Table of Contents
- But First: What Are Administrative Skills?
- 5 Admin Hospitality Jobs
- Building Your Administrative Skills
Even if you’re new to hospitality, you undoubtedly have some skills that you’re bringing with you from your previous work or education. You could be a sales pro or a technology wizard. Or you may have a long list of administrative skills on your resume that would make you a brilliant support person.
If you’re looking to bring your administrative skills to the hospitality industry, here are some of the jobs you should consider.
But First: What Are Administrative Skills?
Administrative skills include all those little day-to-day tasks that keep a business organized, efficient, and operational. While CEOs and managers come up with new ideas and long-term growth strategies, the administrators put it all into action.
At their core, great administrators are the ones managing communication among departments and keeping the business organized. Skilled administrators are absolutely essential to a functioning workplace. Without them, there would be no one to keep the business running behind the scenes. It would be chaos!
Administrative skills could include:
- Filing paperwork
- Office organization
- Managing calendars
- Developing internal processes
- Creating meeting plans and sending out action items
- Maintaining business licenses and permits
- Communicating with stakeholders and team members
- Training new employees
- Project management
- And much more.
5 Admin Hospitality Jobs
- Front Desk Agent
Most hotel jobs have some aspect of administration in their job descriptions. But a dedicated front desk agent can support and liaise between a number of departments, including events, housekeeping, maintenance, and food and beverage.
Front desk agents help not only to check guests in and out of the hotel but to also give them recommendations on local attractions, places to eat in/out of the hotel, amenities, and more. They also answer the phone for reservations and work with the hotels operating systems.
- Event Coordinator
Event coordinators must be masters of organization. Coordinators work carefully with many clients at once. They may guide a potential client through a site visit, send a contract to another for signature, coordinate among vendors for an upcoming wedding, and manage a corporate conference—all on the same day.
This role requires close attention to detail, excellent communication skills, and clear standard operating procedures for each event to ensure no steps are missed.
- Reservation Agent
Reservation agents help customers to plan their travel. At a hotel, a reservation agent can answer questions and reserve rooms. At a travel agency, an agent may make trip recommendations and reserve flights, hotel stays, tours, and dining.
Reservation agents must be expert communicators to take in their client’s needs and find the right packages to suit—or to work with the client to come up with a compromise if their first choices for accommodations or travel are not available.
- Front Office Manager
A hotel’s front office manager leads the front desk team. This role requires people with the skills both to provide a great guest experience and to manage a team of front desk agents.
The front office manager must create schedules to ensure the front desk always has appropriate coverage. They must review all guest arrivals and departures and communicate any special requests to the front desk team. This person may create new processes and procedures and is responsible for their implementation.
Anyone with administrative skills who also loves to work face-to-face with guests could thrive as a front office manager.
- Sales Coordinator or Sales Assistant
A sales coordinator provides administrative assistance to the sales team, freeing up their time to bring in new business to the hotel or operation. They may respond to client queries and schedule appointments, create sales presentations, and complete various administrative tasks for the sales team.
This could be a great entry-level position for an aspiring hospitality sales professional.
Building Your Administrative Skills
What if you want one of these jobs…but you don’t think you have the necessary skills?
There are a variety of print and online resources that you can access to build your skills. For example, the online platform Coursera offers a number of courses in project management for free, which may come with a resume-building certification upon completion.
Also look for books to help you think creatively about your role, like The Innovative Admin by Julie Perrine or The Proactive Professional: How to Stop Playing Catch Up and Start Getting Ahead at Work (and in LIfe!) by Chrissy Scivicque.
Administrative professionals can also complete a Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA) program for a hospitality-focused education and credential.