If you have excellent communication skills, love to take care of people’s concerns and your attention to detail surprises everyone, you can be the perfect fit for the hotel and hospitality industry. Plenty of courses are available in Hotel Management and Hospitality Management under some reputed institutes around the world. Most of the students think these two fields are the same. So, to get into the right course, you must go through the difference between hotel management and hospitality management.
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Students often make the mistake of not looking into the thin line between a Hotel Management course and a Hospitality Management course and end up in the wrong place. We Indians are hospitable by nature. Our ancestors have passed down the culture of “Atithi Devo Bhava” (the guest is our God) to us.
So, the service sector is always a great option to choose from. As an aspiring service industry professional, you must know which path is better suited for you. So, let’s understand the key differences between hotel and hospitality management and the opportunities available in both disciplines.
Exploring Hotel Management
Hotel management is the study of the day-to-day management of a hotel’s activities. Hotel Management courses focus only on the management, marketing, and hospitality involved in the Hotel industry. You can become a hotel manager, also known as a Hotelier, through a bachelor’s degree, diploma, or an MBA in Hotel Management. India along with many other countries offers degree and diploma courses in hotel management with many career opportunities in the hotel industry. Here are a few areas that come under the Hospitality of Hotel Management study:
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- Housekeeping Management
- Managing food and Beverage orders of the guests
- Front Office Management or Reception
- Handling Reservations and Bookings
- Managing Travel agents or Tour Guides’ contacts for the guests
- Valet
- Operating Room divisions and the conditions of the hotel rooms
And a lot of other functions. Hotel Management courses will give you specialized knowledge about the daily supervision of a hotel and the hospitality around the hotel business.
Understanding Hospitality Management
Hospitality Management covers management services in every possible sector. If you choose Hospitality Management, you will get various career opportunities in different service industry fields. You may need to work in the operational, administrative, or commercial departments of the Hospitality industry. Here are some areas that an academic degree or diploma in Hospitality Management covers.
- Managing Accommodation of Guests
- Supervision for Sightseeing of a tourist
- Adventures and fun
- Arranging events on the tour
- Managing ticket booking for tours and travel
- Cruises
- Casino Management
- Welcoming Clients and arranging meetings in an MNC
and many more. Hospitality Management allows you to delve into the different aspects of the service industry.
Difference between hotel management and hospitality management
Now, that you have a fair idea about hotel and hospitality management, let’s see the key differences between the two fields of study:
| Particulars |
Hospitality Management |
Hotel Management |
| Area of Focus |
Engulfs the entire service industry, including hotels, restaurants, resorts, event management, and travel agencies |
Only focuses on the operations and management of hotels and other types of accommodation establishments |
| Functions |
Includes customer service management, handling guest services, event planning, tourism operations, and many more |
Day-to-day management of hotel operations, including room services, reception, food and beverages, and revenue management |
| Aim to Study |
Deliver high-quality customer services in different fields of the hospitality sector, beyond just hotels. |
Delivering the best guest experience in a hotel. |
| Career Opportunities |
Career opportunities include roles in restaurants, resorts, travel agencies, event management companies, tourism organizations, and other related fields. |
Career opportunities include hotel general manager, front office manager, food and beverage manager, executive housekeeper, and revenue manager. |
| Daily Operations |
Manage operations across various sectors, including properties, events, and tourism destinations. |
Manage a specific property or a property within a hotel chain or standalone hotel. |
| Compensation |
You can get a good salary offer as a fresher also. |
The higher positions offer good compensation. But, entry-level jobs do not pay well. |
8 Key Areas of Difference Between Hotel Management And Hospitality Management
Let’s see the 8 key differences between hotel and hospitality management:
The scope of hotel management is limited to the operations and administration of hotels and other accommodation establishments like a resort or a lodge. There are also many homestays in India and abroad that employ hotel management graduates.
On the other hand, Hospitality management includes all forms of services in the tourism and event management industries along with the IT, FMCG, and entertainment industries.
Studying hotel management will allow you to get a job as a hotel general manager, front office manager, food and beverage manager, executive housekeeper, revenue manager, and more.
But, in Hospitality management, you are free to choose a job in restaurants, resorts, travel agencies, event management companies, tourism organizations, and other service sector fields.
Hotel management specializes in front desk operations, housekeeping, food and beverage management, event planning, and revenue management.
In hospitality management, you can work in customer service, guest experience management, event planning, tourism operations, and even welcoming clients or stakeholders in an MNC.
Hotel management focuses on managing hotels or lodges. So, it’s limited to a specific sector. In contrast, hospitality management includes many operations in various properties, event management companies, or tourism operations depending on which sector you work in. So, you can work in a diverse range of industries.
Hotel management requires knowledge of hotel-specific operations, industry trends, guest satisfaction, and revenue management strategies. Hospitality management demands a broader understanding of hospitality industry dynamics, market trends, customer service, event planning, and tourism management principles.
While hotel management offers career opportunities within the hotel industry, hospitality management provides a wider range of career options across different sectors. Hospitality Management allows you to choose roles in hotels, restaurants, resorts, tourism operators, event management companies, and other service sectors.
- Industry Dependence in Hospitality and Hotel Management Sectors
The hotel industry is completely dependent on the tourism sector. So, places like Australia, Dubai, the United States of America, Maldives, New Zealand, Canada, and other countries that attract a lot of tourists have a huge demand for people with a degree in Hotel Management.
Even India earns 5.8 percent of the total GDP from the tourism industry, making it a great place to start a career in Hotel Management. But, this dependence on the tourism sector makes the number of jobs in this discipline a little less when compared to Hospitality Management. Hospitality is a superset of every industry that needs customer service management, which is practically every sector. So, the jobs range from Hotels to the IT industry in the Hospitality management domain.
- People vs Operations: The Driving Factors
Hospitality and Hotel management are driven by two completely different factors. Hotel Management is driven by its daily operations, like receiving guests, managing room services and housekeeping, supervising the food and beverages section, and many more. The manager of the hotel makes sure that the hotel runs smoothly. Hospitality management is driven by the people. It involves taking care of the customers or clients, listening to their concerns and grievances, and making them feel comfortable and satisfied overall in an event, trip, or any other setting.
So, Hotel Management is a sub-category of Hospitality Management. Hospitality Management course allows you to choose from an unlimited number of fields in the service sector, Hotel Management trains you in the art of managing the hospitality of hotels and becoming an expert in that category.
Hospitality vs Hotel Management: Which One Should You Choose?
So, after knowing the difference between Hotel Management and Hospital Management, the next question you may have in your mind is which domain to choose between these two? To answer this let’s see the pros and cons of choosing each of these fields so that you can choose the best course for yourself:
Pros of Hospitality Management Course
- Diverse Career Opportunities
Hospitality Management course will prepare you for various roles in the service sector. You can do everything from managing a resort or an event management company to managing clients for a giant corporation. This gives you more options in the job market, making it easier to get into the field as a fresher.
The skills you gain from working in the Hospitality industry allow you to grow as a manager overall. Working in different sectors over the years will give you an insight into different kinds of businesses. This will help you to switch from being a hospitality manager to a manager in a different domain if you want to.
- Great Networking Opportunities
After you complete your Hospitality Management course, you will get into an internship in a sector that you can change later to explore hospitality management operations of different industries. This will help you to grow your connection and can help you to progress in your career and opt for better opportunities.
The hospitality industry allows you to work around the globe, offering opportunities to work in different countries and cultures, thus engraining cultural awareness in your mind.
The hospitality industry will keep you on your toes, as it’s a very fast-changing sector. This satisfies the appetite of people who thrive in dynamic environments and enjoy facing new challenges.
Cons of Getting into Hospitality Management
Hospitality Management courses cover general customer service management in their syllabus. They don’t focus on or specialize in any particular field. As a result, a student will become a jack of all service sectors, but an expert of none. Unlike this Hotel management focuses only on hotel operations and teaches the nitty gritty of the hotel industry in depth.
- Reduced Competitive Advantage in Hotel Industry
Starting a career in the Hotel industry may be a problem for you if you have a Hospitality Management background. You may face tougher competition in the hotel-specific roles as you have to compete with candidates who have a specialized hotel management degree.
- The Course May Become a Little Oversimplified
As the Hospitality Management branch covers many topics, the courses may offer only a surface-level understanding of the different aspects of services in different industries. Though you will gain the skills to work in the service industry, you may lack the depth or expertise for specific roles.
- Confusion in Career Choice
As Hospitality Management allows you to choose from a range of Hotel industry to IT to media and entertainment industry for starting your career in customer service or operational roles, you may find it challenging to choose which drive is the best for you.
Pros of Hotel Management Course
- Focus on a Particular Field of the Service Industry
A hotel management course provides in-depth knowledge and skills specifically designed for the operations and management of hotels and accommodation establishments.
- Opportunities To Progress
Hotel Management gives you a clear path to go ahead in your career. Unlike Hospitality management, it doesn’t confuse with too many options. You will study the day-to-day management of hotels and get a job in the same field where you can gain professional experience for your future endeavors.
- Gaining Industry-specific Expertise
Graduates of the Hotel Management courses study front desk operations, revenue management, food and beverage management, and housekeeping. So, they become a better choice for hotel-specific roles. Employers prefer a candidate with a focused degree to a general hospitality management degree.
After Covid 19 ended, the demand for hotel management employees is at an all-time high as the tourism industry is booming. A Hotel management graduate can easily bag an international employment offer in a highly popular restaurant.
Cons of Studying Hotel Management
Hotel management courses mainly focus on the hotel industry’s management operations. As a Hotel Management graduate you may find your options limited to only one sector of the service industry. On the other hand, Hospitality management students have more options.
- Relatively Fixed Skill Set
If you plan to switch to other industries, you may need more than a Hotel Management degree. You may have to take up other courses to make that leap, unlike a Hospitality Management student who can get into other sectors more easily.
- High Competition in the Job Market
Getting an entry-level job in the Hotel industry can be a tough nut to crack. Because of a continuously increasing number of graduates in the Hotel Management field, the competition for even a minimal-paying job is very high. But, the brighter side is that the hotel and hospitality right now have a huge demand.
Managing hotel operations is a hectic job. You must constantly deal with guest complaints, and staffing issues, and maintain quality standards. You should be prepared for the needs of your role when you are going for a Hotel Management course
Going through these pros and cons will give you a clear perspective. You can decide what suits you the best and opt for the course of your preference. Though there is a difference between hotel management and hospitality management, there are a lot of opportunities in both fields. So, you should keep the pros and cons in mind and make an informed decision.
Summing Up
Hospitality Management is like a superset covering all the service industry sectors while Hotel Management focuses only on one aspect of hospitality. Although Hotel businesses take up a considerable chunk of the hospitality industry. Many institutes use these two terms as synonyms confusing the students. But the best part is as the education system clubs both the discipline in their curriculum in different countries, it becomes easier for a job seeker to traverse from the hotel management domain to other sectors of the hospitality industry. You should be aware of the difference between hotel and hospitality management and make an informed choice about the course you opt for.
FAQs
Is hotel management and hospitality management the same?
Not exactly. Hotel management specifically deals with the daily management of a hotel to ensure its smooth running, while hospitality includes all the sectors that need customer services ranging from tourism to the food and beverages industry to IT service-based companies.
Which has better scope Hotel Management or hospitality management?
Hotel management has a higher scope in the hotel industry. Employers look for candidates who have specialized and gained expertise in the daily operations of a hotel business. Hospitality on the other hand has a lot of opportunities in different sectors that need customer services. In addition, hospitality management graduates find it easier to crack entry-level jobs with better salaries as compared to Hotel management students.
Does Hotel Management come under Hospitality?
Yes, Hotel management is a domain under the huge Hospitality management umbrella. So, all hotel management jobs are hospitality jobs, but the reverse is not true.
What are the driving factors of hotel and hospitality management?
Hotel management is driven by its daily operations while hospitality management is more inclined towards people management and ensuring their comfort and satisfaction.
