Hotel Industry Career: Skills, Trends and Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of a career in the hotel industry, focusing on the skills, knowledge, and experience required for a recent graduate to secure a job in the field. It examines current trends in the UK hotel sector, including the impact of Brexit and the fluctuating value of the British pound. The report highlights the importance of interpersonal skills, communication, and teamwork, as well as the value of practical experience gained through internships or volunteer work. It also discusses the significance of having a mentor and the benefits of gaining experience in roles involving supervision, such as working with children. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for an all-rounder approach, combining academic knowledge with personal skills, to succeed in the competitive hotel industry, and provides a job opening for the position of a Hotel Receptionist for the Accor Hotels group.

Running head: CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
Career in the Hotel Industry
Name of Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
Executive Summary:
This report outlines what a career in the hotel industry would entail, along with the
description of what the current scenario of the hotel industry is in the UK. The hotel industry
is on a rise, minimally due to the Brexit and the falling value of the British pound. Along with
this update on the current situation of the economy, the report also outlines what the
knowledge and skill requirements are for a recent graduate of hotel management to get a job
in the industry. Through the findings, the report finds it useful for a graduate to engage in
out-of-school activities to get more hands-on experience, which is very important in this
position.

2CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
Table of Contents
1. Introduction:........................................................................................................................3
2. Analysis and Application:...................................................................................................3
2.1 General Trends in the Hotel Industry:.........................................................................3
2.2 Skills, Knowledge and Experience Required:.............................................................4
3. Evaluation:..........................................................................................................................6
4. Conclusion:.........................................................................................................................6
5. References:..........................................................................................................................8
6. Appendix:............................................................................................................................9

3CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
1. Introduction:
This report will be analysing the hotel industry and will be assessing the preparedness of
me as a recent hotel management graduate to enter into a job in the same industry. This report
will assess the condition of the hotel industry as compared to others in UK’s economy, and
will analyse how the employment rates are also in the industry. This will give me a better
idea as to who are the people that I am competing with, and if my skills are up to the par at
which companies require their employees to be. If not, then the report will also highlight the
skills I need to develop on in order to be a hopeful candidate.
2. Analysis and Application:
The purpose of this section is to reflect on the hotel industry and its status in the UK in
the present time using both primary and secondary research. This will identify the key trends
that are existing in the industry and also outline the knowledge and skills required for a fresh
hotel management graduate to earn a job in the field.
2.1 General Trends in the Hotel Industry:
Even with the looming crisis of the Brexit, UK’s hotel sector has been able to perform
exceptionally well in 2018, with strong revenue levels that set records. The hotel industry has
been constantly performing well for the past five years. When the outcome of the EU
referendum was announced, the pound starting decreasing in value made the UK a desirable
location for foreign tourists to visit. Along with this, the weak value of the pound has also
made many domestic residents to opt more for staycations, instead of choosing international
destinations. Both of these facts have proven to be beneficial for the hotel occupancy of the
domestic hotels. There has been an overall growth in the number of occupancies in hotels of
almost 83% in London and has remained at a stable level of 77% in rest of the region in 2018
(Tan 2017).

4CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
Though the revenue earned by hotels has been experiencing a healthy increase, there
remains a lot of room for investment into the industry because with the depreciation of the
pound, the desired wages for the people working in hotels is also increasing. There has been
almost a 4% increase in wages in London followed by an approximate 2% in the rest of the
region (Nazarian, Atkinson and Foroudi 2017). However, even though the investors are
doubtful about investing into UK’s hotel industry, it is important to realize that the level at
which the pound is at is proving to be very competitive. This means that the level that the
currency is at is one of the biggest reasons as to why the hotel industry is experiencing a
positive rise – this should motivate investors in capitalising this opportunity to establish their
ground in this rising industry. While keeping this mind, in the past year there UK’s hotel
industry has seen an increase in investment by 84% in 2018 (Lopes 2016).
With more inflow of tourists coming into the UK for holidays, a survey done by Savoy
Stewart has shown that to match this demand there has been one of the largest inflow of new
hotel supply and hotels that are still under construction in the year 2018 (Ramanthan,
Ramanathan and Zhang 2016). Along with the rising growth of established and popular
hotels, UK is also experiencing an increase in the number of budget hotels, which have also
contributed greatly to the growth of the hotel sector (Zervas, Proserpio and Byers 2017). It is
predicted that budget hotels will be seeing more success stories because their brands are
optimizing the opportunity by adapting to UK’s current market condition.
2.2 Skills, Knowledge and Experience Required:
Unlike other industries, hotel management degrees teach more interpersonal skills than
academic knowledge because in this industry they value soft skills and attitude towards work
more than academic qualifications. It is important for the recent graduate to be able to be a
‘people person’ in the sense that their interpersonal skills should be their biggest strength

5CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
(Kensbock et al. 2016). They student needs to be able to get on with people and truly enjoy
social interaction to enjoy a career in the hotel industry.
With being able to enjoy social interaction, the student is also expected to be a good
communicator. What this means is that the student is expected to handle himself or herself
diplomatically because there is no room for establishing a bad reputation. In trying to be a
good communicator, it is also important for the student to be able to cultivate their listening
skills. Since the goal position for the recent graduate getting into the business would be to get
to the managerial position, and for them to be able to do that they need to prove that they are
good team players and are able to motivate others and have to be able to adjust their approach
as the situation changes (Markova et al. 2016). While these skills, the main job of a manager
is to get things done so the student will be expected to have a strong grip on being able to
prioritise their work, be organized and also be able to manage their time appropriately.
It is difficult to pick up the skills for a management job in the hotel industry from the
classes in university, so if the student is able to find some part-time work as an intern or as a
volunteer then it would help greatly in building the skills that is required for a management
position. Through these experiences, the student will be able to assess their organisation and
time management skills and their readiness in being able to start a job in the industry.
A current hotel manager that I was able to interview made a really interesting point where
she suggested that if I was serious in finding a job in this field, any experience that deals with
supervising children will prove to be a very impressive addition to the portfolio. This is
because this shows that the student has strong management skills when dealing with a
challenging group. Another point that was mentioned by the interviewee was that it is very
useful if the student is able to establish someone to be his or her mentor, preferably in the

6CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
same field as the one that the student wants to be in. This will help the student to learn some
specific tactics when learning to do a certain task that is assigned.
3. Evaluation:
There is a job opening for the position of a Hotel Receptionist for the Accor Hotels group.
Even though this is not a managerial position, which is what I was looking for, after reading
the employee requirements I believe that this will give me a great opportunity to get my
footing into the industry since there is always room for growth.
All things aside, this job will develop my interpersonal and communication skills. A
receptionist is the first face that the customers are greeted by when they enter an
establishment, so it is their responsibility to develop a friendly relationship with the customer
so that they do not have to approach the manager for their issues. A receptionist will be
projecting the image of the hotel to the customers, so it is very important to uphold the
interpersonal skills. Another reason why I think that this opportunity would help me in the
end is because the hotel manager had mentioned that even the smallest of roles in a hotel is
vital to the company running smoothly.
4. Conclusion:
This report highlights the important of all-rounder approach to getting a job in the hotel
industry. It is also found that even though it is important to have a degree in hotel
management, it is more important to build up personal skills that will be vital in being
successful in various positions.
Along with the knowledge of what skills are required for a recent graduate to pursue a
career in this industry, it is also important to know how the hotel industry is faring in UK’s
economy. It was found the Brexit does not have a significant impact on the hotel business, so
there will be employment available; however the requirements are very challenging as the

7CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
hotel employers are very particular in hiring someone because they project the image of the
hotel.

8CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
5. References:
Tan, Y., 2017. Hotel-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic determinants of
profitability in London Hotel industry: Structure-Conduct-Performance or Efficient-Structure
hypothesis?.
Nazarian, A., Atkinson, P. and Foroudi, P., 2017. Influence of national culture and balanced
organizational culture on the hotel industry’s performance. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 63, pp.22-32.
Ramanathan, R., Ramanathan, U. and Zhang, Y., 2016. Linking operations, marketing and
environmental capabilities and diversification to hotel performance: A data envelopment
analysis approach. International Journal of Production Economics, 176, pp.111-122.
Kensbock, S., Jennings, G., Bailey, J. and Patiar, A., 2016. Performing: Hotel room
attendants’ employment experiences. Annals of Tourism Research, 56, pp.112-127.
Markova, E., Anna, P., Williams, A.M. and Shaw, G., 2016. Migrant workers in small
London hotels: Employment, recruitment and distribution. European Urban and Regional
Studies, 23(3), pp.406-421.
Zervas, G., Proserpio, D. and Byers, J.W., 2017. The rise of the sharing economy: Estimating
the impact of Airbnb on the hotel industry. Journal of marketing research, 54(5), pp.687-705.
Lopes, M., 2016. The hospitality industry (Doctoral dissertation).

9CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
6. Appendix: