Hotel Positions

Hotel positions encompass a variety of roles within a hotel’s operation, such as management, front office, housekeeping, food and beverage, and maintenance. These positions are crucial as they collectively ensure the smooth running of the hotel, delivering quality guest experiences and maintaining its reputation and operational efficiency.

Key Takeaways

  • Diverse Role Spectrum: Covers various roles, from front office staff to housekeeping, each vital for hotel operations.
  • Career Progression Opportunities: Offers numerous paths for career advancement within the hospitality sector.
  • Impact on Guest Experience: Each position is key in shaping the overall guest experience and satisfaction.
  • Specialized Technical Roles: Includes positions in maintenance and IT, crucial for the smooth operation of hotel facilities.
  • Food and Beverage Roles: Critical positions, including chefs and servers, which are essential for the dining experience.
  • Front Office Hotel Positions: Crucial for guest interaction, managing reservations, and providing service information.
  • Management & Headquarters: Focus on strategic oversight, operational management, and ensuring hotel standards.
  • Job Boards: Effective platforms for discovering various hotel job opportunities across various levels.
  • Managing a Hotel: Involves overseeing all operations to ensure guest satisfaction

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Hotels offer a number of different career paths, thanks to the sheer range of hotel positions that exist. In order to find the best job for your skills, qualifications, and preferences, it is beneficial to have a rounded understanding of these different roles. In this article, you will find a comprehensive overview of the positions within a typical hotel.

Hotel Industry Overview

Before getting into the specific hotel positions that exist, it can also be important to develop your knowledge of the hotel industry as a whole. According to the Hotels Market – Global Industry Analysis and Forecast by MMR, the hotel market is expected to reach $1663.82 billion by 2029.

In particular, understanding current industry trends and learning about some of the main strategies and techniques used by hotels can aid your understanding of how things work.

By reading the “Hotel Industry; Everything You Need to Know About Hotels!” article, you will be able to learn much more about the industry itself, how it works, and what the current direction of travel looks like.

Overview of All Hotel Positions

The precise hotel positions within a property may depend on several factors, including the hotel’s style and size and the management’s personal preferences.

Table: Key Management Hotel Positions Within Main Hotel Departments

Department Management Positions Examples and Main Tasks
Food & Beverage Food & Beverage Manager – Oversee food and beverage operations, including restaurants, bars, and room service.
– Develop menus, pricing, and quality standards.
Executive Chef – Lead culinary operations, create menus, manage kitchen staff, and maintain food quality and safety.
Restaurant Manager – Manage restaurant operations, staff, and guest service.
– Ensure a positive dining experience.
Front Office Front Office Manager – Oversee front desk and guest services, manage staff, and resolve guest issues efficiently.
Director of Sales & Marketing – Develop sales strategies, lead marketing efforts, and establish partnerships to maximize revenue.
Revenue Manager – Optimize room rates and revenue, analyze market trends, and manage distribution channels.
Management & Headquarters General Manager – Lead overall hotel operations, including financial management, staff oversight, and guest satisfaction.
Director of Operations – Manage day-to-day hotel operations, ensuring efficiency, guest satisfaction, and staff coordination.
Human Resources Director – Manage HR functions, including staff recruitment, training, and compliance with policies and regulations.

A broader and more in-depth overview of the other main positions are as follows:

Food & Beverage Hotel Positions

As the name suggests, a hotel’s food and beverage department is focused on providing guests with food and drinks during their stay. This primarily occurs within restaurants but also includes room service.

Waiting Staff

Waiting staff within a hotel restaurant are responsible for communicating with and attending to customers. The job involves finding out what guests would like to eat and drink, bringing them their meals, collecting payments, and staying alert for any other needs they may have during their visit.

Restaurant Manager

A restaurant manager holds a senior role within the restaurant, which is often one of the most important hotel positions. The job involves managing all aspects of restaurant operations, from the quality of food to the restaurant’s financial performance, ordering new supplies, and hiring and training restaurant staff.

Video: A Day in the Life of a Restaurant Manager 

Kitchen Staff

Kitchen staff often have one of the more varied hotel positions, with responsibilities largely depending on the hotel’s size and the restaurant’s nature. Typical activities may include basic food preparation, cleaning the kitchen, washing cutlery and dishes, setting tables, and assisting the chefs or cooks with various tasks.

Kitchen Manager

The kitchen manager will oversee kitchen operations and monitor performance levels. Activities may include hiring and firing kitchen staff, ordering kitchen equipment, purchasing food, maintaining hygiene standards, supervising food preparation, and ensuring all staff members have the necessary training.

Head Chef

The head chef or executive chef is the top hotel position related to food preparation. The head chef will usually take responsibility for creating and maintaining the restaurant menu while leading the team of cooks, sous chefs, and support staff. A head chef may sometimes have budgeting responsibilities instead of the kitchen manager.

Room Service

Those in-room service hotel positions tend to connect with the kitchen and restaurant staff, but the core responsibility here is providing services to guests in their rooms. This may mean speaking with guests on the phone, taking room service orders, passing them on to the restaurant, and then bringing food and drinks to guests.

Hotel positions - Quote Danny Meyer

Front Office Hotel Positions

Front office hotel positions are customer-facing positions centered around the reception area or the first point of guest contact. The focus is typically on helping guests to settle in and solving problems for them.

Hotel Porter

Otherwise known as bellhops, hotel porters are responsible for taking guests to their rooms, transporting their luggage to different floors, and checking that rooms are acceptable. However, This position requires a rounded knowledge of hotel operations, as guests will often ask questions and seek advice.

Front Desk Employee

Front desk staff is responsible for various aspects of customer service, including greeting guests, helping them check in, collecting payments, and answering questions. Additionally, front desk employees may need to collaborate with room service staff, deal with complaints, and manage guest keys or key cards.

Front Desk Manager

A front desk manager is responsible for overseeing front desk operations. This may mean performing front desk tasks, supervising front desk employees, and taking on budgeting, hiring, and training duties. A key part of the job also involves managing when staff are working so that the front desk is not left unattended.

Maintenance & Cleaning

The maintenance and cleaning department covers all hotel positions related to maintaining hotel upkeep. In particular, there is a focus on cleaning, fixing things, and catering to requests from guests.

Hotel Concierge

The role of a hotel concierge is one of the hospitality jobs usually associated with higher-end accommodation. The job itself involves performing tasks on behalf of guests. For instance, a guest may require transport, and the concierge will arrange it, or a guest may want a concierge to book entertainment tickets or a table at a restaurant.

For more info about the hotel concierge, read “Hotel Concierge: Learn About Guest Services Representatives of a Hotel.”

Housekeeping Employee

The main focus for those in housekeeping hotel positions is maintaining cleanliness around the hotel’s shared spaces and in guest rooms. Typical responsibilities will include cleaning guest rooms, re-stocking rooms before a new guest checks in, cleaning toilets, and washing bedding and other hotel laundry.

For more information about housekeeping employee duties, read “Housekeeping Duties: Main Responsibilities of a Room Attendant.”

Housekeeping Manager

The housekeeping manager will coordinate the staff and ensure they have all the equipment needed to do the job. This means managing stock levels and supervising cleaning efforts. On top of this, the job also involves hiring, firing, staff training, and managing the departmental budget.

Management & Headquarters Hotel Positions

Senior staff members and those with specific expertise take up management-type hotel positions. These roles may often be office-based, either within a hotel or the main headquarters.

Hotel Positions - Management & Headquarters

Hotel / General Manager

The hotel position with the most responsibility, a hotel or general manager, will be ultimately responsible for all aspects of managing the hotel. They will take responsibility for monitoring and reporting on performance and making strategic changes. They may need to step in and supervise or perform various tasks around the hotel to keep things running.

Marketing Manager

A hotel marketing manager will promote the hotel to potential guests and business partners. This involves managing advertising strategy and expenditure and finding ways to promote the hotel through alternative avenues. Often, the marketing department will also take responsibility for social media efforts.

Sales Manager

The role of a sales manager is sometimes seen as an optional hotel position because a combination of the general manager, an assistant manager, or the marketing department may instead take on the core responsibilities. Where it does exist, it involves selling hotel rooms, hotel facilities, wedding services, and other hotel products.

Revenue Manager

Revenue management involves maximizing the revenue from a hotel and optimizing financial results. This is primarily achieved by taking a strategic approach to distribution, ensuring that hotel rooms are sold to the right customer for the ideal price at the right time through the best possible channel.

For more information about revenue managers, read “Revenue Manager: Tasks, Skills, Education, Salary, Courses and More…”

Accounting Manager

The hotel’s accounting manager will oversee the accounting department and any staff within it. Responsibilities will include ensuring the hotel is properly monitoring and documenting income and expenditure, managing the payment of employees, and ensuring bills and taxes are paid properly and on time.

Purchase Manager

Purchasing managers are responsible for buying hotel equipment and other items. The job involves carefully managing stock levels so that the hotel is never caught short, but also without creating a situation where items stay in storage too long, taking up valuable space.

Human Resource Manager

The human resources department focuses on people-related aspects, and the HR manager will coordinate those efforts. HR tasks may include dealing with employment disputes, developing and implementing HR initiatives, sitting in on meetings, creating policies around staff conduct, and helping employees settle into their hospitality careers.

IT Manager

Finally, one of the most technical hotel positions is the IT manager, who manages the hotel’s IT systems, networks, and processes. Responsibilities here may range from ensuring operational booking systems to managing and optimizing the hotel’s cyber security and maintaining data protection standards.

Video: Different Types of Hotel Positions

Below is a video where hotel manager Wilson shows you different hotel positions.

Learn About Managing a Hotel

Hotel managers must perform a vast range of different tasks and take responsibility for the overall success or failure of the hotel. Hotel management positions are challenging, varied, and rewarding but require stamina, commitment, and a rounded understanding of processes and the industry.

Check out “Hotel Management: Everything You Need to Know About Managing a Hotel” to learn more about the role of a hotel manager, what it entails, who it is appropriate for, and what the entry requirements are.

Channels for Finding Hotel Management Jobs

Many people dream of becoming a hotel manager or working in one of the management-based hotel positions. Yet, it is important to check out the full range of options when trying to find hotel management jobs, as not all vacancies will be advertised in obvious places, such as industry job boards or on the hotel’s own website.

Read “Channels for Finding Hotel Management Jobs” for an overview of the main channels.

Using Job Boards to Find Hotel Jobs

Irrespective of the precise hotel position you are interested in, hotel job boards serve as one of the most useful platforms to turn to, allowing you to explore job opportunities from a range of different hotel chains and employers, apply for hotel jobs online and access additional resources or services, all in one place.

Our “Using Job Boards to Find Hotel Jobs” article explains the benefits of hotel job boards in more detail and provides a breakdown of some of the most popular websites and platforms.

Looking for Hotel Vacancies Directly

Some hotels may not use the job websites you typically turn to advertise vacancies, which can unnecessarily restrict your search for a hotel position. With this in mind, having a list of the main brands and chains is sensible, allowing you to explore potential hotel vacancies through their websites or social media channels.

Read our article, “Looking for Hotel Vacancies Directly”, for a list of some of the world’s most popular and successful hotel chains, and then check out the job opportunities they are advertising.

Advice for Sourcing the Best Hotel Staff

For hotel managers, HR staff, and recruiters, one of the biggest challenges is finding hotel staff with the right attributes, knowledge, and qualifications. This can be especially problematic if key staff members leave unexpectedly or if new job roles are created within the organization. Still, it also applies to filling almost any hotel position.

Our “Advice for Sourcing the Best Hotel Staff” article offers practical advice on ensuring you find and attract employees with the necessary skills and qualities to succeed.

Finding Your Ideal Hotel Manager Job & Securing a Hotel Position

The job market for managerial hotel positions, including the roles of a hotel manager or general manager, is extremely competitive. Whether you are exploring the possibility of moving into such a role for the first time or have previous experience and are seeking a new challenge, some steps can help to boost your prospects.

In “Finding Your Ideal Hotel Manager Job,” you will find advice on how to land a manager role.

Finding and Securing Jobs or Hotel Careers

The sheer range of hotel positions that exist means that opportunities in the industry are numerous and varied. At the same time, however, many people are interested in hotel careers, so you may face significant competition when applying for a vacancy. This is why taking action is important to ensure you stand out from other candidates.

Our “Finding and Securing Jobs or Hotel Careers” post will explain more.

Hotel Positions: An Overview of the Restaurant Industry

Hotels and restaurants go hand-in-hand, and many of the top hotel positions can also be considered part of the restaurant industry. The restaurant industry is complex because there are many different types of restaurants, and there is an ever-growing array of restaurant technology solutions to familiarise yourself with. According to the Food Service Industry: Global Market Size by Statista, the market size of the global food service industry is projected to grow to $4.43 trillion by 2028.

To learn more about the industry, how it is defined, the different restaurant types, and the emerging restaurant technology, read “Restaurant Industry: Overview, Types, Examples and More”.

Hotel Positions: All About Hotel Restaurant Management

Hotel restaurant management jobs are among the most sought-after hotel positions, and those seeking managerial roles must take the right steps to prepare. For instance, you should know precisely what the role entails and understand the education requirements and necessary personal qualities.

You can learn about restaurant management and gain all the knowledge needed to prepare for a career in this area by reading the “Restaurant Management: Everything You Need to Know” article.

Hotel Positions FAQs

Categories of hotel employees include front office (receptionists, concierges), housekeeping (cleaners, laundry staff), food and beverage (chefs, bartenders, servers), maintenance (engineers, groundskeepers), and management (general manager, department managers).

The top position in a hotel is typically the General Manager or Hotel Manager. This individual oversees all operations, sets strategic direction, and ensures guest satisfaction and profitability.

A person who works in a hotel is commonly referred to as a hotel employee or hotel staff. Specific titles may include receptionist, housekeeper, bellhop, or concierge, depending on their role.

Yes, there is typically always staff present at a hotel to ensure operations run smoothly and guests’ needs are met around the clock. Larger hotels operate 24/7, while smaller ones might have reduced overnight staff.

Yes, hotel staff work at night, especially in larger hotels that operate 24/7. Night shifts commonly include front desk agents, security personnel, and sometimes housekeeping or maintenance staff to handle any overnight needs or emergencies.

Hotels are busy places, and many different tasks must be carried out to run effectively. This overview of the main hotel positions offers a breakdown of common roles and their associated responsibilities. When equipped with this knowledge, running a hotel effectively or finding your ideal job becomes easier.

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This article is written by:

Martijn Barten
Hi, I am Martijn Barten, founder of Revfine.com. I am specialized in optimizing revenue by combining revenue management with marketing strategies. I have over 15 years of experience developing, implementing, and managing revenue management and marketing strategies and processes for individual properties and multi-properties.