A hotel food and beverage director runs every place the property sells food and drink: the restaurant, the bars, room service, the pool and the ballroom. They own the budget, set menus and prices with the executive chef, keep health and liquor permits current, and see that each banquet is served the way it was sold.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
The Food and Beverage Director runs every place the hotel sells food and drink: restaurants, bars, in-room dining, pool service and banquets. You'll own the department's P&L, set menus and prices with the Executive Chef, control food, beverage and labor costs, keep health and liquor licenses in good standing, and deliver every banquet event order (BEO) as sold.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Set the budget and run the P&L for each outlet, in-room dining and banquets.
Approve menus and prices with the Executive Chef, using cost and sales data.
Control food and beverage costs through ordering, receiving, inventory counts and waste tracking.
Keep health permits and liquor licenses current, and hold staff to responsible alcohol service rules.
Hire and lead the Executive Chef, Banquet Manager, restaurant servers and bartenders, and approve labor to the forecast.
Run the weekly BEO meeting with sales, banquets, kitchen and engineering.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review yesterday's covers, sales, check averages and labor by outlet.
Walk the kitchen, outlets and banquet space before each meal period.
Check the day's BEOs and in-room dining volume against staffing.
Approve orders and look into cost spikes or waste.
Talk with guests in the restaurant and at events.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Food cost against budget: [your target].
Beverage cost against budget: [your target].
Food and beverage labor cost against budget: [your target].
Food and beverage profit against budget: [your target].
Health inspection results: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[5+] years in food and beverage management, with [2+] years at a hotel or resort that does banquets.
Has run a P&L and controlled food, beverage and labor costs against a budget.
ServSafe Manager or another certified food protection manager credential accepted in your state.
Responsible alcohol service training, such as TIPS or ServSafe Alcohol, where your state requires it.
Knows the health code and liquor laws for your state and county.
6. Preferred Experience
Resort experience with several outlets, pool service and weddings.
Certified Food and Beverage Executive (CFBE).
Culinary training or kitchen experience.
Experience with [your point-of-sale and inventory systems].
7. Physical Requirements
Stand and walk for long periods in kitchens, outlets and banquet rooms.
Help during service by carrying trays, moving tables and lifting cases up to [40] pounds.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Schedule follows the business: early breakfasts, late banquets, weekends and holidays.
Works in hot kitchens with open flames and wet floors, as well as in dining rooms.
Part of the manager-on-duty rotation.
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 food and beverage director 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.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Hotel guests eat where they sleep. The same department pours coffee at dawn, runs drinks out to the pool, sends trays up to rooms and serves weddings and conferences that another team sold.
Five outlets, five sets of numbers
The restaurant, the lobby bar, room service, the pool and banquets each keep their own hours, menus and staff. A big wedding month can hide a lunch outlet that loses money. Read covers, check averages, cost and labor for each outlet every week, not just the total, so you can fix the one that is slipping.
Sales books the ballroom, F&B delivers it
Catering sales books the events, but the director has to deliver each one at the cost its menu price assumed. So the director sets banquet menu prices with the chef, sets how many servers each style of service gets, and says no to a custom menu or a tight room flip that would sink the margin before the contract is signed.
Some covers arrive already paid for
Room rates with breakfast, wedding packages and all-day meeting packages bring guests to the restaurant and ballroom with nothing to pay at the table. The director agrees with the revenue manager and finance on how much of each package counts as food and beverage revenue. Without that number, breakfast cost looks wrong every month.
Room service is a promise on the nightstand
The in-room menu tells guests what they can order and until what hour. Orders trickle in, often late, and each one needs a cook, a runner and a tray pickup later. The director decides the hours, the menu size and when a grab-and-go market in the lobby serves guests better.
The director's training counts too
Alcohol training rules can cover managers, not only the people who pour. In California, on-premises servers and their managers must be certified within 60 days of their first day of work, a rule in force since July 1, 2022. At a hotel, that can take in the director and every outlet manager. Check what your own state's liquor agency asks for. Source: California ABC: Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) training.
How much hotel food and beverage directors make
The closest BLS group for hotel food and beverage directors is food service managers. Food service managers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $82,240 a year ($39.54 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s above the $69,390 median for food service managers in all industries. About 11,970 of the 238,430 food service managers in that survey work for hotels and resorts.
Salaried, and often eligible for a yearly bonus measured against the budget: department profit, food and beverage cost, and guest scores.
Hotels and resorts
$82,240$82,240 median Middle half $72,070–$103,340 10th–90th $60,980–$131,060
All industries
$69,390$69,390 median Middle half $56,870–$86,800 10th–90th $45,960–$107,640
$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k$150k
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
$60,980
$72,070
$82,240
$103,340
$131,060
All industries
$45,960
$56,870
$69,390
$86,800
$107,640
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 run a food and beverage P&L that included banquets, and hit the budget
Spots the outlet that's off from one morning's sales and labor report
Pushes back on sales when an event can't be delivered as sold, and offers a fix
Has built a team of chefs and banquet managers who stayed
Runs kitchens and bars that pass a surprise health or liquor inspection
Teach these on the job
Your brand's food and beverage standards and audits
Your POS, inventory and event booking systems
Your payroll rules for tipped bartenders and servers
Each outlet's vendors, best sellers and seasonal swings
Your manager-on-duty routine and emergency procedures
Expect a hotel POS such as Oracle MICROS Simphony that posts charges to guest folios, software for recipe costing and inventory counts, and an event system such as Delphi or Tripleseat where the BEOs live. Tell candidates what you run and whether the hotel flies a brand flag, since brand audits shape much of the job.
Hotel food and beverage director 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.
Build these targets from this year's budget, outlet by outlet; they will shift with the season and the group calendar.
Food cost against budget
Read it from finance's monthly report and compare each outlet, and banquets, with its own budget line. When one is off, ask the chef whether price, portions, waste or the sales mix moved.
Beverage cost against budget
Cost of beer, wine and spirits poured divided by beverage sales, bar by bar. Count every bar at month end and look into any outlet whose pour cost jumps.
Food and beverage labor cost against budget
Total F&B payroll, overtime included, set against the labor the forecast allowed, outlet by outlet. Ask each outlet manager to explain any week that ran over.
Food and beverage profit against budget
Department profit after cost of sales, labor and other expenses, read off each month's P&L. Walk finance through any big miss and name the outlet behind it.
Health inspection results
Scores or violations from every official inspection, for each kitchen and bar. Track repeat violations, since inspectors notice the same problem twice.
How is a hotel food and beverage director different from a restaurant general manager?
A restaurant GM answers for a single kitchen and dining room. A hotel F&B director has several outlets with different hours, plus room service and banquets, and many guests never leave the property. They report to the hotel's leaders and work to the owner's budget. Most of their week goes to cost reports, BEOs and hiring, not the floor.
How much does a hotel food and beverage director make?
Food service managers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $82,240 a year ($39.54 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $72,070 and $103,340 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Should the food and beverage director or the executive chef own food cost?
Both, with different parts. The chef owns recipe costs, ordering, portion control and kitchen waste. The director owns menu prices, the sales mix and the budget the chef works to. Give each one the same monthly cost report by outlet, so a miss turns into a conversation about one cause, not a debate about whose number is right.
Should banquets report to food and beverage or to sales?
Draw the line at the signed contract. Catering sales keeps the client relationship, the menu choices and the BEO. Banquets runs the event and reports to the F&B director, who carries the labor and food cost behind it. When banquets report to sales, labor tends to grow to match whatever the client asks for on the night.
Is a CFBE certification worth asking for?
It shows effort, but don't screen on it. The Certified Food and Beverage Executive is awarded by the American Hotel and Lodging Association's Educational Institute to people with over two years of experience who pass its exam, and holders recertify every five years. A candidate's record with a hotel P&L that included banquets tells you more.
