Rooms division manager

Rooms division managers oversee a hotel’s front desk, guest services and housekeeping department teams. They report to the General Manager and play an important role in ensuring a high level of guest service.

The duties of a rooms division manager include, but are not limited to:

• Organising the daily workload of administration staff.
• Dealing with departmental issues quickly and efficiently.
• Training new staff members.
• Identifying sales opportunities.
• Setting up and maintaining procedures and systems that are effective for the business.
• Greeting visitors and staff members in a positive and friendly manner.
• Assisting individuals with queries.
• Announcing clients as and when necessary.
• Maintaining company security by issuing, checking and collecting work IDs, and/or updating visitor logs.
• Ensuring meetings are booked when applicable.
• Answering the phone promptly and responding to emails.
• Scheduling appointments.
• Helping colleagues to complete administration tasks.

Rooms division managers stay by a desk the majority of the time. As reception must be manned at all times, whenever they leave the area they have to get someone to fill in for them briefly.

Evening and weekend work is normal for rooms division managers, as they are assigned a different shift pattern on a weekly basis. In some hotels, they may also have to work nights on occasion.

The following job titles also refer to rooms division manager:

director of rooms
front desk manager
rooms and reservations manager
reservations manager
reception manager
front office manager
rooms manager
head receptionist

Rooms division manager is not an entry-level role. People in that position are usually receptionist with a significant work experience (at least 3 years).

Although a high school diploma is enough to be hired as a room division manager, combined with a professional experience, the competition in this area is very fierce. A bachelor’s degree in hospitality or hotel management, an associate’s degree or a certificate in hotel management is generally preferred to work as rooms division manager.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Rooms division manager is a Skill level 3 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to rooms division manager.

camping ground manager
accommodation manager
hospitality entertainment manager
restaurant manager
travel agency manager

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of rooms division manager. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of rooms division manager with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

hospitality revenue manager
customer experience manager
tourist animator
front of house manager
public finance accountant

These skills are necessary for the role of rooms division manager.

• Comply with food safety and hygiene: Respect optimal food safety and hygiene during preparation, manufacturing, processing, storage, distribution and delivery of food products.
• Manage inspections of equipment: Monitor formal or official viewings and examinations in order to regularly test and inspect property and equipment.
• Coordinate activities across hospitality rooms division: Lead activities among maintenance staff, reception staff and housekeeping in a hospitality establishment.
• Manage front operations: Monitor daily scheduling of room bookings, following quality standards and resolving special situations in front operations.
• Manage budgets: Plan, monitor and report on the budget.
• Handle customer complaints: Administer complaints and negative feedback from customers in order to address concerns and where applicable provide a quick service recovery.
• Monitor financial accounts: Handle financial administration of your department, keep the costs down to only necessary expenses and maximise the revenues of your organisation.
• Manage staff: Manage employees and subordinates, working in a team or individually, to maximise their performance and contribution. Schedule their work and activities, give instructions, motivate and direct the workers to meet the company objectives. Monitor and measure how an employee undertakes their responsibilities and how well these activities are executed. Identify areas for improvement and make suggestions to achieve this. Lead a group of people to help them achieve goals and maintain an effective working relationship among staff.
• Coordinate redecoration of hospitality establishment: Lead redecoration of hospitality establishment by staying up to date with trends in decoration, fabrics and textiles and implementing necessary changes in order to meet changing desires and expectations.
• Train reception staff: Instruct the reception staff in order to make sure the staff can execute their tasks adequately, efficiently and according to guidelines.
• Manage health and safety standards: Oversee all personnel and processes to comply with health, safety and hygiene standards. Communicate and support alignment of these requirements with the company’s health and safety programmes.
• Assess cleanliness of areas: Evaluate cleanliness of areas in order to make sure that they are clean and presentable for customers.
• Maintain customer service: Keep the highest possible customer service and make sure that the customer service is at all times performed in a professional way. Help customers or participants feel at ease and support special requirements.
• Forecast occupancy demand: Predict the number of hotel rooms that will be booked, schedule occupancies and estimate demand forecast.
• Schedule shifts: Plan staff time and shifts to reflect the demands of the business.
• Ensure cross-department cooperation: Guarantee communication and cooperation with all the entities and teams in a given organisation, according to the company strategy.
• Manage hospitality revenue: Oversee a hospitality revenue by understanding, monitoring, predicting and reacting to consumer behaviour, in order to maximise revenue or profits, maintain budgeted gross profit and minimise expenditures.
• Manage maintenance operations: Oversee maintenance activities, making sure that staff is following procedures and ensuring routine and periodic refurbishment and maintenance activities.
• Develop working procedures: Create standardised series of actions of a certain order to support the organisation.
• Present reports: Display results, statistics and conclusions to an audience in a transparent and straightforward way.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of rooms division manager. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Supervise housekeeping operations: Oversee the day-to-day service and cleaning of rooms and public areas to ensure continuous operations.
• Deal with arrivals in accommodation: Handle arrivals, guest’s luggage, check-in clients in line with company standards and local legislation ensuring high levels of customer service.
• Greet guests: Welcome guests in a friendly manner in a certain place.
• Process booking: Execute a booking of a place according to client’s requirement in advance and issue all appropriate documents.
• Think analytically: Produce thoughts using logic and reasoning in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Identify customer’s needs: Use appropriate questions and active listening in order to identify customer expectations, desires and requirements according to product and services.
• Carry out end of day accounts: Execute end of day accounts to ensure that business transactions from the current day have been correctly processed.
• Process reservations: Execute customers’ reservations in accordance to their schedules and needs by phone, electronically or in person.
• Deal with departures in accommodation: Handle departures, guest’s luggage, client’s check-out in line with company standards and local legislation ensuring high levels of customer service.
• Maintain customer records: Keep and store structured data and records about customers in accordance with customer data protection and privacy regulations.
• Monitor work for special events: Oversee activities during special events taking into account specific objectives, schedule, timetable, agenda, cultural limitations, account rules and legislation.
• Train employees: Lead and guide employees through a process in which they are taught the necessary skills for the perspective job. Organise activities aimed at introducing the work and systems or improving the performance of individuals and groups in organisational settings.

1411 – Hotel managers

---

References

1. ESCO
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
3. Featured image: Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels: