Although your success in the hospitality industry will be based on your passion and innovativeness, there are certain qualities of a great hospitality employee that are easy to point out or aspire to.
All Ace hoteliers have a few things in common. If you are a hotelier you would already know the key differences between a successful hotelier and an average bloke at your hotel. A list of skills for successful hotel manager must include those mentioned in this post.
What’s that X-Factor in the hospitality industry? How to become an ace hotelier? What hospitality skills need to be developed to give your career new wings?
This is what we discuss in some details in this post. We have compiled 6 essential hospitality skills and qualities that give a clear competitive edge to hoteliers.
Let’s begin! These qualities of a great hotelier include:
Qualities of a Great Hospitality Employee
Dedication
One of the most important qualities of a good hotel manager or hotelier is a commitment to customer satisfaction.
Without this commitment, one cannot find success in the sector.
A dedicated hospitality employee means business without any fuss.
Working in the Hospitality industry is not everyone’s cup of tea. It is challenging and fun.
Like any other industry, there are Pros and Cons of Working in the hospitality industry.
The dedicated ones stick and succeed while others wither.
Why is dedication one of the key Traits of great hoteliers?
Well, the level of intensity, effort and energy required to succeed in the hospitality industry can be matched only by the super dedicated ones. I am sure all the hospitality professionals would agree to this.
2. Great Communication and Language Skills
The most successful individuals in the hospitality sector are great communicators both orally and in writing.
With the advantage of great communication skills, your personality oozes out confidence. You can connect with sheer ease with your customers, clients and team members.
This is one of the key qualities of a great hospitality employee.
Benefits of effective communication skills are many and it helps in dealing with internal and external customers alike.
Although it is not a requirement, it pays to have excellent language skills.
This will help you to communicate with guests and customers better and it will also enable you to work anywhere in the world.
In the hotel industry, at times your language skills will help you get higher pay and quicker promotions.
3. Cultural awareness
All Hotels and hospitality organisations expect and welcome guests from all parts of the world.
A high level of cultural awareness is probably the topmost hospitality skill. To succeed as a hotelier, you must have high acceptance from the team and understanding culture helps you get along well with everyone.
Check out the Cultural Iceberg Model (Courtesy- Researchgate) to know how crucial it is to have a clear understanding of culture and how can that help in organisational success.
Is there an industry more cosmopolitan than the hospitality industry?
Your customers could be from any part of the world and this is equally true for your colleagues.
Because you are constantly dealing with people from all cultures and walks of life, a great employee must practice cultural awareness at all times.
Cultural awareness actually is a necessity for great communication in the hospitality industry.
4. Ability to multi-task
One of the reasons why working in the hospitality industry can be challenging is because it is characterised by chaos.
To deal with it all, you must be able to multi-task and adapt to the changes as they occur.
In fact, there’s a famous saying in the hotel business arena and it goes like this:
“A good hotelier is a Democrat, a diplomat, an acrobat, an autocrat, and a doormat, all wrapped in one.”
If you speak about one of the Big 5 Personality Traits of Hoteliers, an ability to multitask will be right there on the list. You must be a jack of all trades (in the current era a master in most of them).
5. A Positive Attitude
To make your guests feel at ease and comfortable in your establishment, you must maintain a positive attitude at all times.
Not only will this make it easier to do your job, but it will also help you deal with the stresses that come with the job.
A positive attitude is one of the top qualities of a great hospitality employee because it helps you inculcate various other top traits for succeeding in this industry.
Image Courtesy- Medium
6. Emotionally Intelligent
This is one of the most essential hospitality skills in the current era. Emotional intelligence is said to the missing connection between strong IQ and real success. We see a lot of intelligent people perform below par while a lot with average intelligence gain extreme success.
According to various published journals developing skills related to Emotional intelligence can help people manage stress, to work better in teams and in becoming a better leader. All of these are associated with extreme success not only in the hospitality industry but almost everywhere.
One of the articles in Lifehack explains the importance of Emotional Intelligence at workplace through the below image that reproduces research by Dr Travis Bradberry. Have a look.
7. Being Tech Savvy is an essential hospitality skill
Yes, you can no more complain that you don’t love technology.
Importance of Information Technology in the hospitality industry is huge. It is one of the success factors for the hospitality industry and thus embracing technology is a key to becoming successful in this industry.
So, no more excuses, please. Get trained in technology if you are not already a tech-savvy hotelier.
Technology in hospitality industry holds the key to success and competitive sustained advantages. Thus, it becomes even more important for hoteliers to have a technology orientation.
Image Courtesy- Pinterest
8. Flexibility
As an employee in the field of hospitality, you should be prepared to be flexible at all times.
You can be called on at any time and you should always be prepared to answer the call.
Employees in hospitality are also subjected to brutal working schedules so it pays to be flexible.
Workplace Flexibility is key to an organisation’s success in the 21st century and thus embracing flexibility is one of the top qualities of a great hospitality employee.
9. Interpersonal & Networking Skills
Interpersonal skills hold the key to success in the hospitality industry and are a mixture of top traits all employees and managers must-have in the workplace and life.
Now, this looks like an obvious one. For this is a must in all CVs. However, we are referring to this key hospitality skill in a different context.
It is important for a hotelier to put this skill into practice at work not only with customers but also with team members.
We mention it here because it is a skill that involves effective dealing with a person or multiple people.
It is a combination of several winning hospitality skills which include but are not limited to the below.
- Communication skills
- Problem Solving Skills
- Persuasiveness
- Assertiveness
- Listening Skills
- Team Building
- Networking & social
Check a few more of these in the list of interpersonal skills by Balancecareer.
Today, your networks are everything because they encourage customers to keep coming back to your establishment.
Networking allows you to build a loyal clientele, which is one of the driving forces of hospitality.
Networking skills help a lot if you want to succeed with flying colours in the hospitality industry.
10. Leadership Skills and impeccable Organisational Skills
We saved the best for the last, isn’t it?
Speak of the hospitality industry, this would come up right there among the top as far as qualities of a great hospitality employee are concerned.
At times, in the hotel industry, managers like Executive Chefs, Executive Housekeeper, Operations Managers etc. have to exhibit excellent leadership skills in order to save the day on the crisis during peak season.
If you are one of the hotel managers, you would have sure experienced such days. Leadership skills help your team stay aligned with the common goal of providing exemplary service.
Thus a good employee must also exhibit great leadership skills so that he or she can make considerable contributions in the industry.
Since you have to be skilled at multi-tasking when working in the hospitality industry, you should also be able to organise effectively.
The ability to organise effectively will help you become more approachable and assertive.
Being approachable and assertive are common leadership traits that every hospitality professional must have to succeed in the era of cutthroat competition.
The success or failure of your operation will depend on how well you organise your team.
Organisational skills are required of almost all professional but they are critical in hospitality.
Conclusion
Here we go, a list of the top 10 qualities of a great hospitality employee.
It is extremely important for a hotelier to keep assessing himself/herself. Various Self Assessment tools help you strengthen your character and succeed in the hospitality industry which at times can get extremely demanding.
Always evaluating strengths and weaknesses through various self-assessment tools help hoteliers keep a track of their growth and shortcomings.
A colourful and prosperous career is what can be expected by developing various hospitality skills of self-assessment.
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