How to Write a Hotel Management CV (With Hotel Manager CV Example)

An effective hotel management CV should articulate your senior experience in the hospitality industry and your ability to oversee the profitable smooth-running of hotels.

Whether you’re pursuing roles involving the management of large-scale resorts or you’re looking to step up the career ladder into your first hotel management role, it’s important to have a professionally prepared CV that shows your competencies in hotel management.

However, with such a diverse choice of hotels for guests, as well as the rise of home-stay businesses such as Airbnb, hotels are constantly looking for ways to improve customer satisfaction and improve their operations.

Hotel managers spearhead these improvements, so your CV must set you apart from the competition. It must convince recruiters or hiring managers that you're the hotel manager who can take their hotel to the next level.

As a hotel manager, you will be responsible for driving service culture, enhancing operations and increasing guest satisfaction. In this guide, we will provide you with everything you need to know to write a CV that does exactly that.

This includes how to present your skills in the most effective way and how to convince recruiters to consider you as a candidate.

Want to see more CV layouts? View our guide on CV layout, which includes 10 great CV layout ideas that you can use now.

Your CV should start with a professional profile, often referred to as a personal statement. This is an introduction to your CV, consisting of around 100 words.

Think of your hotel management personal statement as a sales pitch. It’s your chance to convince recruiters to schedule an interview with you.

But how you can do that in under 100 words? In just a few sentences, how can you sell yourself as an adept hotel manager with the ability to optimise hotel performance and customer satisfaction?

Focus only on your core capabilities and experiences. Keep the writing concise, crisp and to-the-point.

Here is an example of a hotel manager’s personal statement:

Result-oriented, customer-focused Hotel Manager, with over 6 years’ experience managing 5-star resorts across Europe. Recognised for driving levels of customer satisfaction and optimising profitability by implementing new processes and developing cultures of service excellence.

Passionate about improving the customer experience and facilitating memorable guest experiences. Commercially astute, with experience managing budgets in excess of 50 M while deploying cohesive strategies to generate growth and improve business performance.

This personal statement is just 65 words long, but it is long enough to encourage hiring managers to pick up the phone and arrange a job interview.

The first sentence captures the hotel manager's experience in 5-star hotel management on a regional scale. Following this, the personal statement focuses on the hotel manager's proven track record of improving performance.

Then comes the hotel manager’s passion for his job, which is a vital ingredient to success in any profession.

This introduction also shows that the Hotel Manager is a commercial heavyweight.

By touching on the key aspects of his commercial acumen, such as the size of the budgets he managed and the strategies he developed, it highlights his ability to manage large-scale resorts in just one sentence.

So let’s look at what this personal statement has covered in just 65 words: the candidate’s hotel experience, his ability to achieve results, his passion for hotel management and his commercial acumen.

This is what you should be aiming for in your own personal statement.

Whatever level you’re at, use polished writing and draw out your key capabilities and experiences to show that you’re the ideal candidate to excel in hotel management.

If you need further help writing your personal statement, feel free to get in touch with our professional CV writers.

Include a key skills section that touches on your core competencies. Select about 8 or 9 skills that are most valuable to you as a hotel manager. Don’t worry about leaving some of your skills out. You will have the chance to show specific examples of times you have used your many skills in the career summary section of your CV.

Which skills should you include in your hotel management CV?

For now, avoid soft skills. Focus on hard skills that are fundamental to hotel management. Of course, only include these in your CV if you genuinely possess the skills. We don’t advise lying on your CV under any circumstance.

Key skills for hotel managers include:

Operations management, budget management, strategic planning, financial management, P&L management, commercial awareness, stakeholder management, strategy development, customer service, customer engagement, leadership and team building.

As previously mentioned, select the skills that are most relevant to you. Don’t list them all. Including a huge number of skills will clutter the page and make for a poor reading experience.

Think of this key skills section as a marketing initiative. It’s there to show off some of your key points.

But it’s not going to sell you on its own.

There is still work to do to ensure the hiring manager or recruiter believes in your abilities as a hotel manager. In the career summary section of your CV, you will have the chance to show specific examples of times you have utilised these skills.

Like all other professions, many soft skills are very important in hotel management. Some are absolutely key to success.

As such, it’s vital that your hotel management CV shows that you possess these skills. Assuming you actually do possesses them, of course.

We’ve selected a number of the most important soft skills for hotel managers. Here, we’ll show you the most sought-after soft skills and how to demonstrate them in your CV.

As a hotel manager, communication is your bread and butter. Smooth-running hotels are like well-oiled machines. Think of good communication as the oil.

It’s what keeps things running efficiently.

Hotel managers need to ensure efficient communication between multiple departments. To ensure these departments are aligned with the overall vision of the company, hotel managers must ensure robust channels of communication are in place.

Additionally, hotel managers are required to liaise with a multitude of colleagues and guests on a daily basis. Whether it is stepping into to resolve disputes with guests or conferring with departmental managers, communication is crucial to success in hotel management.

With this in mind, communication is the most important soft skill for hotel managers. As such, a great hotel manager CV will show that you are an adept communicator with a track record of facilitating the smooth-running of hotels by establishing strong channels of communication.

So how do you showcase your communication skills in your CV?

As mentioned previously, it is much more beneficial to show your communication skills, rather than to tell the reader about them.

The most effective way to do this is to use the career summary section of your CV, where you describe your past and present jobs, to demonstrate your communication skills.

In the career summary – some people call this section career history or professional experience – provide specific examples of successes that have resulted from your communication skills.

This way, you’re not simply writing that you have communication skills. Instead, you’re actually providing it with tangible evidence.

Here is an example:

“Established weekly meetings with the hotel’s department managers to confer on strategy and discuss the development of new processes, resulting in a more aligned way of working”

In the hotel manager’s sample above, the candidate shows that he or she has been actively focusing on improving channels of communication. By bringing department managers together to improve ways of working, it demonstrates his or her ability to add value through communication.

Here is another example of how career summary descriptions can highlight communication skills:

“Presented data-driven reports to members of the hotel’s Board to encourage them to use a more effective marketing approach”

In this example, the hotel manager shows that he or she is capable of engaging with colleagues at senior level to deliver positive outcomes.

It’s important to note that communication is made up of multiple different skills, including presentation and active listening. In the sample above, the hotel manager uses her presentation skills to draw attention to his communication acumen.

When you begin to write about your communication successes, think about more than just verbal communication. Think about times you have listened or presented to add value.

Leadership plays a huge role in hotel management. As a hotel manager, you will be responsible for managing the hotel while leading all the different facets that should come together to ensure the hotel achieves its objectives.

Leadership qualities may be one of the first things hiring managers look for on your CV. They want to see that you are capable of managing multidisciplinary teams and various different operations simultaneously to generate results.

You also need to be able to see the big picture while successfully overseeing operations within the hotel.

If you want your hotel management CV to get you job interviews in today’s competitive job market, it needs demonstrate your ability to lead.

So how can you do this? With so many other talented hotel managers applying for the same job, how can you make your leadership qualities stand out?

Don’t panic. We’re going to tell you how you can do just that.

As with your communication skills, the career summary section of your CV is the best place to show off your leadership skills. This enables you to provide solid examples of times you have utilised your leadership skills.

Start by drawing attention to your managerial responsibilities for each hotel management position you held. For example, in your current hotel manager role, you could start by writing about the number of staff you managed, the size of the hotel you managed or the size of the budget you managed.

This instantly shows that you are experienced in leadership positions.

Also, focus on your achievements and successes that resulted from your excellent leadership. A great way to do this is to identify times that you improved hotel performance. All leaders need to be able to deliver improvements, so showing your ability to do this can put you in the bracket of effective leader.

Here is an example of how we demonstrated this hotel manager’s leadership skills:

'Led the hotel’s Catering team to the achievement of a 10% decrease in waiting times for room service by transitioning calls for room service to the kitchen, rather than reception'.

In the example above, the hotel manager shows that they can optimise levels of service by identifying areas for improvement.

When writing your CV, it’s always important to remember that showing results is the best way of highlighting your leadership skills. Leadership is fundamentally about delivering results, so if your CV can show a pattern of consistent results, you’ll come across as a strong leader.

If you want to come across as an even stronger leader, draw attention to both small achievements and more large-scale achievements.

If you do this, you will show the hiring manager that you are the type of leader who gets results on a daily basis in the hotel while not losing sight of the big picture and continuously working towards the hotel’s long-term plans.

Working in hotel management, you’re going to encounter many problems. Problems come with the territory in all aspects of management. Hotel management is no different. What defines the best managers when faced with problems is their response.

The type and size of the problems you face will usually vary depending on the type of hotel you work in.

If you’re working in smaller hotels or inns, you might be responsible for providing resolutions to customer disputes and complaints. If you’re managing large resorts, you might be faced with problems related to strategy or projects that are underway within the resort.

Whether you manage a small hotel or a large resort, you need to be an effective problem solver. You’re bound to encounter roadblocks and you need to be able to overcome them.

So, with problem solving being such a key skill for hotel managers, it’s vital that your CV articulates your problem-solving capabilities, if you do in fact possess them. Showing your problem-solving skills in your CV in an effective way will ensure you grab the attention of hiring managers or recruiters.

But how do you demonstrate your problem solving skills in your hotel management CV?

To show your problem solving skills, think about times that you have solved problems while working in hotel management and include them in your CV’s achievements.

Present these details by including the result or achievement first, then touching on what you did, followed by a description of the problem.

If you follow this format – result, action, problem – your problem-solving achievements will come across in a structured manner while ensuring the initial focus is on your achievements.

Here is an example of how to show problem-solving skills in your CV:

'Reduced online negative reviews for housekeeping by 79% by implementing new training sessions for housekeepers after identifying a negative opinion of the hotel’s cleanliness'.

Notice how this example CV achievement begins with the result – the 79% reduction – followed by the action and then the problem. This structure makes the achievement stand out as we’re instantly aware of the hotel manager’s successes, before learning how he or she achieved this.

When you’re managing daily operations in fast-paced hotels, you’ll often be confronted with complex issues. As such you must be able to think critically and identify the most effective solutions.

This involves evaluating situations, considering potential courses of action and making decisions that are beneficial for your team and the business.

In a nutshell, critical thinking is all about using your evaluative mindset to deliver results that are more likely to be beneficial. Thinking that is critical has more reasoning and purpose to it. It is made up of interpretation, deduction and evaluation.

So how can you show your critical thinking skills in your CV?

As a hotel manager, you’ve surely found yourself in situations where you were required to make challenging decisions. If so, draw on these to show your critical thinking skills.

Show how you assessed the situation and weighed up courses of action. Show how you considered alternatives and took into account overall business objectives. And ensure to show the result of your critical thinking.

These are our four top picks for hotel management soft skills. But of course, there are others. Active listening, attention-to-detail and organisation are also important soft skills for hotel managers. Focus on the ones that you have utilised to great effect in hotel management.

The next step is to include your career history and your hotel management duties. This section goes by many different names. Some people call it career history. Some call it career summary, work experience or professional experience.

To avoid confusion, in this guide we will refer to it as a career summary.

This is the section where you can use the advice provided in the previous step to showcase your skills while writing about your jobs.

When writing your career summary, use the reverse chronological format. This means starting with your most recent job and working backwards.

Start by including your job title, followed by the company name or the name of the hotel you managed. Then include the location and dates of employment.

Following this, it’s beneficial to provide some initial context. Add a sentence or two about the hotel you managed. Maybe you could touch on the size of the hotel or its location. Take a look at the hotel manager CV example in this guide to see how to include some initial context for your roles.

After you’ve included some initial context, detail your hotel management duties. Don’t insert your entire job description.

Recruiters don't need to know every single detail of your hotel management role. Not only would this make for a boring read, but much of the information would be redundant. Instead, draw attention to your key duties and achievements.

It’s important to highlight your skills while describing your hotel management duties and accomplishments. So, while writing your career summary, keep in mind the earlier advice about how to demonstrate your skills in this section.

Ensure the writing is concise and to-the-point. Use bullet points to draw attention to key information and use adequate spacing between sections for ease-of-reading.

Now it’s time to include your education and training.

First, add your highest education, whether it be a master’s degree or A levels. If your degree is in a business or hotel related field, include the key modules and your dissertation title.

Depending on your level of education, it may not be necessary to include all of your qualifications. For example, if you are educated to degree level, there is no need to include your GCSEs.

However, if you achieved excellent GCSE grades, ensure to add them. Although not completely relevant, it does highlight your academic successes.

Finally, if you’ve completed any relevant training related to hotel management or business management, include those too.

The final section of your CV is for any additional information. This might include languages, IT and software skills and volunteering activities.

Only include additional information that is relevant to or supports your hotel management application.

So now you’ve learned the best way to format and structure your hotel management CV – professional profile, skills, career summary, education and additional information – it’s time to learn more about the CV writing process.

Always use easy-to-read fonts, such as Calibri, Time New Roman or Arial. Avoid fonts that are stylish and over-the-top. These will make your CV look unprofessional.

The ideal font size for CV writing is between 9.5 and 11.5. Anything under 9.5 will be too difficult to read. Anything over than 11.5 will appear too large.

The font size can change depending on the amount of empty space – or the lack of empty space – you are working with, but try to stay inside these dimensions.

View our guide on CV format, which includes 12 CV samples.

Hotel management CVs should be two pages in length. If necessary, you can extend this to three pages, but no more than that.

If your CV is longer than three pages, the document likely isn’t concise enough. The key information will also be difficult to locate.

If you’re struggling to cut your CV down to two or three pages in Microsoft Word, reduce the margin sizes. Although, we don’t recommend reducing the margins below 1.5 cm.

If you’re applying for jobs in the UK and the US, you shouldn’t include a photo on your hotel management CV. In the UK and US, photos are not expected on CVs and could have a negative impact on your application as recruiters do not want to be influenced by your photo.

However, if you’re applying for jobs in Scandinavia, Western Europe and Northern Europe, you should include a professional photo on your CV.

With over 575 million users, LinkedIn is a powerful tool for hotel managers. Here, you can build connections with key decision makers of companies you would like to work for.

Include a link to your LinkedIn profile alongside your contact details.

Many recruiters use software called Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter and rank candidates’ CV based on specific keywords. Including these keywords can help you pass through the systems.

Keywords that are relevant to hotel management jobs include hotel management, operations management, strategic planning, business management and budget management.

Don’t shoehorn these words into your CV in bulk. This will appear unnatural and may irritate the reader. Instead, ensure they are peppered naturally throughout your CV.

ATS also scans CVs for previous employers, years’ experience and university names. So make sure you include these details in your CV.

If you’re considering working in hotel management abroad, we’ve created an infographic that shows hotel growth statistics across Europe.

As noted in the infographic, the hotel industry is thriving in London, Prague and Amsterdam. Iceland is also making waves, with a 24% growth in visitors in 2017. As is Turkey, which experienced a 28% increase in visitors in the same year.

If you’re pursuing hotel management roles in locations abroad, use our infographic to learn about the European countries and cities that are making a significant impression in the hotel industry.

For more hotel statistics, check out out article that details many of the most interesting hotel stats.

Source: https://www.pwc.fr/fr/assets/files/pdf/2018/04/pwc-european-cities-hotel-forecast-for-2018-and-2019.pdf 

Hopefully this guide will help you prepare a professional hotel management CV. For more in-depth CV help, view our ultimate guide on how to write a CV.

If you would like learn how our services can help you achieve your career goals, take a look at our Premium CV package.