Hospitality is a very soft word but it still has so much weight around it. It is more than just greeting guests with a smile as it requires your utmost willingness to connect with them on a whole different level. In this process, a guest who is so exhausted after many hours of travel gets to smile at someone’s presence.
At every point, the guest feels secure and comfortable that someone is there to look after him/her. That someone is a person who is trained in the hospitality sector. Many such representatives are mentored and managed by one person who is required to invest their soul in the job. That position is of Operations Manager in Hotel/Resorts.
Hotel Operations Manager position is not given right at the beginning of anyone’s career. One has to have certain experience in working in Hotel industry. He/she should add value either by making the process more organized, or making customer service or lodging division more sincere, or grooming interns or existing employees for the next level.
Since Hotel industry is so huge and every hotel has a truck load of departments, it becomes a very challenging task to come to limelight for promotion until or unless someone is exceptional at his/her job. At this era of Artificial Intelligence, even Hotel Industry is training their employees on several tools to make them more effective and productive at the same time. This is why minds who can bring in more ideas to generate more revenue and bring down the cost is more valuable for hotel as well. Creative ideas always help in any sector including hospitality.
Related:- Hotel Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers
Skillset and Qualifications Needed To Become Hotel Operations Manager
- If someone is looking to Operations Manager in Hotel Industry, it is always a good idea to grab Diploma or Degree Hospitality or Hotel or Restaurant Management. This would help fetching an entry level job in this field. Even degrees such as BBA, MBA would be helpful considering this job requires lot of operations work.
- While studying in college, it would be great to find a an entry level job to gain confidence and industry exposure. There are lot of internship opportunities which prefer young and enthusiastic candidates to come up and gain real hands on experience.
- Working in different line of businesses in hotel industry is always helpful as a candidate working in kitchen is less knowledgeable against a candidate who has worked in food & beverages, lodging, customer service etc. Working in 24*7 environment and in different departments help you to undergo numerous situations and handling then or learning to adapt to them will make you a better professional and boost your CV as well.
- There are training programs conducted by human resources to help existing professionals understand about managerial role. In the job, it always good to establish impression that you wish to grow. It is really crucial keep applying to managerial or higher position to showcase your willingness to grow up in hierarchy.
- It is always a great idea to enlist 1 or 2 years of managerial experience in the resume as any HR would be attracted towards candidates who have been in managerial roles as it requires multitasking and leadership quality.
- Customer Service is a skillset that one must possess to stand out in hotel industry. A guest/client/customer is the King and the respect for one customer cannot be equaled to even the CEO of the respective hotel someone is working. That’s the respect of one guest or a customer and this cannot be superceded by anything. If someone can treat a guest with such attitude, that person already on the right track to become incredible at customer service.
- Leadership Quality is an essential quality for Hotel Operations Manager. One must understand his/her juniors to mold them into a better professionals. At times, one needs to be strict and blunt and at times one needs to be empathetic and understanding. One has to have a very good psychological understanding of a person to implement unique methods to make the mentee better.
- Eagerness to learn is something one must have to sustain in the role and grow further. One can never stop being a student because that would restrict your overall growth in this field. At times you need to learn from your own juniors as younger generation is must more focused and productive at many levels.
Duties and Responsibilities of Hotel Operations Manager
- Operations Manager reports to General Manager / Area General Manager / Regional General Manager. As the hotel industry too works in Chain of Command nature, it is always advisable to seek approval or inform to superiors, even if you are making a small change.
- Commercial Awareness is necessary and Operations Manager must always have the passion to co-ordinate with superiors and different departments to find solution to problems.
- Preparation for Annual Budget, Monthly Forecasting Process, Resource Planning comes under the standard tasks for Operations Manager.
- Liaising with different departments and take control of the outcome to ensure nothing goes wrong.
- Co-operating with Head of the Deparments to ensure things are in motion and everything is running okay.
- Premises must be a very operative condition as per category of the unit. Guests and any entity from clientele must not have a problem.
- Need to conduct team huddles to discuss daily targets and plan how to make best use of resources.
- Discussion with Head of Depatment must happen at least twice a week to discuss operational matters, target of sales, GSTS & RSTS feedback. Minutes of meeting must be prepared and shared with GM/RGM
- Routine Operational check needs to be conducted to ensure SOP is implemented across the departments. Proper audits to be completed by experts in every month/quarter. Consultant/GRM guidance should be accepted and considered as per business requirement.
- Need to monitor the purchase / indent / requestions of each line of businesses, the accounts receivable (collection from debtors) and the accounts payable (payable to the vendors / suppliers etc).
- To ensure discipline, this job requires random inspection of the stores(F & B / Kitchen) to check the stock in hand (quality, par stock levels, expiry etc) with the F & B Manager & Chef.
- Quality Product should be a focus and it requires dealing with Suppliers / Vendors. Report of Performance Assessment for vendors must be presented to the necessary team in every quarter.
- Inspection is required in all the departments for SOP implementation.
- Inspecting all department with their respective Reporting Manager’s for cleanliness, ambience, service readiness, staff grooming & hospitality culture.
- Needs to ensure that Operations must run without slowing down it’s productivity and impacting customer service.
- Evaluating the level of customer satisfaction and service recovery process.
- Resource training should be conducted in timely manner and it requires liaising with all department heads.
- Taking feedback on which areas staffs need training and development and arranging the necessary facility for swift training module.
- Providing timely and constructive feedback to all direct reports as per the corporate framework.
- Weekly/Daily huddles must be taken with marketing division to uplift the business in terms of profit and client outreach.
- Maintaining and Monitoring operational and overhead cost to generate maximum revenue in each segment of business.
- Availability needed over the phone round the clock.
- Responsible for the overall management from any spectacle of operations.
- Always should be ready to take up new challenges superior throw at you. Those are additional tasks they are trusting you with and it must be performed to create a better impression for yourself.
- Must be adaptive to change as organization might not deliver at points where you can’t control as those happen for stakeholder decisions. On that time, it is your job to control the employees as they might tend to protest or become less co-operative. A leader should always mould their employees in a way so that they love working under your tutelage and accept any changes. You need to ensure to pass on the message that this co-operation will help them in future.
Industry Insights and Future Prospect for the role
Operations Manager is considered to be one of the most prestigious roles in the corporate sector. In Cinema, a Film Director ensures all artists come together and give their best to create a fantastic cinematic experience for the audience. Film Director takes all responsibilities to list to the problems of artists, technicians, spot boys, line managers and then they still create a healthy atmosphere for everyone to work and see the bigger picture without being distracted by little issues. Film Director reports to Producer for any failure of any person who was a part of the movie and also the box office collection and streaming platform performances.
Hotel Operations Manager plays similar role in corporate sector including hotel industry. This role can be highly pressurizing but it helps you become a strong professional as you are doing a lot of work with different departments and you are bringing a lot changes in the organization. You become valuable to the organization once you become successful in the role and you can always eye for securing a seat at the table in future, which means you can become one of the Board of Directors as well if you take all team right steps. Become a consistent learner and train yourself to become a better leader at every step. Dream high to reach the stars.
