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Since they are ultimately accountable for every aspect of their
facility’s operations, hospitality managers have a tremendous
amount of responsibility. They oversee not only public areas such
as reception, lobbies, restaurants, and concierge services but also
departments that are behind the scenes, including maintenance,
housekeeping, kitchens, sales and marketing, security, catering
services, and valet parking, among others. Although day-to-day
oversight is typically handled by departmental supervisors, hospi-
tality managers are still ultimately responsible.
A hospitality manager’s duties can vary a great deal, according
to the size and location of the establishment and how many guests
it can accommodate. Some common duties include ensuring that
appropriate standards for guest services, decor, and housekeep-
ing are met; tracking how much money the facility is making on
a daily, weekly, and monthly basis; inspecting guest rooms, pub-
lic areas, and grounds for cleanliness and appearance; recruiting,
interviewing, hiring, and sometimes firing staff members; setting
room rates and budgets, approving expenditures, and allocating
funds to individual departments; and being available for problems
that need to be resolved—in some cases twenty-four hours a day.
Along with their focus on guests, hospitality managers must also
work hard to maintain excellent relationships with their staff, creating
an environment in which employees feel valued. “I have to make sure
my staff is happy because they are just as important as the guests,”
says an operations manager from a major hotel in Louisiana. “If you
check in to a hotel with an unhappy staff, it shows. So I have to
make sure everyone communicates any problems or opinions; that
includes daily meetings with the managers of every department.”
6
The Workday
Because of the nature of the hospitality industry, top managers of
hotels and resorts agree that there is no such thing as a typical day.
They must contend with an ever-changing environment and always
expect the unexpected, being prepared to handle problems and
emergencies quickly and efficiently. “No day will be the same,” says
