Hospitality Business: The Modern Hiring Process

By Melisa Marzett

The hospitality business is an industry that is becoming more and more popular every year. A modern manager must combine various aspects of hoteliery, ranging from excellent knowledge of the profession to reliable information about current trends in the global market.

While the competitiveness of the hotel enterprise will depend on the management, a business built on a good level of service will undoubtedly develop and expand. The hotel manager should be familiar with all the various parts of the hotel itself and be able to put them together into a cohesive unit.

What should you pay attention to?

Everyone wants to find a job that will stimulate the full development of the individual, and in this occupation they can. The hospitality business requires constant self-development and professional skills. The employee must be:

open
sociable
respectful
helpful
moderately tolerant
flexible, etc.

The manager should self-actualize, as this will affect one`s level of satisfaction and happiness. According to many recognized specialists in this profession, adaptive quality – the ability to get used to rapidly changing conditions – will play a significant role.

With this approach, the business will develop in spite of a challenging market environment, demonstrating high quality and attracting an increasing number of customers. So it is not surprising that the demand for trained professionals related to the hotel business is continually growing.

Advantages and disadvantages

A business built in the service sector has always been trendy. But the hospitality profession requires a specific experience that would allow managing employees to be as efficient as possible. We must start with the fact that the staff is involved in the full service of the hotel. Without it, it is impossible to imagine the normal functioning of the entire system:

cleaning
taking orders for various types of delivery
purchasing
dry cleaning
greeting guests
baggage handling, etc.

Every little thing will leave a particular imprint on the business. Hotel management supervisors should monitor the work of the staff, promptly responding to any complaints. If necessary, they can provide valuable guidance, during which time the implementation of their suggestions is evaluated.

In addition, the staff must put to use its verbal pyrotechnics if it becomes necessary to communicate with dissatisfied customers. All situations are unique, and therefore one must be prepared for any possible set of circumstances.

The hotel manager is responsible for constant communication with newcomers who fill up the staff. A business in which there is an attentive manager will be much more efficient since it can quickly respond to changes in the team. One has to stop any conflicts and internal divisions at the source.

The main advantages include:

A managerial position brings gained experience. As practice shows, acquired skills can strengthen any business.
High income. Professionals who know their business well may not receive tips, but the wages will be more than sufficient.
Growth perspective. Specialists working in the hotel service may qualify for a promotion after a few years of work.

The main disadvantages include:

Nervous work. It is worth noting that any hotel consists of a large number of employees, and each of them can give free rein to emotions. We must not forget about the guests, too. The task of the manager is to solve any problem that appears quickly while controlling internal order. As practice shows, it takes a special kind of person who can withstand this amount of stress.
Lack of a working schedule. The specifics of working in a hotel is like unregulated labor and the lack of a weekend. Even while on vacation, you can get a call from your assistant, who will not know how to act in a certain situation. To prevent more problems, you will have to give a detailed telephone consultation, or even worse, fix everything in person.

Do maids need a college degree?

Higher education institutions supply the hotel industry with a broad profile of managers. Of course, these institutions do not produce bartenders, doormen, maids, etc., who perform specific activities. When it comes to such jobs we are talking about working specialties, for which a level of secondary vocational education will be sufficient.

Future specialists should understand one thing: the hotel and restaurant sector does not involve continuous training after obtaining a diploma and the subsequent search for a job. In this case, you should try to get a sense from your first courses about what to expect, then jump right in and work your way up.

A successful career is built over many years, and therefore an earlier start is the key to early success. While other students are absorbing tons of not always applicable information in class, you can be developing as a practitioner on the job. By the time of graduation, many students are already beginning to occupy management positions.

Before choosing this area of training, you need to rethink yourself, since “hospitality” is a trait that lives inside a person. Moreover, success in this area is achieved by great difficulty. For example, a waiter is a job that requires constant movement, and the amount of energy used is comparable to the load of a miner. To remain active throughout the day, you have to be in excellent physical shape.

What difficulties can you encounter?

Every employee should forget about having a bad mood and share only positive things with their clients. Your inner experiences should not affect the outcome of labor. The work of the manager includes many aspects of an activity, and therefore the level of responsibility is several times higher. Throughout the shift, you have to answer dozens or even hundreds of questions. In this case, you cannot lose your temper, while talking with someone you feel uncomfortable with.

On days that are overloaded, you may need the help of colleagues, so you need to be ready and able to delegate. It would seem that it is difficult to stand behind the bar and give orders. However, the result of the work of the entire hotel will depend on the correctness of the written or verbal request. Each employee is part of a vast mechanism that has to maintain a good working condition.

Not every student can properly combine work with study, and you may have to sacrifice something. Everyone chooses his own way, but the achievement of high positions is impossible without obtaining specialized education. When working in one of the more prestigious hotels, one must get ready for steadily increasing demands which may include: appearance, knowledge of a foreign language, etc.

Most hospitality majors seek a bachelors degree from a college or university, which provides a strong background in business, marketing, finance and other skills needed for a successful career in hotel management. Pay particular attention to tuition costs and enrollment data. University training can be quite expensive, the number of budget places is insignificant, and the competition can be strong.

You must think ahead and decide on what future specialty you want to go into, since the specifics of the work and thus the courses will be different. For example, a financial manager and a customer service manager perform different tasks. The financial manager’s work is related to the development of a strategy and pricing in changing market conditions. The customer service manager gives leadership and direction to the service process, ensuring the order and efficiency of the team.

Conclusion

The hospitality industry is the fastest growing industry in the world and it offers some of the most exciting and challenging careers you can find. The potential rewards are unlimited, and advancement can be rapid. But like most things in life, excitement and reward do not come without a cost. The cost comes primarily in the form of hard work and varying degrees of sacrifice in your personal life.

Yet it is fair to say that working with hotel guests is seldom boring. Every customer is a new challenge, and you are certainly not chained to a desk. The hospitality industry is a dynamic, fulfilling place to work if you thrive in a fast-paced environment, like to wear different “hats,” and enjoy serving people.