A hotel general manager runs a full-service hotel or resort for its owners and answers for the profit. They build the budget, lead the department heads, keep the building safe and on brand, and explain each month's results to the owners.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
The General Manager runs the hotel for its owners and answers for the results. You'll build and deliver the annual budget, lead the department heads, keep the property safe and to brand standard, and report to ownership on profit, guest scores and the condition of the building.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Build the annual operating budget and capital plan with the Director of Finance, then present both to ownership.
Hire, coach and hold accountable the leaders of operations, finance, sales and marketing, human resources and revenue.
Report to ownership each month on results against budget, the forecast, guest satisfaction and capital needs.
Approve the pricing strategy with the Revenue Manager and the sales plan with the Director of Sales and Marketing.
Keep the hotel in line with [your brand or franchise] standards, licenses, insurance requirements and inspection findings.
Lead the response to serious incidents: injuries, fires, crimes on property, major guest complaints and media questions.
Set capital priorities, such as room renovations and roof or mechanical replacements, and time the work so rooms stay on sale.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Read the overnight flash report: occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, cash and any incidents.
Lead the morning meeting on arrivals, groups in house, VIPs, out-of-order rooms and open guest issues.
Walk the property: lobby, a sample of guest rooms, back of house, kitchen and pool.
Answer escalated guest reviews and complaints the team couldn't resolve.
Meet with owners, key clients or brand representatives as the week requires.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Gross operating profit against budget: [your target].
RevPAR against budget: [your target].
Overall guest satisfaction score: [your target].
Brand quality audit score: [your target].
Employee turnover: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[7+] years of hotel management experience, including [3+] years as a department head or above in a full-service hotel.
Has owned or shared responsibility for a hotel P&L and annual budget.
Knows rooms, food and beverage, sales and engineering well enough to question each department head on their numbers.
Reads a P&L, a market share report and a forecast, and explains variances to owners in plain terms.
Bachelor's degree in hospitality, business or a related field, or equivalent experience.
6. Preferred Experience
General Manager or Hotel Manager experience at a resort with banquets and several food and beverage outlets.
Experience with [your brand's] standards and quality audits, or with an independent resort.
Has completed a brand property improvement plan (PIP) or a major renovation.
Experience reporting to owners through a third-party management company.
7. Physical Requirements
Walk the full property, including stairs, roofs and back-of-house areas, several times a day.
Stand for long periods during events and in the lobby at peak check-in.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Salaried, with a schedule that follows the hotel's busiest days, including weekends and holidays.
Part of the manager-on-duty rotation and on call for emergencies at any hour.
Office on property, with [occasional travel to other hotels in the group or to ownership meetings].
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 general manager 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
Many general managers report to an owner down the hall. A hotel GM often answers to investors in another city. They sell the same rooms again every night, and they run restaurants, a bar and an event business under one roof.
Owners watch from a distance
Many hotels belong to investors who never work in the building. An asset manager watches the numbers for them, and a management company may be the GM's real employer. Each month the GM sends a package that explains every gap to budget and asks for capital. Before you hire, check who your management agreement says picks the GM and approves the budget.
A sale brings a renovation list
When a branded hotel is sold, the brand usually requires a property improvement plan, or PIP. It lists the upgrades the buyer must make and the time allowed to finish them. The GM schedules that work floor by floor so most rooms stay on sale, and keeps weddings and meetings away from the noise. Source: Wealth Management: Navigating today's hotel property improvement plans.
RevPAR is judged against the hotel next door
Owners track revenue per available room, or RevPAR: room revenue divided by all the rooms the hotel had to sell. They read it beside a report that compares your hotel with a handful of nearby rivals. A GM who beats budget while the hotel down the street grows faster has still lost ground. Source: Texas Hotel & Lodging Association: What is revenue per available room (RevPAR)?.
Federal travelers need a fire-safe listing
Under the Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act, federal employees on official travel must stay in fire-safe hotels. That means hard-wired smoke alarms in every guest room, plus sprinklers in every guest room if the building is more than three stories. The approved list is on the U.S. Fire Administration's website. If government travel matters to your sales plan, check that your hotel is on it. Source: GSA: Fire safe hotels.
The GM speaks for the hotel in a crisis
A guest is badly hurt, a fire alarm empties the tower, or police come for someone upstairs. The GM takes over. They call the owners, the insurer and the brand, decide what staff may say to reporters, and make sure someone writes up what happened while it's fresh.
How much hotel general managers make
The closest BLS group for hotel general managers is lodging managers. Lodging managers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $67,890 a year ($32.64 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $69,250 median for lodging managers in all industries. About 36,070 of the 42,620 lodging managers in that survey work for hotels and resorts.
Paid a salary. The yearly bonus usually rests on gross operating profit against budget, and some owners tie part of it to guest scores or the brand audit. The BLS code for lodging managers also covers front office managers and innkeepers, so a full-service resort GM is likely to sit toward the top of the range shown.
Hotels and resorts
$67,890$67,890 median Middle half $49,290–$93,380 10th–90th $39,750–$126,590
All industries
$69,250$69,250 median Middle half $49,530–$94,030 10th–90th $40,070–$128,880
$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
$39,750
$49,290
$67,890
$93,380
$126,590
All industries
$40,070
$49,530
$69,250
$94,030
$128,880
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 held a full-service hotel or resort P&L, as GM or as the hotel manager under one
Explains a missed month to owners with the cause and the fix
Can challenge the chef, the sales director and the chief engineer on their own numbers
Stays in charge during a fire alarm, a flood or a serious guest injury
Picks strong department heads and keeps them
Teach these on the job
Your brand's standards, audit form and reporting portals
Your owner's monthly package and how capital requests get approved
Who is in your competitive set and how the weekly market report is built
Your local fire, health and building inspectors
Your management company's policies, if one runs the hotel
A hotel GM reads the property management system (OPERA Cloud or Mews, for example), the revenue system, the weekly market share report and guest survey results. A branded hotel adds the brand's portals. Tell candidates whether the hotel is branded or independent and who manages it, since that decides whose rules they follow.
Hotel general manager 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.
Take each target from the budget ownership signed off on, so the GM and the owners judge the year by the same numbers.
Gross operating profit against budget
From the monthly owner's statement, compare gross operating profit with budget and with last year. Have the GM name the departments behind any gap and what changes next month.
RevPAR against budget
Check it monthly against budget and weekly against your competitive set. Ask whether gains came from rate or from filling rooms at a discount, since cheap rates are hard to raise later.
Overall guest satisfaction score
Use the brand's guest survey or a single review site, scored the same way each month. Then sort the comments, since noise, slow check-in and dirty rooms point to different managers.
Brand quality audit score
The score from the brand's inspection visits; an independent hotel can hire an outside inspector instead. Between visits, have managers walk the same checklist on a sample of rooms.
Employee turnover
From payroll, divide the people who left by your average headcount, for the whole hotel and for each department head's team. Count a summer job that ended on schedule apart from a quit.
Career path
Department headRuns food and beverage, the front office or sales at a full-service hotel.
Director of operationsLeads the rooms side and the outlets day to day, and takes charge when the GM travels.
General ManagerAnswers to ownership for the whole hotel.
Area or regional general managerOversees several hotels for an owner group or management company.
Does a resort need both a general manager and a director of operations?
Most full-service resorts do. The GM faces outward: owners, the brand, the budget, capital projects and the biggest accounts. The director of operations faces inward: staffing, room readiness, standards and guest problems in each department. A smaller hotel often can't carry a second senior salary, so its GM covers the floor as well.
How much does a hotel general manager make?
Lodging managers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $67,890 a year ($32.64 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $49,290 and $93,380 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Does a hotel general manager need a degree?
Not always. BLS says full-service hotels may prefer a bachelor's degree in hospitality or hotel management. People with a high school diploma usually need experience at the front desk or in guest services first, and BLS adds that a professional certification may help. For a resort GM, a record of hitting budget and keeping good department heads tells you more than the diploma.
Is a hotel general manager on call all the time?
Close to it. BLS notes that because hotels stay open around the clock, some lodging managers are on call 24 hours a day. A good GM builds a manager-on-duty rotation so most nights pass without a call. A fire, a flood or a serious guest injury still brings the GM in, so say that plainly before you make an offer.
How do you check a hotel GM candidate's track record?
Ask for two or three years of results: profit against budget, RevPAR against nearby rivals, brand audit scores and how long their department heads stayed. Then call an owner or asset manager they reported to. People who worked under them can't tell you how they handled a bad quarter with ownership.
Can one general manager run two hotels?
Some groups put one cluster GM over two nearby hotels, with a strong assistant manager at each. That works best for smaller hotels with little or no food and beverage. A full-service resort with banquets, outlets and a pool usually needs its own GM on site. If you share one, write down who is in charge at each hotel while the GM is at the other.
