Hotels Seek Hospitality Managers with Specific Skills

Traveling away from home presents the challenge of finding a comfortable place to stay where you can get a good meal, nice room at a facility operated by a friendly and helpful staff that makes it an enjoyable experience for business travelers as well as vacationing families. There are many services available at popular hotels and motels throughout the world that need direction from a well-trained and experienced professional. Therefore, the hospitality management industry as a whole has expanded greatly in the past few decades where professionals can zero in on and focus upon a particular service offered by a hotel or motel, resort or spa as well as many other venues like cruise ships and theme parks. Many major hotels include services from fine dining to childcare. The larger the facility, the greater the need to departmental eyes these services providing for the employment of hospitality managers who specialize in these areas.

Some specialized areas for hospitality management within a single facility can include:

• Hotel Manager is the individual responsible for the overall operations of the establishment making sure that it runs most efficiently as well as profitably. In a small facility such as a motel, or one that has a limited staff, this position may oversee all operations. However, in much larger facilities this position takes on the role of the general manager who oversees operations that are departmental eyes and assigned to a number of different types of assistance or department heads that report to the general manager directly.

• Assistant Manager is normally the second in charge and is responsible for the overall operations of the facility during the general manager’s absence. In some larger chains, an assistant manager may be in charge of operations whereas another assistant manager may be in charge of employee staffing or another assistant manager may be in charge of restaurant operations.

• Resident Manager is one that lives in the hotel is usually on call 24 hours a day in order to attend to emergencies or resolve problems that nobody else on the staff can handle. Generally, though, resident managers typically work an eight hour day overseeing daily operations. In most hotel operations, a resident manager also functions as the general manager.

• Executive Housekeeper is a manager who is responsible directly for all the housekeeping chores preparing all guest rooms, meeting and banquet facilities as well as making sure all public areas are clean and safe. These individuals also responsible for the training scheduling and supervising of all housekeeping and facility maintenance workers, plus conducting facility inspections as well as ordering and maintaining cleaning and maintenance supplies.

• Front Office Managers are individuals that oversee the coronation of reservations in room assignments. These professionals will also be involved in the training and direction of all facility front desk employees making sure that guests are treated courteously, complaints and other problems are resolved quickly, and all requests for special services are met effectively and efficiently. Front office managers usually have discretionary powers to adjust the room rates that guests pay depending upon how they want to resolve any kind of disputes or complaints.

• Food and Beverage Managers are those professional individual to direct all food service operations at the facility. In a small situation this might be a kitchen manager or in very large facilities and oversee multiple operations such as all the hotel’s restaurants, bars and banquet facilities. Duties may include supervising food and beverage preparation, menu planning, raw food product procurement, staff training and development as well as services marketing.

• Convention Managers or professionals that coordinate and oversee the operations of overriding of different departments in a facility that offers services for meetings, conventions and other special events. Convention managers are also typically event planners who helped clients reserve guest rooms, configure the necessary amount of meeting space and devise an execution plan for the delivery of other services such as banquet and entertainment. These professionals are usually the key individuals who direct all the traffic on the day of the big events being on hand to resolve any unexpected situations and lending your expertise to make sure that the client is completely satisfied with the establishment’s facilities and services.

• Other types of specialized services that might be in need of a professional of hospitality management education include on-facility health spa operations, fitness room operations, child care operations and for many resort-like operations can extend to entertainment and sports related activity management such as golfing, fishing, and water activities like boating, snorkeling, scuba diving, water skiing and more.

Computers Rule…Really
In today’s modern world, most hospitality managers regardless of whether they are general managers or department heads must possess the necessary computer skills to make the operations run smoothly. Computers are used analyst every facet of health operation from calculating restaurant and room bills, making room assignments and involved in ordering facility supplies as well as playing a large role in inventory control. Part of an individual’s hospitality management training will include the use of computers and how they play a large role in the successful operation of the hotel.