An Insight into Various Positions in a Hotel
“True hospitality consists of giving the best of yourself to your guests”
Hotels are establishments that provide accommodation, food, beverage, and other services to the guests. Working in a hotel is extremely exciting and challenging, both at the same time. Meeting new people from diverse cultures and getting to know them adds up to the excitement factor of the job. Serving people is challenging because there can be unpredictable issues to be solved which might need expertise on different levels. Therefore, recruiters often look for specific skills or qualities while recruiting hotel employees such as interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, organizational skills, creative and critical thinking capability, teamwork, leadership skills, etc.
It is necessary to have these qualities when you work in this field because there are several challenges that one has to face on a day-to-day basis like long working hours, dealing with fussy guests, dealing with complaints and requests, etc. It takes a lot of effort to deal with everything with a smile on your face and only your skills can come to your rescue at such a time.
Job Descriptions of Various Positions Of The Hotel
Hotel positions can be broadly classified as Guest Services and Administrative and Support.
Guest Services:
Entry-level:
1. Front Desk: This is the main reception department and it consists of job titles like front desk attendants, bellboys, concierge, reservations, operators, and travel agents. Front desk attendants are responsible for the check-ins, check-outs, setting the bill, and handling requests. Bellboys take care of the luggage. They are responsible for tagging luggage and bringing them up to the rooms. Reservations handle the upcoming reservations according to the availability of rooms. Operators help connect departments to departments as well as guests to their desired department via phone calls. Concierge and travel deals with guests’ requests, travel guidance, and act as liaisons with the guests.
2. Food and Beverage: This includes the servers, hostess, in-room service attendants, bartenders, and banquet servers. They are responsible for the food and beverages of guests.
3. Kitchen: The kitchen chefs are responsible for the food that is served in a hotel. It is a very demanding job and requires a lot of passion for cooking and learning the basics of different cuisines and mastering them. Also, kitchen staff duties include dish-washing, purchasing of raw materials, and other similar duties to help senior staff in the kitchen.
4. Housekeeping Attendants: They are also known as Room Attendants and are responsible for preparing guest rooms and washrooms.
5. Spas: Spa attendants provide various healthcare services to the guest.
Advanced positions:
1. Front Office Supervisor/ Duty Managers: This job title as the name suggests is given to the team leader who is responsible for staffing, leading the team, and solving issues that can not be handled by the junior staff. They often need to hire, train, and take care of the discipline of the staff.
2. Front Office Manager: A FOM is the head in the hierarchy of the front desk. This title comes with a lot of responsibilities including revenue management, budgeting, hiring, promotions, and they also act as a link to the other department heads.
3. Restaurant or In-room Service Supervisor: As the title suggests the job responsibilities including managing the team, hiring, training, staffing, and creating the perfect balance in the team. They also need to make sure the service of the guest is up to the hotel standards and often take care of guest complaints.
4. Restaurant Manager and Bar Manager: They are the head of the restaurants and bars, are responsible for the proper functioning of the team, and they are the ones the supervisors report to. They help in deciding the menu with the head chef and are responsible for revenue generation.
5. Food and Beverage Manager: If a hotel has multiple food and beverage establishments the person who is at the top of the hierarchy chart is the food and beverage manager. They are responsible for the proper functioning of each establishment and the revenue generation as per the budget.
6. Sous Chef/ Supervisor Chef: They head a kitchen and they are responsible for the staffing, hiring, training, and managing the kitchen staff.
7. Executive Chef: This title is given to a person who heads all the kitchens available at a hotel. Overlooking the performances, purchases, budgeting, settling menus of different restaurants are some of the major responsibilities of the executive chef.
8. Housekeeping Supervisor: Often they are given a floor to manage with several housekeepers under them. Their main role is to manage staff, hiring, and training. They also need to make sure that the rooms on the given floor are ready to be sold again and are well prepared. They update room status to the front desk.
9. Housekeeping Manager: Head of the housekeeping department. They are responsible for the management of the team and their welfare.
Administrative positions:
1. General Manager of the Hotel: A general Manager is the person who heads the hotel. Every employee needs to report to him/her. They take care of the overall functioning of the hotel.
2. Assistant General Manager: He/ she is responsible for the admin jobs of the GM and takes care of the budgets and reports.
3. Human Resource: The department responsible for hiring, training, and introducing the staff to the hotels.
4. Sales: The department is responsible for closing deals with various other companies and reaching the target business of the financial year.
5. Banquet Sales: The department is responsible for the selling of banquets and generating revenue.
6. Marketing: This department is responsible for brainstorming the strategies to sell rooms, food, and beverage. They create the face value of the company and help to maintain the brand name.
7. Accounting: The department is responsible for the salaries, revenue handling, taxes, utility bills, income, expenses, and overall accounts of the hotel.
8. Purchasing: This includes the employees who take care of the purchasing of all the required items in the various departments of the hotel.
9. Information Technology: This department takes care of the day to day IT systems, business systems, network systems, hardware and software support, and various other maintenance related work.
10. Maintenance: They are the ones who take care of various technical work including electrical fixations, audio-visual systems, repairing, and looking after the types of machinery used.
Hotel Management is a dynamic field that comes with new experiences every day. If you enter this industry, try your hands at various departments in order to explore what best suits you!
