A hotel director of finance closes the books each month, builds the budget and forecast with the GM, and sends the owners their financial package. They also guard the cash, card payments, group billing and payroll, including how tips and banquet service charges are paid out.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
The Director of Finance keeps the hotel's books accurate and its cash protected. You'll close the month, produce the owner's financial package, build the budget and forecast with the General Manager, and run the controls on cash, credit cards, receivables and payroll. In a small group, you also combine results across the hotels.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Close the books each month and deliver the owner's financial package by [your deadline].
Build the annual budget and the monthly reforecast with the General Manager and department heads.
Run controls over cash banks, credit card settlement, deposits, rebates, allowances and voids.
Manage receivables for direct-bill and group accounts, including credit approvals and collections.
Oversee payroll, including tip and service charge distribution under your written policy, set with [your payroll provider or employment lawyer].
File and pay occupancy, sales and any alcohol taxes on time, and prepare for audits.
Lead the accounting team and review their work on the daily income audit.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review the income audit: room revenue, rate variances, comps, voids and allowances posted the night before.
Approve payables batches after checking invoices against purchase orders and receiving.
Check credit card batches and bank deposits against the day's revenue.
Follow up on past-due group and direct-bill accounts over [your limit].
Answer department heads' questions on budget, spending and purchase approvals.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Month-end close on schedule: [your target].
Forecast accuracy against actual results: [your target].
Days sales outstanding on direct-bill accounts: [your target].
Internal and external audit findings: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Bachelor's degree in accounting or finance.
[5+] years of hotel accounting, including [2+] years as an assistant controller, controller or director of finance.
Knows the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI) and prepares statements in that format.
Experienced with [your accounting system] and pulling data from [your property management system].
Explains variances and cash needs to owners without accounting jargon.
6. Preferred Experience
CPA license or progress toward one.
Has set up or tightened cash controls after an audit finding or a loss.
Experience consolidating several hotels and booking intercompany entries.
7. Physical Requirements
Desk work at a computer for most of the day.
Walk to departments to count banks, observe inventory counts and check receiving.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Weekday office hours on property, with longer days at month-end, budget season and audits.
Occasional weekends for year-end inventory or system changes.
Handles confidential payroll and owner financial data.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new director of finance gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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A hotel takes in money every night from rooms, restaurants, bars, banquets and parking. Much of it sits on guest folios, group deposits and card holds before it ever reaches the bank.
The books follow USALI
Hotels keep their books under the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, or USALI. Its standard statements and department schedules let owners line up results across hotels. Many management and asset agreements name it, so its definitions and cost-sharing rules carry into the contract. The 12th revised edition took effect January 1, 2026, with new lines for items such as loyalty program benefits and digital marketing. Ask candidates whether they have moved a hotel onto it. Source: Hotel Online (HFTP): USALI, 12th Revised Edition: Is your finance team ready for January 2026?.
Banquet service charges are wages
A required service charge on a banquet bill is not a tip under federal wage law, even if every dollar of it goes to the servers. What staff get from it counts as wages. It can go toward minimum wage, and it must be added to the regular rate when overtime is figured. So a server who works a long wedding week may be owed more overtime than the hourly rate suggests. Source: U.S. DOL Fact Sheet #15: Tipped employees under the FLSA.
Tips get their own box on the W-2
On the 2026 Forms W-2, the cash tips each worker reported go in box 12 under the new code TP. Box 14b holds the Treasury tipped occupation code for the job that earned them. Service charges are wages, and the IRS says mandatory service charges are not qualified tips, so banquet payouts don't belong in that box. Before year-end, payroll has to give every tipped job in the hotel its code. Source: IRS: 2026 General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3.
Each outlet can mean its own tip return
IRS rules treat a hotel's restaurant, coffee shop and lounge as separate operations when each keeps its own sales records. If, on a typical day last year, the employer usually had over 10 workers, each outlet where guests customarily tip files its own Form 8027. When reported tips come in low, the hotel may also have to allocate tips to staff. Source: IRS: Instructions for Form 8027.
Deciding who gets to pay later
A wedding or conference pays deposits months ahead, and the hotel holds that money until the event. Steady corporate accounts often ask to be billed after the stay instead. The director decides who gets direct billing and how much credit, using references and payment history, and signs off on write-offs. A loose credit policy shows up a year later as balances nobody can collect.
How much hotel directors of finance make
The closest BLS group for hotel directors of finance is financial managers. Financial managers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $132,440 a year ($63.67 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $166,570 median for financial managers in all industries. About 4,870 of the 841,710 financial managers in that survey work for hotels and resorts.
Salaried. A yearly bonus, when there is one, often rests on closing on time, clean audits and the hotel's profit against budget.
Hotels and resorts
$132,440$132,440 median Middle half $100,010–$170,270 10th–90th $81,250–$206,720
All industries
$166,570$166,570 median Middle half $125,490–$219,980 10th–90th $94,310–$323,270
$50k$100k$150k$200k$250k$300k$350k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Hotels and resorts
$81,250
$100,010
$132,440
$170,270
$206,720
All industries
$94,310
$125,490
$166,570
$219,980
$323,270
BLS groups hotels, resorts and motels as traveler accommodation. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has closed the books for a full-service hotel and built an owner's package in USALI format
Spots a wrong rate or a missing group charge in the daily income audit
Has traced a cash shortage or a run of voids and fixed the control behind it
Walks the GM and owners through a forecast change so non-accountants can follow it
Keeps payroll, tips and service charges straight on deadline
Teach these on the job
Your accounting system and how it pulls from the property management system and outlet registers
Your owner's reporting calendar and package layout
Your brand's or management company's chart of accounts
Your purchasing approval limits
Your city, county and state tax returns and due dates
Hotel finance runs on the property management system, a point of sale in each outlet, an accounting system such as M3 or Sage Intacct, and often a purchasing tool such as Birchstreet. Mistakes hide where one system hands off to the next. Ask candidates how they match each day's PMS and register totals to the general ledger.
Hotel director of finance interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
The close deadline usually comes from your owner's or management company's reporting calendar. Set the rest with the GM once the director has a full quarter of your numbers.
Month-end close on schedule
Count the working days it takes, once the month ends, to send the owner's package, and how often you hit the deadline. Note what held up the late months, such as missing invoices.
Forecast accuracy against actual results
Compare the forecast made at the start of each month with actual revenue and gross operating profit. Score rooms, food and beverage and expenses separately, since a banquet win can hide a rooms miss.
Days sales outstanding on direct-bill accounts
Divide direct-bill receivables by average daily direct-bill charges, from the monthly aging report. List the oldest group and company balances and who is chasing each one.
Internal and external audit findings
Count findings from brand, owner, management company and outside audits, sorted by how serious they are. Track how many close by their follow-up date and whether any come back.
Career path
Night auditorBalances each day's room and outlet charges overnight.
Does a hotel director of finance need to be a CPA?
No. BLS says certification isn't required for financial managers, though it does show competence. CPAs hold a license from their state's board of accountancy, which requires passing an exam. The template lists a CPA as a plus. To judge a candidate, hand them a sample monthly statement with a few misses to budget, and have them explain one the way they would to an owner.
How much does a hotel director of finance make?
Financial managers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $132,440 a year ($63.67 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $100,010 and $170,270 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Is a hotel controller a different job from a director of finance?
Often it's the same job under a different title. Some brands and management companies call the top finance person a controller at smaller hotels. At larger full-service hotels the title is director of finance, and an assistant controller runs daily accounting. Judge candidates by what they owned: the close, the budget, payroll and the owner's package.
Who should write the tip and service charge policy?
The director runs it through payroll, but write it with your payroll provider or an employment lawyer, as the template says. Each state sets its own tip credit rules, and DOL keeps a table of them. A policy built for a hotel in one state may not fit a sister hotel across the line.
What extra work does a small hotel group add?
In a group run from one office, the director also combines each hotel's results into one set of statements. They book charges between hotels for shared staff, such as sales or accounting, and agree with owners on how those costs are split. Ask candidates how many hotels they have combined and how they divided shared costs.
What should a new hotel director of finance check first?
Read the house, comp and allowance accounts for the last few months, and see who approved each large entry. Pull the oldest direct-bill balances and the deposits held for future groups. Count a few cash banks by surprise. Small losses tend to hide in those spots, and finding them early sets the tone for the team.
