If your personality is a perfect fusion of polished hospitality and tight organizational skills, then working as a front office manager at a hotel might be an invigorating and fulfilling career path for you. Success as a hotel front office manager, as with many other careers, requires constant improvement and self-evaluation. If you're a front office manager at a hotel, you should never settle for less than A plus.

Hotel Front Office Manager Duties

The duties of hotel front office managers are varied. Not only are these managers in charge of seeing that new employees get trained properly, they're also in charge of everything from assigning work schedules to handling finances. No two days of working as a hotel front office manager are exactly the same. While the job might call for regular tasks such as ensuring that overbooking doesn't occur, it also calls for lots of last-minute dealing with problems. If a guest is unhappy with her experience at the hotel, she'll probably ask to speak with the front office manager, for example. Bachelor's degrees are often necessary for candidates for these positions, frequently in majors such as hospitality management.

Master Your Organizational Savvy

If you're a hotel front office manager who has a passion for being the best, then it's a smart idea to hone your organizational and time management skills. Front office managers are responsible for overseeing many different divisions in hotels, from the bellhops to the housekeeping staff. Because of this, they need to know how to divide their time wisely and efficiently. They can't only focus on seeing that they have enough workers on cleaning duty, because they also need to take care of security officer and bellhop shifts.

Pay Attention to Detail

In the world of hospitality, the little things mean a lot. If you want to excel as a front office manager at a hotel, strong attention to detail can go a long way. You have to always be on top of everything, from the time your staff members show up to the way in which they present themselves to guests. The goal of staff members in hospitality is to always have a neat and tidy look. A manager should never be lazy about anything. If the floral arrangements in the lobby look a little wilted and unwelcoming, he should fix that. If a bellhop has a habit of mysteriously disappearing for 20-minute stretches all of the time, the manager should pick up on it and do something about it.

Show Off Your Extroverted Side

People with extroverted personalities often thrive in hotel front office manager positions. These jobs require constant interaction not only with staff, but also with guests. An upbeat and affable attitude is a must for people with this position. If you're a front office manager, you want to make guests feel at ease and comfortable when in your presence. You want to make them feel like you're there for them and that you can answer their questions and take care of any concerns they might have. Introverts who prefer working alone are often better suited to other fields.

Be Honest With Yourself

When you're a front office manager at a hotel, a lot of responsibility is in your hands. If things go right, you can probably pat yourself on the back. If things go wrong, however, there's a chance you might have been able to prevent it. The answer to being a good hotel front office manager is having the honesty and confidence to being able to admit to yourself that you could have approached something in a more effective manner. If you're capable of analyzing your actions and figuring out how you could have proceeded differently, then you open yourself up to improvement in the future. If you stubbornly stick to the same routine over and over, you block out improvement which negatively affects your output as a manager, along with the rest of the hotel. If someone has helpful advice for you on how to be a more efficient and productive worker, you should always be open to hearing it.