5 ways to nail being a good Hotel General Manager September 22, 2017

The hotel general manager is a very important job role within the hospitality sector, this is the person that can balance several tasks while still keeping a smile on their face. In the last 10 years the industry has changed significantly, these changes can be aligned to the recent financial crisis.

Today’s hotel general managers are required to perform many tasks behind the scenes as well as being a friendly face for the guests. Previously this was a customer facing role with limited behind the scenes work. The era of the manager lobby swanning being a super host has been outdated for some time now. The new era has brought a wave of a more corporate feel to the position as the managers are looking to their hotel on the map.

You may think, what exactly “does a Hotel General Manager actually do?” here are the duties of a hotel general manager:

They walk around each department in the morning to check in on the staff and see that they are in attendance.
Check on any issues that may have occurred when they were out of office.
Catch up with the night general manager to get an update of the guests that are staying with them.
Perform admin duties that need to be filed away strictly.
To keep the hotel running smoothly and to constantly be on call in case they are needed.
Hotel Managers are required to keep with the latest hotel management course and make sure that they complete hotel management training every 2 years.

Here are some qualities that a successful hotel General manager possesses:

They have buckets load of passion for the job, passion is something that is discovered and not taught. If you are not passionate about something no matter how far you dig within you still won’t be able to find it. A general manager is always passionate to make sure that every morning he is looking for ways to make the guests stay more comfortable and pleasant.

Another way to become successful in this field is hard work and willing to make the sacrifices necessary. Everyone wants a balance between home and work life but you might need to sacrifice your home life to climb the ladder. To be a good general manager you need to know that the demands of the guests and employees can span all hours of the day.

As a general manager you need to be willing to take risks and be willing to take obstacles that are thrown at them on the chin. You have to be able to stick to strict deadlines if this is a new hotel and prove to the employer that your skills will bring in investment and high profile guests.

A successful manager is on one hand a sympathetic listener and problem solver on the other. They need to have excellent interpersonal and communication skills to lay out a clear vision for their staff to ensure that they work to the best of their ability.

Passion is nothing without talent and creativity, the manager will need creativity to solve problems that might arise in the hotel and have the talent to make the problem go away.

London TFE offers management training courses London and all around the world if you need the skills to be an effective hotel manager? Why not have a look at our hotel management course