What is a Hotel General Manager?
A Hotel General Manager is the most senior member of staff at a hotel. They are tasked with overseeing the operations of the property and ensuring the success of the business. Usually they will report to higher levels of management such as owners, directors, and corporate headquarters.
This is different to an Operations Manager, who focuses primarily on ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of everyday tasks.
What does a Hotel General Manager do?
A Hotel General Manager leads the day-to-day operations of a hotel. This will include (but is not limited to) managing all the various departments within the hotel, analysing performance, creating strategies and delegating tasks, managing staff and reporting to stakeholders. This means they will also be a jack of all trades, participating in a lot of different activities on any given day.
What is a Hotel General Manager’s salary?
It’s important to note that a general manager’s salary will vary depending on the specific hotel, the country or region, and the experience of the general manager.
However, it’s been reported that those with a master’s degree make USD$22,649 more annually than those who hold a high-school diploma.
In the US, the national average salary for a GM sits at about $62,500. At the higher end of the scale, general managers can earn as much as $165,000.
In this blog we’ll cover everything you need to know about the role of a Hotel General Manager, including the most crucial duties and skills required. Table of contents
Why a Hotel GM is crucial to the success of the business
A Hotel GM can be the difference between a thriving business and an underperforming one. Not only do they need to be a good strategist with a sharp eye for detail, they also need to be a good leader who is accomplished at delegating tasks appropriately and motivating other staff members to do their best.
General managers touch every aspect of the hotel from staff management, to guest experience, to revenue management, performance reporting, and more.
If they aren’t setting the tone for others to follow, capitalising on opportunities, and being aware of what’s happening on a daily basis, standards will slip and progress will falter.
Both those below and above the GM in the hierarchy will look to them for guidance, support, and leadership in keeping the hotel running smoothly and achieving targeted goals. Be a more powerful general manager with the best technology What if you could boost your hotel's efficiency and revenue while also reducing your workload? Our smart hotel platform helps you do exactly that.
Full list of Hotel General Manager responsibilities
So, we’ve scratched the surface of what a Hotel General Manager does but let’s delve a bit deeper. Here are 10 of the most important hotel general manager duties:
- Provide leadership and vision: A general manager needs to be able to execute the vision of the owner or stakeholders, which includes being a good people manager and strategist.
- Oversee daily operations: The GM has to be across the happenings at the hotel on a daily basis, so that they can make the right decisions if and when they need to be made.
- Problem solving: Following on from above, a general manager needs to be able to think on their feet and respond to various situations effectively. For example, if an event occurs that has the potential to cause a shift in demand, the general manager (along with the revenue manager) needs to quickly execute a plan to capitalise.
- Quality control: The general manager is responsible for upholding brand values and standards across the hotel.
- Customer service: Ultimately, the buck stops at the top so a GM has to be vigilant when it comes to ensuring the needs of guests, including safety and security, are being met at a consistently high level.
- Finances: Revenue is what keeps a business running, so a general manager needs to work closely with a revenue manager (or do it all themselves at smaller properties) to optimise pricing, control costs, and generate profit.
- Staff management: Whether it’s hiring and training staff, keeping staff motivated, handling disputes, organising schedules, and more, the GM has to be involved in maintaining a happy and skilled team of staff.
- Marketing: How does the hotel get found and booked by guests? What is the reputation of the brand? How does the property increase followers and engagement on social media? These are all aspects that the general manager should be working on, in conjunction with other staff members.
- Community engagement: The general manager will be crucial when it comes to forming partnerships with other businesses in the local community and finding ways to integrate the hotel into the local scene.
- Technology: Does the hotel need technology to operate more efficiently? Can technology help generate more revenue? Will technology save time and enhance guest experience? It’s the general manager’s job to explore all avenues to find better ways to run the hotel – of which hotel software plays a huge part.
How to be a Hotel General Manager
While all those responsibilities we discussed go some way to explaining how to be a general manager and what it entails, there are some other steps to take to get there.
Hotel General Manager qualifications
While not strictly necessary, it’s a good idea to have a Bachelor’s Degree in hospitality management or a similar course if you want to be a general manager. Almost 60% of those in the position have their degree, since it requires good knowledge of business and financial management.
Other certifications in hospitality can be gained to enhance your profile too.
And of course, you can also start at the bottom and work your way up during your career through experience alone.
Hotel General Manager skills
While we may have touched on some of the required skills already, it’s important that Hotel General Managers have a good grasp of:
- Leadership: Confidence, emotional intelligence, and the ability to motivate are all important characteristics.
- Communication: You need to be clear, concise, and direct when communicating but compassionate and patient when listening.
- Adaptability: Hospitality is a fast-paced industry that’s constantly in flux so you need to be able to shift priorities at a moment’s notice.
- Business acumen: You need to understand the fundamentals of what makes businesses successful and how to manage finances responsibly.
- Customer service: A background or learned experience in interacting with customers will help you put practices in place that ensure guest satisfaction.
Hotel General Manager work experience
It’s hard to step straight into a general manager role at a hotel without prior industry experience.
Ideally, a general manager will have spent a number of years in hotel or hospitality management or business administration roles displaying evidence of the required skills.
A possible pathway would be to work in the areas of night manager, front desk manager, sales and marketing manager etc before moving onto the bigger promotion of general manager.
Using technology to aid in Hotel General Manager duties
A Hotel General Manager’s job can be made much easier, and can even be enhanced, with the help of hotel technology.
There are a number of software solutions that are able to automate everyday tasks, speed up processes, enhance guest experience, and provide data and insights that makes revenue management more powerful.
A general manager should rely on tools where they think a positive impact can be made to increase the efficiency, revenue, or reputation of the business.
Examples of tools that will make a general manager’s duties simpler include:
- Property Management System: This becomes a digital front desk and the heart of the property.
- Channel Manager: Increases reach and visibility with no extra effort on the hotel’s part via automated, real-time, inventory management.
- Booking Engine: Enables direct reservations to encourage additional profit and improved guest relationships.
- Revenue Management System: Can provide key data, insights, and reports to influence pricing and revenue strategies.
- Payment Processing: Integrates with booking systems to provide secure, seamless, experiences for guests and simple admin management for hotels.
All this and more are outstanding options for a hotel general manager looking to grow their business even further. However, it’s particularly useful if all of these solutions can be operated via a single platform…