Hotel service manager: characteristics, responsibility, advantages and disadvantages

Hotel service managers meet more and more often lately. The need to take into account the main characteristics of this activity is important for every candidate. The responsibility of the hotel service manager is very high. This profession has both advantages and disadvantages that deserve our closest attention.

Any hotel booking activity cannot do without the input of hotel service managers. It is usually considered that services are provided at the same time as their production. For example, this happens in the case of dry cleaning, washing clothes, taxi service or organizing parties. But in the field of the hotel business and the economy, everything is fundamentally different.

So, cleaning, cosmetic and, moreover, major repairs (as forms of preparing the room stock for work) are made, of course, only in the absence of clients. Therefore, the manager has to control all this carefully. He also needs to keep track of the preparation of meals (both included in the room rate and ordered additionally), the elaboration of auxiliary services. And all this should be done in real time. Where managers of other specializations can afford, in principle, a short pause, hotel employees are obliged to continue working without interruption for a minute.

Moreover, sometimes a lost second means that customers will soon choose another hotel. The hotel manager also has to take into account the human factor to a very large extent. And it is not always possible to overcome it at the expense of your leadership status. For example, many restaurants and other establishments that provide services are only located in the hotel, but are not directly subordinate to it, you can only negotiate with them. Also, the specifics of the work of a hotel manager can be considered:

• strict adherence to general standards;
• rationing of time for check-in and check-out (even with a significant number of guests);
• rationing the time for performing an ordinary procedure;
• mandatory wearing of the prescribed uniform;
• seasonal nature of loading;
• the need to take into account the purpose of the clients' travel, and not the very fact of their arrival at a particular hotel;
• the ability to interact even with unskilled employees to the same extent as with highly qualified employees;
• compulsory knowledge of foreign languages ​​and so on.

The hotel manager can, within certain limits, allotted by the order of its owners, adjust the cost of living and individual services, as well as redistribute income between structural divisions. It is this person who determines which guests should be served, how to change the design of the rooms themselves and common areas. He coordinates administrative and economic activities in general and in detail. In small hotels, managers personally manage all the affairs. In larger ones, they can have a whole staff of assistants - and then they must determine the responsibilities, powers of each of these assistants.

Another responsibility of the manager turns out to be knowledge:

• federal and regional laws;
• investment norms, civil, tax, labor codes;
• principles of drawing up business plans;
• specifics of the market, management, hotel marketing;
• requirements for the content and design, for the material support of the hotel;
• native languages ​​of the most likely clientele.

The manager's duties also include:

• coordination of the work of all departments;
• maintaining the full condition and profitability of all property;
• identification of shortcomings in the work of employees;
• punishing or rewarding these employees;
• direct participation in the development of a marketing strategy, in the development of long-term plans and pricing policy;
• conclusion of contracts with suppliers of goods, repair and construction organizations;
• selection of personnel and the establishment of requirements for him;
• study of audience reviews;
• a report to the organizers on the economy of the hotel.

In such a position, responsibility is also great. Of course, the manager will be responsible for violations of the criminal and civil codes, committed by him or with the participation of other employees. But also a specialist is obliged to be responsible for improper work in accordance with his job duties, prescribed by the instructions.

Hotel manager in preparation studies many humanitarian, economic disciplines. Later, he will have to constantly maintain the level of proficiency in them. This position is perfect for outgoing, easy-to-connect people. The average salary of an administrator reaches 30 thousand rubles. And in large high-class hotels, even a beginner may have more, given, however, the difficulty of getting there.

The prospects for career growth are great. In a few years, skilled administrators can easily turn into managers, and others even create their own hotels. However, not everything is so cloudless. The hotel manager is constantly under stress. The typical image of "a person standing at the counter, periodically walking around rooms and corridors" is not very true.

Even if outwardly it really looks like this, in fact, at this time, the specialist can intensely think about something. Further, the hotel administrator almost always has an irregular, exhausting working day and daily schedule (or the work is organized in 2 mode after 2 days). You have to stand and walk a lot during working hours, and if the manager sits down, it is usually to read the documents or to draw up reports. Education for this specialty is mainly paid.

True, this moment will be characteristic of an increasing number of professions now. You should also consider:

• lack of room for error;
• constant psychological stress;
• the need to communicate with the flow of visitors and with employees (even if they don't like one or the other);
• the inability to entrust someone with the resolution of conflicts;
• the need to satisfy the "whims" of VIP-clients;
• the fact that the work is going “under the roof, in the warmth”.