Hospitality Management Excellence Guide

What is Hospitality Management?

Hospitality management consists of handling and directing hotels, resorts, restaurants, lodging, and other similar services. These professionals handle the totality of the management of said establishments, from staffing and decor to sales and housekeeping. It is a role that requires highly proficient decision-making abilities and great managerial skills; they are responsible for creating and ensuring a great experience for all customers.

The standard for a hospitality manager is to be highly concerned with the customer experience. They are needed for every subsidiary of the hospitality industry, such as casinos, hotels, cafes, restaurants, private transportation, lodging, event planning, bars, travel, and tourism. Each business needs a hospitality manager that will focus on reaching their target audience, and satisfying them to the best of their ability.

A massive part of hospitality management is hotel management. If you get a diploma in hospitality management, you will be trained in hotels, resorts, the relaxation industry, food and beverage, travel, and event management. As aforementioned, hotel management is only a single part of hospitality management, and includes tasks like administration, marketing, upkeep, staffing, maintenance, and more.

Having a hospitality manager is a necessity in every type of service industry so that it can run efficiently and provide an excellent guest experience. A good hospitality manager is the backbone of any successful hospitality business, as they ensure to get good deals with suppliers, employ the right people, curate a menu, and take care of the nitty-gritty of the operation. Only an individual with unique skills and specific expertise can succeed as a hospitality manager.

In this article, we will discuss the following:

1. Responsibilities of a Hospitality Manager

2. Qualities and Requirements of a Good Hospitality Manager

3. Tactics to Improve Your Hospitality Management

4. Tech Trends in the Hospitality Industry

What Are the Responsibilities of a Hospitality Manager?

The responsibilities of a hospitality manager may vary depending on the exact establishment you’re working at. Hospitality managers are employed to ensure that the facility is running smoothly and to guarantee that it is moving in the right direction. A good hospitality manager must be able to guide staff and create a high-functioning and successful team. Here are some essential duties of every hospitality manager:

• Recruitment, employment, and training of new employees
• Supervise all of the departments within the business
• Perform regular audits to ensure a safe and efficient workplace
• Management of budget
• Maintenance of statistical and financial reports
• Scheduling maintenance – for example, if you work in a hotel, you’d need to keep track of condition of the hotel rooms, as well as the restaurant within it
• Monitor supplies/equipment quantity and quality
• Oversee events and conferences
• Troubleshoot problems to ensure quick resolution
• Promotion and marketing of the establishment
• Ensure compliance with health and safety policies and licensing laws
• Communicate with customers when necessary
• Work on collaboration that will influence the company positively and drive sales – this could include collaboration with suppliers, travel agencies, event/conference planners, etc.
• Manage and keep a record of inventory

Hospitality managers are necessary and valuable in establishments like:

• Hotel Chains
• Residential Clubs
• Resorts
• Restaurants
• Hotels
• Parks
• Convention Centers
• Destination Marketing Organization

What Are the Qualities and Requirements of a Good Hospitality Manager?

The recipe for success for any company is a good manager; that one person that works behind the scenes making everything work seamlessly makes a world of a difference. There are some qualities that every good hospitality manager should have, even if they have no experience. A good hospitality manager should have the following:

• Excellent customer service skills
• Emotional intelligence
• Great decision-making and problem-solving skills
• Attention to detail
• Leadership skills
• An education OR prior experience in hospitality management
• A good grasp of MS Office
• Knowledge of best practices and data entry software
• Ability to work under pressure
• Ability to motivate and train staff
• Computer literacy

What Are Some Vital Tactics to Improve Hospitality Management?

If you want to succeed at what you do, you need a strategy to catapult your business into greatness. This strategy starts with knowing who your target audience is and what your goals are. Once you have decided who your target audience are, it’s time to fine-tune your goals to make sure they are realistic, and align with the company as a whole. Goals are just dreams if they do not have a timeframe in which you expect to fulfill them, so put down a date you expect to have reached your goal by.

The market demands keep changing; you need to keep this in mind to guarantee that you are up-to-date and a good match for your competitors. Here are some of the best marketing strategies for hotel and restaurant management:

• Invest in an SEO-Optimized Website



This will allow potential customers to find you easily. Many travelers google the location they’re going to and what hotels are around. Ensure that your website is SEO-optimized and will pop up as an option. It is crucial to invest in resources that can improve the SEO of your website. Another key thing is to certify that your website is mobile/user-friendly. Remember that link-building is an important part of SEO that can improve your visibility, thereby leading to more customers.



• Get All the Data Possible



It cannot be over-emphasized how well you can use data to streamline your decision-making process. This is a powerful strategy that can be used in any industry. Using google analytics to collect data will help you know how people use your website and how you get the most bookings. Knowing the demographic of your client base can help you make decisions that can focus on the specific people interested in your services. You can request feedback from guests on how their stay was so you could know what needs to be improved and what is currently working. Statistics show that 40% of hotel guests are likely to write a review after a positive experience, while 48% of hotel guests are likely to write one after a negative experience. It may be worth giving an incentive to people to leave a review even when it is positive, seeing as a lot of people expect good service so they don’t bother letting you know when it is. Customer reviews will reveal what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong, so they’re useful both ways.



• Find Your Selling Point



Find the reason why your restaurant or hotel is different or special, and if you need help finding one, create it! This can be used to market your business and also give your business an edge over the competition. You can include immaculate customer care as your selling point – for example, gift giving always impresses, like guests meeting a complimentary bottle of wine in their room. These little factors can make a huge difference in the image and perception of your hotel and restaurant management.



• Use Social Media as a Useful Tool for Connection



New and frequent clients alike can get behind an active and effective social media presence. Posting engaging or educative content can be a solid way to leave a good impression on customers that have yet to patronize your business. You can also use social media to drive traffic to your website so you can have direct bookings, which translates to more revenue. Social media can also personify your brand to make prospective clients feel welcomed.



• Find Out When Bookings are Highest



Use this knowledge to invest more money in adverts around that time to make sure you sell significant amounts. You can use this period to draw in more clients as they are already searching to book; they need to find the right place to book with, which could be you if you strategically pose yourself as a great option. The FIFA World Cup 2022 will be taking place this November 20th in Qatar, and most people would like to watch in-person and also make reservations for their accommodation beforehand. You can use this information to know how to strategically place yourself to be seen as a hotel or restaurant in Qatar.



• Sell the Experience



Don’t just focus on a night’s stay or a good meal, sell an entire experience. One of the most successful companies in the world, Apple, sells emotions. They sell the feeling of exclusivity and stylishness. Everyone wants to get the newest iPhone whenever they come out because it makes them feel included. Do the same thing with your business – find a feeling you can sell. Sell them an experience like never before when they stay at your hotel or have a meal at your restaurant. You can give them an experience they will relive and savor.

What Are Some Notable Tech Trends In The Hospitality Industry?

It would help if you didn’t lag in a highly competitive digital market. Stay up-to-date to improve customer experience with technology. Guests now want more than just the same bed and neat room; they have needs they require hotels to meet. The competition is tough – because of this, hotels and restaurants must invest in tech-related resources to give guests personalized experiences. One of the ways you can use tech trends to satisfy your customers is by joining the contactless payment bandwagon. This is arguably one of the most popular trends in every industry, and this goes for the hospitality and tourism industries as well.

Contactless payments are a way to ease booking for your guests, and it has now become a necessity – it is one of the factors guests look out for when booking a hotel or a restaurant. Many clients want to avoid walking around with cash or inputting their pins in the presence of attendants. Especially post-COVID, contactless payments are a way to protect both your guest and employee.

Another important tech trend to catch onto is a chatbot. A chatbot can be a good marketing strategy to give prospective clients immediate answers to their questions. Some chatbots are fluent in multiple languages, making them accessible to more people globally. Bots can easily answer questions about policies, prices, and processes at any time of the day. Mobile check-ins are also a significant tech trend to invest in, as it allows guests to check in seamlessly. The check-in process can be started and finished within moments using a mobile phone; there is no need for human interaction, which is also a good tech trend to invest in after COVID-19.

After the pandemic, there was a huge impact on the hospitality and tourism industry. This means you must keep an open mind to new trends and initiatives to understand the market better and stay relevant. International travel was impossible during the pandemic, which meant hotels needed to find new ways to appeal to their audience. This is an excellent example of why you should always get smarter with targeting an audience and managing your hotel and restaurants in a way that would appeal to clients far and wide.