Hospitality refers to relationships between a guest and host, so you may be wondering, what is hospitality management? Hospitality management refers to a sector in the business world. Hospitality management is a field of study within business schools that focuses on how to run business relating to travel and tourism. Examples of hospitality management careers are managers of hotels, amusement parks, restaurants, cruise ships, travel agencies, or other tourism-related companies.
People who work as managers in hospitality industries typically start from either the bottom of the designated companies or workplace and work their way up to a management level position, or they go to business school and get an MBA concentration in hospitality management. Hospitality management programs focus on these four areas to help hospitality managers with everyday tasks needed for success.
Personnel Management
Working in the hospitality management industry means that you’ll be working with lots of people and coordinating many employees to make sure that your business runs efficiently. Some hotels, amusement parks, and cruise ships have hundreds and thousands of employees working in all types of jobs. Being a manager in the hospitality industry requires effective supervising and organization skills.
Marketing
Hospitality companies rely heavily on the company’s ability to draw customers to the business. As a hospitality manager, you have to be constantly thinking about how you can use marketing to the business’s advantage. This may mean hiring additional personnel to create advertising, work on promotion, set effective pricing, and consult with you on your products and services. Good marketing can make your business, so hospitality managers need to understand the principles of marketing to have success when running the business.
Business Administration
As a manager, you also need to have business skills relating to the monetary and administrative aspects of the business. Businesses run by having a balance of debt and equity, and no manager gets very far without understanding how all of this relates to the upkeep of the business. Hospitality managers also must have an understanding of their business in relation to its competitors. These kinds of skills are the kinds of skills that are typically only learned in business school.
Customer Service
All businesses have to deal with a level of customer service, but for hospitality management, the customer is extremely important, and all personnel must be trained in how to deal with customers effectively. When customers aren’t happy, the hospitality manager isn’t happy. Whether you work for a hotel, cruise, or travel agency, you must be cognizant of what the customer wants from your service, and you have to continually work to improve the experience of the customer. If you want to go into hospitality management, make sure you’re a people person!
