The hotel manager is in charge of defining the company’s general objectives, designing long-term plans, and monitoring the company’s operational factors.
Depending on the Hotel’s size, the management is more or less specialized, causing an excessive variety of activities to be carried out and a great responsibility that does not allow, in many cases, to carry out highly relevant tasks or to neglect any of the activities.
The hotel manager’s figure may or may not coincide with the owner; in the case of large establishments and hotel chains where management or leasing contracts are common, they do not usually coincide. When both coincide, they are usually family-type and small businesses, in which the management specialization is low, assuming a large number of tasks.
Regardless of the manager’s profile and the Hotel’s size, Graham Shear classifies a series of essential skills that should be found in the hotel manager.
Adequate Technical Training and continuous recycling:
Technological advances, modern management techniques, and clients’ different needs impose new ways of managing based on criteria different from the traditional ones.
Analysis and Decision-Making Capacity:
In a market and sector with continuous changes, adequate information must be available to anticipate events. Decision-making must be supported by teamwork, involving all staff.
Delegation and Leadership Capacity:
Delegation is one of the most important aspects of the figure of any director or manager, who, together with the leadership faculty, makes up the perfect combination to achieve the hotel staff’s behavior.
Communication skills with people:
The director must know how to communicate both with company staff and with the client. Properly transmitting information, knowing, and using formal and informal communication channels inside and outside the organization is essential for teamwork and the Hotel’s commercialization.
Customer Orientation:
Hotel customer satisfaction through lived experience should be the main objective for the hotel manager. The profile of the hotel manager is very important when selecting the Hotel. According to their needs and objectives, hotel chains and independent hotels select the most qualified personnel in this position.
Below you will found a detail according to Graham Shear’s most appropriate management profiles depending on the time factor in achieving objectives for the company.
- Suppose the Hotel’s need to hire the hotel manager is due to problems related to daily operations. In that case, lack of control over expenses and needs for improvement in maximizing income, the new hotel manager’s profile should be highly operational experience in all hotel departments, especially with a very commercial profile, great communicator and motivator of people.
- Suppose the Hotel’s need to hire a hotel manager is to start up a hotel. In that case, the new manager’s profile must be one of great operational knowledge and with planning, organization, and teamwork skills. Creating plans and programs that implement work systems in the Hotel’s operations is vital in this phase of the Hotel. Said plans and programs must be coordinated with the strategy and objectives set by the Hotel’s property.
- Suppose the Hotel’s need to hire the hotel manager is aimed at the long-term stability of the project and creating a brand in the long-term market. In that case, the new hotel manager’s profile should be a professional with great gifts of a strategic vision for the future, recognized professionals in the sector, and with a wide network of contacts for the development of the organization in all its aspects—a highly experienced professional with great organizational and human resources skills.
Barry Lachey is a Professional Editor at Zobuz. Previously He has also worked for Moxly Sports and Network Resources “Joe Joe.” he is a graduate of the Kings College at the University of Thames Valley London. You can reach Barry via email or by phone.
