Benefits of a Hotel Management Career

Looking for a long term career that will help secure your future and teach skills that can be useful in a variety of environments? If so, you may be interested in a hotel management career. The skills you will gain through such a career include catering, organizing banquet events, and of course management. The business skills and people skills you can develop through this work are sure to serve you well even if you decide to do something else later.

There are a number of different kinds of managers in hotel and lodging management. General managers are what most people think of first. Their parameters may be set by the owner of the hotel or the hotel chain's execs, but the general manger's authority can cover the setting of prices, setting up budgets and allocating funding to various departments, and setting standards for the quality of service.

Resident managers are another type, and by definition they live in the hotel. Along with the luxurious lifestyle of living in a hotel, if you become a resident manager it's your responsibility to respond to emergencies. For the most part, you can expect a typical forty hour week, but you must be prepared to be inconvenienced at odd hours occasionally.

There are also front office managers. They take care of anything related to the front desk, so making reservations, assigning rooms, and check-ins fall under their domain. They also oversee and train the staff at the front desk. Making adjustments to a customer's bill and dealing with complaints is also part of their responsibility.

Another position is assistant managers. As assistant manager, it would be your job to assist the general and resident managers in taking care of the hotel's daily operations. You could expect to take care of operations in a combination of the following areas, but not necessarily all of them: accounting, paperwork, hiring, managing the staff, marketing, sales, purchasing, security, maintenance, and recreational facilities.

One very rewarding but often demanding job is convention services manager. A lot of hotels host conferences, business conventions, special events and even fan conventions. As a convention services manager, it's your responsibility to work with the client and make arrangements such as scheduling conference rooms and planning itineraries. You would also be on location during the event itself, so that you can make adjustments if need be and solve any problems that may come up.

When working to acquire hotel managing jobs, experience and education are both assets. Many employers look specifically for higher education in hotel managing. Many colleges have programs through which you can acquire either a bachelor's or associate's degree in hotel management, and you can also find programs in restaurant or hotel management in vocational or technical schools. These programs typically cover food service, catering, marketing, accounting practices, billing, computer skills for making reservations, and housekeeping management.

The skills you acquire through a hotel management career are also useful in a number of jobs, including event planning, business management for companies, restaurant managing and more.