Why Should You Pursue a Hospitality Career?

Check out Hoteljob.com top 10 reasons!

1. Work in a Relaxing Vacation Oriented Environment

From the work location, to the customers you serve, working in a hotel or resort is one of the most fun and relaxing career paths a job seeker can take. You’ll find customers at a hotel or resort can be much more enjoyable to serve than customers in other industries who’re likely overworked and dealing with the stresses of life’s ups and downs. People come to hotels to relax and have a good time. It’s their chance to escape work and the burdens of every day life. To facilitate this, every detail in a hotel, right down to the decor, is selected to create a welcoming environment. It’s a far cry from a stuffy office cubical or a noisy construction site. When working in a relaxing, vacation focused environment your job can become much less stressful and much more enjoyable, making it hard not to absorb some of the same good mood and vacation vibe your hotel guests enjoy.

2. Great Pay

Great paying hotel jobs are abundant. Career options are particularly great in larger full service properties and resorts, but in general, hotel companies that value providing amazing guest service are willing to pay top dollar for top performing hospitality staff. Such hotel companies offer competitive starting wages, regularly scheduled pay raises, bonuses and other financial rewards for providing great service. Additionally, many resort and hotel jobs derive large portions of their salary from sales commissions and service tips. Reservations, timeshare sales, bartender, restaurant server, spa attendant, and concierge are just a few hotel jobs that often pay $30-$40 per hour without the need for a college degree or years of work experience.

Likewise, hotel management jobs offer competitive salaries in comparison to other industries, whether working in Engineering, Sales or Customer Service. Front Desk Manager jobs pay on average a $40,000 salary in US hotels, and the average Hotel General Manager earns around $95,000. You can check salaries for more hotel jobs at Salary.com.

3. Entry Level Job Opportunities

There is a large variety of entry level jobs and career opportunities available in hotels and resorts, management and non-management jobs alike. In an industry where the ability to provide great guest service is more important than anything, a strong work ethic and an outgoing personality are often valued more than a college degree or years of experience.

Hotel jobs such as reservations, front desk, and guest service agent are great starting positions for job seekers interested in building their resume and moving into upper management. Likewise, there are other entry level hotel jobs in areas like engineering, security, and culinary departments that help job seekers build work experience in their chosen careers while earning great starting pay.

4. Career Advancement

The hotel business is a multinational, $3.5 trillion industry. Between franchise motels, full service hotels, casino resorts and the corporate offices that oversee them all, your hotel career can offer unlimited growth potential. There are a great number of job departments in a hotel, from housekeeping, to sales, to landscaping and guest services. In a large multi-hotel company, each of these departments offer a long chain of command through which hotel staff members can advance their hospitality careers. Once you find the department you are most comfortable in, you can pursue job growth from property level management, to regional management and executive level positions. Marriott International is a great example. As stated in our Best Hotel Jobs in the US article, 3,000 of their managers started their careers at Marriott in entry level jobs.

5. Coworker Camaraderie

The hotel and hospitality business attracts a lot of friendly personalities. These are people who enjoy meeting and working with others. Workers employed in hotel jobs are there because they know how to be polite and accommodating to guests. In a healthy workplace, it’s only natural these traits carry over to how employees interact with one and other. Greeting and serving new guests every day keeps hotel professionals in a pleasant, outgoing and social mood. Finding a new job or pursuing a new career in a hotel is a great way to make new friends and build long lasting work relationships.

6. Opportunities for Part Time and Temporary Employment

Hotels in your area may often need additional employees during certain seasons or busy times of year, for which they need to hire temporary staff. Additionally, there are regular busy times throughout the week, such as weekends or nights for which they need to retain permanent, part time employees.

These are great opportunities for job seekers having additional responsibilities such as school, family or a primary job who would like to pick up a little extra cash or supplement their existing income.

7. Learn New Career Skills

A hotel is a tight knit community of workers and professionals of various trades. Whether employed in a job department such as engineering, human resources, sales, or IT, working in such close proximity of hotel professionals in other departments allows you the opportunity to learn new career skills and pursue new job titles and careers vastly different than your own. When jobs open in one of these other departments, as a hotel employee, you’ll often have the opportunity to apply before the job is made public.

8. Job Relocation

A change of scenery can be nice, and it’s exciting to think what life might offer in a new city, or maybe even on a different continent. But starting a new life in a new city is difficult if you don’t already have a job lined up. The nice thing about working for a large hotel corporation that manages dozens, or even hundreds of hotels, is how easy it can be to transfer job titles, or to pursue a new career or job promotion in a sister property.

Featured employer on our hotel career board, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, manages over 260 hotels and resorts in the United States alone, and even more hotels internationally. When working for such a company, you can move to a new city and have your new job waiting on you without having to start over with a new company and undergo training for a job you already know.

9. Meeting New People

Every day you’ll be meeting and greeting new faces on the job. Between the hotel guests and your coworkers, you’ll have the opportunity to interact with diverse groups of people from all walks of life. Whether serving and entertaining hotel guests, or making new friends with fellow employees who’re new hires, or transfers from other hotels, or seasonal and part time staff you only occasionally work with, the constant flow of new faces and personalities keeps your workplace fresh, fun and exciting.

10. Job Benefits

Most hotels are part of a major brand such as Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, or Marriott International. Even independent and boutique hotels are often owned by large hotel management companies operating a vast number of hotels and resorts across the world. Requiring potentially thousands of hotel workers and other hospitality professionals to keep their hotels running, these organizations know they have to offer great benefits to attract and retain hospitality job seekers.

Benefits job seekers qualify for while working for top hotel employers like Marriott and Hilton can include medical, dental, maternity leave, vacation pay, tuition reimbursement, and retirement packages like 401(k)’s. Hotel professionals get additional benefits and luxuries that workers in other industries never get the opportunity to enjoy. Most large hotel organizations offer employees things like free employee meals as well as discounted or even free vacation travel, lodging and dining at affiliated hotels, restaurants and resorts throughout the world. Benefits like these allow you to take your friends and family to places and do things they otherwise may’ve never been able to experience.

Between great pay, amazing benefits, opportunities for career advancement, and a fun and enjoyable work environment it’s no wonder why nearly 2 million American workers have taken careers in the hotel industry. With the growth and excitement that promises to accompany the ever changing vacation and lodging industry, fun and rewarding opportunities are sure to follow. Search Hotel Jobs today, and make your career a vacation!