A hotel manager is responsible for ensuring that all the hotel departments are operating efficiently to provide the best customer service. It is a fast-paced job with new challenges needing problem-solving every day. It is also a job that requires you to split your time between behind-the-scenes tasks with staff and customer-facing responsibilities.
This profession is as popular with women as it is with men with both genders taking up about 50% of the just under 6k jobs in the United States today. An interesting fact, if you are looking to move to a place where you will be the most in-demand, Las Vegas, NV is the place to go.
Most hotel managers have a bachelor’s degree or other forms of further education, so recruiters will expect to see that on your resume. They will also be looking to see years of experience in the hospitality industry, so a strong experience section is very important for your resume.
This guide will show you how to build not only a strong experience section but how to build a strong skills section and introduction section as well. We will also give you resume samples to get you started.
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A hotel manager manages hotel staff to ensure that customers have a great stay at their establishment. Tasks may include overseeing events, creating schedules for the staff, doing quality checks on the work of the staff, and handling any serious problems that may arise. If you work in a smaller hotel, you may need to manage all the departments. But in a larger hotel, you may be assigned a specific department to manage and you will work under a general manager. Here is an impressive hotel manager's resume.
Though a lot of your time will be spent managing staff, you will be dealing with customers as well. so ensure you include your customer-facing experience and your experience handling customer complaints and problems.
Put yourself above your competition by making the extra effort to get hospitality certifications. It shows recruiters your commitment to the professions and your high knowledge level.
A hotel general manager oversees all the hotel’s operations and ensures customers have a pleasant stay. General managers are usually needed for larger hotels and will have a number of managers under them who will manage the different departments. You need to be an exceptional leader, have great problem-solving skills, and must have a wealth of knowledge on hotel operations and the laws and guidelines hotels must follow. Take a look at this successful resume sample.
Recruiters like to see that you have grown in the hospitality industry. It shows your dedication to the industry, your wealth of knowledge in hospitality, and that you have been an exceptional employee who has received multiple promotions.
Give recruiters an idea of the size of teams or hotels you have managed in the past by noting the staff size or hotel revenue of previous employers. This applicant has previously managed a hotel with 50+ employees and $100m+ annual revenue.
The hotel sales manager is an experienced hospitality professional who oversees several aspects of a hotel’s daily business operations. Typically, the hotel manager is in charge of a large team of on-site hospitality staff. They also oversee special bookings and events, improve reservations percentages, and marketing strategies, manage budgets, resolve high-level guest complaints, and identify capital improvements for the property.
To become a hotel sales manager, you will need a degree in hospitality management, business, or another related field. Hiring managers will also look for someone with extensive experience in hospitality, such as previous roles held as a lead concierge, front desk associate, events manager, or housekeeping supervisor. The best hotel managers have superb customer service and conflict resolution skills, as well as great organization and multitasking abilities.
When it comes to hotel management, making sure your guests are satisfied is one of the most important responsibilities you’ll have. So, to be considered for this role, make sure your resume highlights the previous experience you have with customer service and conflict resolution. Even better if you can highlight how you improved another property’s guest satisfaction rating.
Although this is not a marketing-centric position, many hotel managers are responsible for marketing their property to ensure reservations keep rolling in. As a hotel manager, you may be asked to think of new marketing campaigns. To get hired for this role, it will be important to highlight any experience you have using digital marketing tools to garner more bookings.
As the name suggests, this manager is in charge of the hotel's sales department. In this position, you would be working under a general manager. You will oversee the hotel’s marketing campaigns, and customer outreach strategies, among other tasks. Your goal is to maximize sales and profits. A strong sales background as well as a wealth of knowledge in the hospitality industry will be expected. Ensure your resume highlights both. Here is a strong resume sample.
The core function of sales is to increase revenue for the hotel. Show recruiters how successful you have been at doing that by including metrics of how much you and your team were able to increase sales and thereby revenue under your leadership in previous positions.
Marketing is a huge part of how you attract customers to your hotels and thereby how you make sales. Being able to show in your resume that you are particularly skilled and experienced in marketing is a huge advantage for your application. This applicant has included their marketing coordinator position in their experience section. Include your marketing experience in your resume.
Hotel sales managers are involved in the marketing of the hotel itself, and so it helps to indicate your ability to develop and implement successful marketing strategies. In this resume, the applicant references their marketing accomplishments alongside their ability to improve staff performance (including implementing CRM tools and educating the staff accordingly), giving the impression of overall capability when it comes to hotel brand management.
Note how this applicant includes how they “implemented social media strategies that increased client interest by 20%” and attended more than 10 industry networking events with the net result of increasing sales by 20 percent. If you have similar accomplishments related to sales outreach, marketing, or developing campaigns (online and offline), you should include them to let hiring managers know that you won’t be slacking when it comes to promoting the hotel to gain business.
This hotel sales manager includes their success at working with a variety of team members to improve the overall hotel performance, showcasing their well roundedness in hotel management. Their accomplishments include educating concierges, training staff, executing sales strategies with five national level sales managers, and working with hotel sales teams. To demonstrate that you have experience working with staff, sales teams, and team members at a variety of levels, you should opt to include any accomplishments that showcase your ability to lead.
We asked hiring managers at Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt what they look for in a hotel manager resume. Based on their insights and our research, here are six tips to make your hotel manager resume stand out from the competition and land you an interview.
Many hotel manager positions require a degree in hospitality management or a related field. Be sure to prominently feature your education on your resume, including the degree earned, school attended, and graduation year.
In addition to formal education, certifications can also set you apart. Some examples of relevant certifications for hotel managers include:
A resume summary for a hotel manager is optional, but it can be a great way to provide additional context about your experience and qualifications that may not be immediately apparent from the rest of your resume. It's especially useful if you're changing careers or have a lot of experience in the industry. However, avoid using an objective statement, as it's outdated and doesn't provide value to the hiring manager.
When writing your summary, focus on your most relevant skills, experience, and accomplishments. Use metrics and specific examples to back up your claims, but avoid duplicating information that's already in your resume. Keep it concise and objective, and tailor it to the specific hotel manager position you're applying for.
The work experience section is the heart of your resume as a hotel manager. It's where you showcase your career journey, key accomplishments, and the skills that make you the perfect fit for the job. Let's break down the essential steps to writing a compelling work experience section that will impress hiring managers and land you an interview.
The education section of your hotel manager resume should be concise and highlight your most relevant qualifications. It's an opportunity to showcase your knowledge and skills that are directly applicable to the role. Follow these tips to create a compelling education section that will catch the attention of hiring managers.
The right action verbs can help frame your accomplishments in an impressive light and leave a positive impression on recruiters. A hotel manager’s resume should discuss their experience using direct and vivid language. The action verbs should frame you as a leader and also as a multi-functional professional.
We have compiled a few action verbs that highlight the functions of a hotel manager. Use them where appropriate in your resume.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
To win an interview for the job you’ve been eyeing, your resume needs to show that you are capable of successfully completing all the functions of the job. Your skills section is the right place to clearly list your most relevant hard skills.
A hotel manager has a wide range of responsibilities that span multiple departments. As such their skill set must be equally diverse. You will want to list skills that relate to departments like housekeeping, food & beverage, and finances, just to mention a few. Here is a list of relevant skills that you can add to your resume’s skill section to impress recruiters.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Hotel Manager job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
