6 Jobs You Can Get With an MBA in Hospitality Management
For hospitality professionals seeking career advancement, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette offers an online MBA with a concentration in Hospitality Management through the B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration. This degree program prepares students to effectively manage any hospitality-related business venture, be it running an independent hotel or a global casino company.
The hospitality industry calls for various skill sets, offering a wide variety of jobs for qualified professionals. Here are six such jobs that value MBA-trained professionals, with opportunities ranging from management positions to unique, independent consultancy careers.
1. Hotel General Manager
Hotel managers oversee all aspects of running a hotel, including staffing, budgeting, planning, sales, marketing, customer relations and day-to-day operations.
Small hotel managers might take on the brunt of these tasks personally, but general managers of larger properties may delegate duties to appropriate subordinate managers. Regardless of size or organizational structure, general managers must still understand and oversee all operations, directly or indirectly.
Salaries for hotel managers vary by hotel size and type. Managers for large operations with complex staff structures and information systems take on a significant amount of responsibility and require advanced knowledge of such systems. Hotels with high revenues can offer managers substantial compensation packages commensurate with revenues. According to Salary.com, the median yearly pay for hotel managers is about $113K (February 2022).
2. Hotel Director of Sales
Many hotels delegate sales management to dedicated directors of sales. These professionals aim to achieve target revenue percentages from the various sources of hotel income. These sources may include food and beverage, events, rooms and other in-house services and amenities. Sales directors also aim to build up long-term relationships with customers and corporate partners through loyalty and reward programs, discount packages and more.
Director of sales earnings also vary with hotel size, revenue, compensation packages and, especially, commissions. The median yearly salary for a hotel director of sales is about $170K according to Salary.com (February 2022).
3. Casino Property General Manager
Casino property general managers oversee the entirety of a casino’s operations. Job responsibilities are similar to those of a hotel manager, with the addition of duties surrounding casino-specific functions like gambling or large-scale entertainment venues.
The median yearly salary of property general managers at casinos is nearly $235,000 according to Salary.com (February 2022).
4. Casino Marketing Manager
Targeted marketing is arguably the most important part of developing business for casinos in competitive regions. Plus, well-devised loyalty or rewards programs are essential for retaining that business. Designing and implementing marketing strategies and loyalty programs often falls to marketing managers. For global hotel and casino companies, these professionals may also oversee research in potential markets for chain expansion.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the annual mean wage of casino marketing managers in 2020 was $127,580 per year.
5. Hospitality Management Consultant
Businesses in the hospitality industry often hire hospitality management consultants to help achieve any number of goals. These professionals analyze operations to provide strategies that improve efficiency and profitability. They often help companies devise plans for scaling or conduct feasibility studies for expanding to new global markets.
According to February 2022 data from Glassdoor, hospitality management consultants average about $80,000 annually in base pay. But these professionals often work on a contract basis, meaning pay can vary based on skill level, reputation and travel requirements.
6. Hospitality Technology Consultant / Information System Manager
Software- and hardware-based information technology infrastructure is at the root of numerous hotel and casino functions, including reservation systems, loyalty programs, point-of-sale, digitized gambling and security.
Hotels and casinos are adopting comprehensive management information systems to integrate these complex subsystems, streamlining their performance potential. They may hire hospitality technology consultants to help select, install and maintain these systems as well as train staff on their use. Large hospitality companies often have their own information technology (IT) departments to manage information systems.
According to February 2022 data from PayScale, information technology consultants earn, on average, $80,000 in annual salary. BLS reports that in 2020, the annual mean wage of computer and information systems managers in casino hotels was $123,390.
Job options abound for hospitality MBA graduates. A career in hospitality management can take many fascinating forms for professionals with a service mindset and business aptitude.
Learn more about the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s online MBA program with a concentration in Hospitality Management.
