Checking Into the Hotel Industry

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The next promotional opportunity is going to be at the department-head-level position, such as for an office manager or what we would call an executive housekeeper, someone who oversees the housekeeping department.

The next position is usually going to be what we call an assistant rooms exec, the No. 2 person overseeing the rooms division of the hotel. The next position would be rooms executive, who oversees all rooms operations of the hotel. And that final position is really going to be general manager of a hotel.

Obviously it depends on the person, but that process—from an entry-level manager to a managing committee or rooms exec-level position—on average is probably going to be about six years.... General manager, somewhere between six and eight years. The next position after that is going to be a senior vice-president overseeing a region of Hyatt, which is typically about 25 hotels, or oversight at the corporate office, overseeing one of those regions.

What's the appeal of hospitality for business students?

First of all, the environment is going to be very different: You're in a functioning, operating, mini-city. You're not going to be just sitting there in a cubicle all the time. The other appealing thing is that there's a lot of flexibility in what you might end up wanting to do.

We have people that have gone up the accounting route who decided to become comptrollers and then switched to become a general manager, which isn't probably something most people would think about, that you would be doing all the number crunching in a hotel and then say, "You know, I really would like to manage the entire property." That's something that is very doable at a Hyatt Hotel.

How common are those kids of leaps? Can people really move from sales to accounting, or accounting to operations?

That's something that happens all the time. In fact, when I'm on campus and we do our presentation, I'll usually ask the students, "Where do you think you're like to be?" And some will say, "Well, I want to be a food and beverage director."

And I kind of go around the room and say, "Well, just so you know, there's a good chance that five years from now you guys will be doing something completely different," because I think as they go through the hotel, they start to figure out that there's another area that they may like more.

I think I'm a good example. I started off interested in the rooms division. I went through our management training program, and then I was a front office manager, I was an assistant rooms exec, and then I made a decision to go into human resources, so I completely switched over to a whole new focus. And most people that you talk to at Hyatt would probably tell you they started off in one area and ended up switching to a whole different position.

What's the most unique benefit that Hyatt offers its employees?

I think we all have 401(k) plans and medical/dental benefit plans, but with Hyatt Hotels, you can actually stay at another Hyatt Hotel for free. We hold 1% of our inventory just for employees. It's a nice benefit, because if you do want to go to Hawaii, for example, the room rates for resort hotels can be $300 to $500 a night, but those are complimentary for Hyatt employees.