 2019. This merger brought around 80,000 rooms and 500 properties into Aimbridge’s portfolio. Aimbridge’s hotels are mostly Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt branded properties in US and Caribbean markets. Aimbridge is the largest operator of these brands in the world. Aimbridge recently launched the AIMClean program to ensure hotel staff are sufficiently trained in health and safety protocols. Aimbridge also provides renovation management, asset management, and consulting services.
Coming in at #2 is Hyatt Hotels. You may be thinking, “wait, how can Hyatt be on this list if other companies manage Hyatt properties too?” Hyatt actually manages about ⅔ of all Hyatt properties, with 61,217 guestrooms and 372 hotels under corporate management. Hyatt is based in Chicago, IL, and their managed portfolio includes Hyatt brands in 65 countries worldwide, including boutique hotels in the Unbound Collection and Destination Hotels portfolios.
The fourth-largest hotel management company in the US is Highgate, which is the largest hotel management company in New York City. Highgate manages 10% of the hotel inventory in the Big Apple, and that’s also where their headquarters are. Highgate’s portfolio is made up of independent and branded hotels in major US markets like New York City, Miami, and San Francisco, with a total of 142 properties and 37,307 rooms.
Crescent Hotels & Resorts takes the #5 spot, with 28,137 guestrooms and 103 hotels. Crescent is based in Fairfax, VA, and they manage Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, and Hilton brands in upscale to luxury categories, plus independent hotels affiliated with soft brands, in the US and Canada. Crescent’s portfolio includes notable independent properties like the Mayfair Hotel in Los Angeles and the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach.
Similar to Crescent, HEI Hotels & Resorts also manages Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and independent properties in urban markets and vacation destinations across the US, with 23,900 rooms and 79 hotels in total. Norwalk, CT-based HEI manages a wide range of properties from select-service hotels to luxury resorts.
Headquartered in Boston, Pyramid Hotel Group, #7 on our list, has quite an international footprint. Pyramid operates full-service, select-service, and independent hotels in the US, the Caribbean, Ireland, and the UK. The company’s portfolio includes Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Wyndham brands, with a total of 91 hotels and 23,493 guestrooms. Pyramid has expertise in brand transitions and conversions.
While some management companies work with a full spectrum of hotels, Island Hospitality Management’s portfolio of 177 hotels and 22,811 rooms include mostly select-service brands, such as Residence Inn and Homewood Suites. Island operates Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott properties across the US, and the company is based in West Palm Beach, FL.
Crescent’s Fairfax, VA-based neighbor, Crestline Hotels & Resorts, takes the #9 position, with 118 hotels and 17,250 guestrooms in its portfolio. Crestline manages Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott properties across the US that range from select-service hotels to high-end boutiques. Crestline has won numerous awards, including Marriott’s “Renovation of the Year” 3 times!
As you can see from this list, no two management companies are the same. Each one has their own strengths and advantages, which means owners can choose a management company that closely fits their needs.
How to Choose a Hotel Management Company
Hotel management companies vary greatly in terms of the services they offer, the relationships they have with brands, and their specific areas of expertise. As an owner, you’ll want to partner with a management company who has expertise related to your specific hotel asset and your goals. Are you planning a renovation? Then you’ll want to choose a management company who has experience with renovations. Do you own an independent luxury resort? Then you might not want to partner with a management company whose portfolio consists of only Residence Inns and Hamptons.
Pictured: Residence Inn Orlando Lake Buena Vista, managed by Remington
When comparing hotel management companies, we recommend comparing a few specific areas:
Brand relationships: Is the management company a preferred partner of the brand you want to work with? Management companies that have built strong alliances with brands know the ins and outs of the brand standards, are well acquainted with the brand’s key team members, and can help new owners navigate the branding process.
Services and expertise: Besides day-to-day operations, do you want the management company to take on additional responsibilities? Some management companies also offer services like asset management, renovation management,
Portfolio composition: What kinds of hotels does the management company have in its portfolio? If the hotels in a management company’s portfolio are similar to yours (and are generating good results!), then you can be confident that the management company will do a good job with yours. Look at not only the hotel brands, but also the geographic locations (urban vs. rural, coastal vs. midwestern), the ages of the properties (historic vs. brand new), the target guest segments (business vs. group vs. leisure), and property amenities (pools, golf courses, spas, restaurants, etc.).
Performance: Does the management company actually deliver results? Management companies should be forthcoming with case studies and testimonials from properties in their portfolio. Based on these documents, you can better assess whether the management company is the right fit for your business goals.
An Overview of Hotel Management Careers
Looking to build a career in the hotel industry? Perhaps you just finished your bachelor’s degree at a top hotel school and want to reverse engineer your path towards lucrative management jobs or maybe you’re an industry veteran looking for professional development opportunities to get you into corporate America and off property. In addition to working for the big brands like Hilton and Marriott, management companies offer some compelling career tracks for professionals with a variety of goals. Hotel management companies hire employees to work on-property in all hotel departments, and they also hire corporate employees who often work at their corporate headquarters.
Hotel management company jobs on the corporate level include:
Cluster revenue management teams with analysts or managers (centralized yield management is a big value add of management companies)
Financial management analysts
Human resources managers
Area directors or cluster general managers
Hotel managers (GMs)
Restaurant management and food service (often multi-unit)
Event management and sales professionals
If you’re drawn to the hotel industry to build relationships with guests and enjoy the on-property camaraderie, note that corporate positions at hotel management companies are often very different than positions at the hotels they manage. The corporate roles are usually based in an office and reflect a typical office culture. On the plus side, corporate employees typically work standard business hours and receive time off on holidays, while on-property employees work less regular schedules and often on holidays.
Whether you’re researching hotel management companies to find your next business partner or to find your next career, you can surely find one that fits your criteria. Do you have any questions that we didn’t answer? We’d love to hear them!
What is the minimum salary in hotel management?
What is the work of hotel management?
As a hotel manager, you oversee the operations of a hotel, which involves leading all hotel departments toward the goals of the hotel owner. A hotel manager hires and supervises employees, handles guest complaints, manages budgets, ensures the hotel follows local regulations, and facilitates coordination between all hotel departments.
How many years is the hotel management course?
Hotel management courses vary in length; eCornell’s Hospitality Management Certificate is a three-month program with around five hours of study per week, while a Bachelor’s degree in Hotel Management from a traditional university can be obtained in four years.
What is meant by hotel management?
Hotel management is a discipline that covers the operational aspects of a hotel. Hotel management requires a variety of skills, including general business and marketing skills, people management and leadership skills, financial acumen, customer service skills, and a solid understanding of each hotel department, like the front desk and housekeeping.
How difficult is hotel management?
Because hotel management involves a wide variety of skills, plus patience, willingness to work long hours, and passion for hospitality, it can be a challenging career path. However, many hotel managers find hotel management to be a fulfilling career which lets you meet interesting people, work all over the world, and create memorable experiences for guests.
How can I become a hotel manager?
The most common paths to hotel management are to work your way up through hotel jobs to become a hotel manager or to jumpstart your career with a degree in hotel management. Although many hotel managers have extensive hotel experience, some made the leap from other types of managerial positions, like in the retail industry or the military.
What is Hotel Revenue Management: Strategies & Importance
What is Hotel Revenue Management
Revenue management for the hospitality industry is the process of understanding, anticipating, and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profile from a fixed, perishable resource (such as airline seats or hotel rooms). The concept of revenue management is based on the basic economic principle of demand and sales in hotels.
Hoteliers adopt various means to evaluate the performance of their hotels. Most hoteliers calculate the average daily rate to measure the performance of their hotels in terms of revenue generation.
Hoteliers have realized that along with the volume of business, they should also concentrate on revenue generation in each sale.
The challenge here is to sell the right resources to the right customer at the right time for the right price. This process can result in price discrimination, where a firm charges different prices from customers consuming otherwise identical services.
For example, the tickets purchased much earlier than the date of travel are less than bookings made a little in advance. This way of maximizing revenue generation is termed Revenue management.
Soon, this concept gained popularity in various sectors selling highly perishable products and services like railways and hospitality.
Basics of Hotel Revenue Management
Revenue is the ratio of actual profit generated to the potential revenue. The airline industry pioneered the concept of revenue management. These techniques are applicable to all highly perishable products and services.
Revenue management is a pricing and hotel revenue optimization strategy based on the principle of demand and supply. When demand exceeds supply, the prices are raised, and when supply exceeds demand, the prices are lowered to attract more business.
In the hospitality industry, the revenue management tools are selective overbooking of rooms, differential pricing, and duration restriction. Forecasting provides information on projected revenue generation for a specific duration.
Importance of Revenue Management in Hotel Industry
Hospitality revenue management is useful in the following ways:
Revenue management helps the hotel revenue managers to project the future volume of business and the revenue that would be generated by the hotel.
The volume of reservations will help the front office manager and the management of the hotel to plan the following:
1. Staff required in each department for the smooth functioning of the hotel.
2. Minimum inventory of items required by each department to carry out their tasks efficiently.
3. Allocation of resources to serve the guests in the best possible way.
4. Maintenance and replacement requirements of the furniture, fixtures, and ultimately the property, as the wear and tear of these, depends on the number of people using it.
5. Special arrangements to be made for the arrival of groups, commercially important persons, and VIPs.
6. The reservation forecast will provide the necessary data to the reservation manager to practice revenue management.
7. The reservation manager will be able to take selective overbooking, based on the reservation forecast.
8. The forecast data provides information about the lean days when the occupancy will be lower, and the sales department takes the necessary actions to attract the business for that duration.
9. The forecast data will also reveal the sold-out dates, which will ensure that the reservation agent does not accept reservations for those days.
10. By studying group booking data, hotels can anticipate group behavior and accordingly make provisions in group reservations. The group’s booking pace indicates the rate at which group business is being booked as per the historical trends.
11. Anticipating group business helps watch out for repetitive group patterns and accordingly forecast the pressure on the market, and hence adjust selling strategies. This is very important in determining whether to accept an additional group and at what room rate to book the new group. This might cause profitability problems and a bad reputation.
12. The front office management should monitor the booking pace and lead time of individual guests to understand how current reservations compare with historical and anticipated rates.
13. All local food and beverage functions should be viewed in light of the potential for booking groups that need a meeting space, food and beverage service, and guest rooms.
14. Even when a hotel is not in the immediate vicinity of a convention, individual guests and small groups, who have been displaced by the convention, may be referred to the hotel and this may have a tremendous impact on the hotel’s revenue.
15. During special events, hotels might decide to benefit from high demand by restricting room rate discounts or requiring a minimum length of stay.
Hotel Revenue Management Strategies
The revenue management strategies in the hotel industry are varied according to the high demandable and low demandable time periods.
1. In High Demandable Periods
In high demandable periods, the management would use the following tactics:
2. In Low Demandable Periods
During the low demandable periods of time, as indicated by the forecasts, the management would use the following tactics: