Amin Deroui - What does a Hotel General Manager do? Hotel General Managers oversee and coordinate all the activities involved in running a hotel or any other lodging facility (e.g. motels, bed and breakfasts, and resorts). It is their responsibility to ensure that all members of the staff are properly organized and that every part of the hotel runs according to the pre-established quality standard of service. Hotel General Managers often have the authority to promote deserving employees, and are required to participate in and maintain active community relations, as well as partaking in sales, meetings, and other activities. Primary Responsibilities Here’s a non-exhaustive list of common tasks Hotel Managers are required to complete. Supervising the establishment’s operations: Monitoring the general operations of the hotel, including activities of all departments; liaising with employees and customers alike, using a clear, polite, and concise language; developing, implementing and evaluating policies and procedures for the general operations of any department or of the entire establishment; and inspecting all the rooms on a regular basis in order to check they’re keeping up with the hotel’s standards.
Interacting with guests: Personally welcoming V.I.P. hotel guests; getting feedback from guests and/or patrons in order to ensure satisfaction with general service; attending to complaints in order to find a solution and provide a better service, always aiming to be the best; anticipating and addressing guest’s needs; coordinating the use and rental of hotel spaces for social events, gatherings, and parties, including prices, entertainment, and food; and Supervising hotel staff: Managing and coordinating the employees’ duties (clerks, maintenance staff, housekeeping, sales employees, among others); preparing work schedules; hiring and training new employees; and promoting teamwork to ensure optimum service and that guest’s needs are met. Managing administrative operations: Monitoring daily and monthly revenue generated, as well as all costs and expenses; participating in the development of pricing and promotional strategies, as well as creating advertising campaigns for such promotions; managing relationships with hotel vendors, negotiating service agreements as appropriate for the provision of materials and supplies; and reviewing financial reports and statements in order to understand the establishment’s performance, keeping track of the budget and expenses. Ensuring that all employees and heads of department adhere to hotel policies and safety regulations.
Skills Communication Skills: Exceptional communication skills are needed for any hotel management profession. Hotel managers communicate with people from various backgrounds and temperaments. Managers need to always show themselves in a courteous, empathetic, and professional manner. Interpersonal Skills: As they say, good communication is the key to everything, and interpersonal skills play a huge role in being an efficient communicator. It is eventually the manager’s duty to keep guests as well as their employee’s content. Hotel managers often communicate with various groups of people from all over the world. At times, they inevitably run into distasteful personality types and uncommon international cultures or requests, so one must have the ability to listen and adapt in order to be a successful hotel manager. Team Building/Leadership: Hotel managers should be good team leaders who are always willing to hear, encourage employee morale, decisively solve problems and assign responsibility to staff members. Building a united and open team atmosphere will help improve both your staff’s productivity and your guest’s experience. Operational Knowledge: The regular duties of hotel managers need a fundamental basis of hotel operational experience. Most of them gain operational knowledge through either entry-level employment in the industry or hotel management courses. Without a basic understanding of concepts like accounting, human resource management or cost control, managers will be left ineffective in making the choices required on a daily basis. Attention to Detail: In the hospitality industry, the most significant goal is to build and maintain customer satisfaction which implies that you should offer top-notch services all the time but being perfect often needs great micromanagement. In other words, every successful hotel manager has attention to detail and thoroughness in their work. They are always on the lookout for improvements.