It is difficult to estimate the average earnings for waiters and other such personnel since their incomes depend upon the amount of business booked and the amount of tips they receive. Banquet work also can be very seasonal (weddings in the summer, for example), and earnings can fluctuate widely. Banquet employees average between from $300 and $500 per week (1996, Bureau of Labor Statistics) and more as they advance to assistant banquet managers. The top job here pays handsomely and is augmented by bonuses and percentages. Meals are sometimes provided for certain employees.
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND ADVERTISING
Public relations and advertising are specialties in their own rights. Most hotels fill openings in these departments with personnel who have had this kind of experience in other hotels or other fields. While advertising procedures and practices are fairly similar in hotels and in other businesses, public relations procedures for hotels is somewhat specialized.
The problems and tasks that confront persons in hotel public relations are as varied as the colors of the rainbow. On one day the public relations executive might be called upon to prepare a program for a technical education group; the next day he or she might be called upon to publicize a variety show in the hotel's main dining room. In the larger hotels, the director plans and supervises sales promotion activities in addition to supervising the public relations program.
Hotel public relations representatives are really executive assistants to top management. They are constantly called upon to represent and speak for the executive branch of the hotel. They must have a complete understanding of general hotel operation and policies. They must know what is required of each worker in the hotel and the hour and wage schedule of every department. Constantly called upon to supply facts and figures, public relations personnel must be equipped with essential knowledge of the hotel and its departments. A public relations executive-the title may be either manager or director-must have good judgment, experience, and at least a college education.
Public relations are an important profession in the hotel industry when you realize that a hotel sells primarily service, something so intangible that it must be measured solely in terms of public acceptance and recognition.
Advertising operations in a hotel are similar to those of any other business. The advertising manager or an outside agency prepares newspaper and magazine copy and suggests the appropriate media. The advertising manager in a hotel is also responsible for internal displays, such as those on elevators, in lobby easels, window displays, dining room table cards, and others. This person also supervises the printing of menus, programs for banquet functions, and all other printing, including stationery, business cards, billheads, ledger cards, and so forth.
Most advertising and public relations jobs go to persons with some experience in these fields. College education is usually required. However, there are opportunities to enter these professions as an apprentice and to educate you with on-the-job experience. This will depend purely upon the size of the hotel and the advertising and public relations staffs.
Remuneration varies with the hotel. According to 1996 Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary of marketing, advertising, and public relations managers was $46,000. The lowest 10 percent earned $23,000 or less, while the top 10 percent earned $97,000 or more. Meals and, sometimes, lodging are provided. But there are many chances to go up the ladder here, which makes this an especially desirable department in which to gain hotel experience early in one's career.
SALES DEPARTMENT
Responsibility for selling space in public rooms and bringing large group business to the hotel belongs to the sales department. The volume of sales, and work, depends on the amount of space and other public facilities available.
Sales management has become an integral part of hotel operation and management. With sales in this industry now assuming a major position of importance, the sales director is regularly consulted regarding hotel policy and operation. In the larger chains, he or she is responsible only to the managing director or president and has complete authority and responsibility for front office, restaurant, banquet, and management policy.
This authority is easily understood when you stop to realize that sales is the department actively going after business. The sales department is in charge of all advertising and promotional expenditures; they determine which market should be exploited to realize the best results in room and food sales for the hotel. Therefore the sales department certainly should have control over the allotment of the merchandise it is selling.
Hotel sales personnel are essentially the same as sales forces in any business; their problems are the same. While there are no specified educational requirements, a high school education, at least, is preferred, and a college education is advantageous for future advancement. Completion of special courses in hotel management and operation will benefit persons interested in furthering their careers in sales work.
Sales departments differ with the various hotels. While one hotel may appoint one person as the director of sales or sales manager and label the rest of the staff as assistant sales managers, other hotels have given these assistant sales directors such titles as sales manager, convention manager, merchandise manager, and foreign sales manager. In hotels where the sales assistants have been given such titles, each salesperson specializes only in the type of business her or his title implies. While the convention manager goes after conventions, the merchandise manager goes after buyers and mercantile firms. However, the trend today in hotel sales work is away from this subdivision of departmental activities. Often certain business prospects lead to others, and it is not efficient to shift people according to the type of business.
Sales representatives, like credit people, are often given assistant manager titles since this aids them in their contacts. Many businesses have found it advantageous to appoint numerous vice presidents in their sales departments for the same reason.
The sales director or manager has the duty of assigning leads or accounts to the various salespeople. Many salespeople receive percentage bonuses in addition to their salaries, and the sales manager must avoid favoritism in assigning accounts. The sales director must also work to maintain a good relationship with other departments in the hotel.
Close liaison between sales and banquet departments is required, for example. Since the major part of sales are those of public space, the work of both departments must be closely coordinated. To prevent duplicate bookings, one master entry book is usually kept. Once an event has been booked, the salesperson alone, or with the parties concerned present, arranges the setup, menu, and other details of the affair or function with the banquet manager.
The sales force also works very closely with the public relations department since sales promotion is one of this department's functions in many hotels. And even in those hotels where sales promotions (as in industry) are handled by a separate department, public relations work is generally called for with each group, including program advice and planning, press releases, speech writing, publicity, special events, photography arrangements, and other customary duties of public relations.
Beginners may enter the sales department directly from the outside, although front office clerks, credit people, accounting personnel, banquet representatives, bellhops, and others are often considered when openings occur in sales departments. Important characteristics sought by hotels in their salespeople are intelligence, good appearance, and the ability not only to sell but to get along with people.
Working hours are staggered. Many contacts are made at affairs or dinner parties, and sales reps frequently have to work evenings in order to develop business. Then, too, many prospects have their own business to occupy them in the daytime and are available for sales presentations only in the evenings. Along with irregular hours, hotel salespeople spend time on the road, contacting association officers and businesspeople at meetings and conventions in other cities.
One is usually promoted to managerial work from sales work. As the one who brings in the business, the salesperson has a following and, therefore, has a particular value, especially after many years of experience.
The average income received by salespeople is about $525 weekly and may run as high as $36,000 to $63,000 yearly in executive sales work (1996, Bureau of Labor Statistics). But it is difficult to draw an exact picture of earnings you make your own way in sales work, and you also make your own salary. Many hotels give substantial bonuses for jobs well done.
In a carefully prepared and analytically thought out message, Frank W. Berkman, former director of the Hotel Sales Management Association International, has put the picture into very clear focus. Mr. Berkman, who has been a well-known hotel executive most of his life and active in sales and hotel management for many years, writes:
The hospitality industry today, more than ever before, offers unlimited opportunities for anyone seeking a challenging, stimulating, and rewarding career. In many countries throughout the world, as well as in numerous areas and provinces in the United States and Canada, the combined hospitality tourism field is either the first or second largest industry in terms of business volume.
Hotels, motels, and resorts have a dramatic impact on all sections of economic, social, and cultural life. The hospitality industry is totally people oriented, providing personal benefits to the countless millions of persons who use hotel/motel accommodations, facilities, and services around the globe.
To encourage and further expand this use, whether it is business or pleasure oriented, and to continually secure profitable levels of room, food, and beverage sales are all primary functions of sales and marketing.
There is a certain glamour and allure associated with hotel/ motel sales promotion, advertising, publicity, and public relations. These include opportunities to meet famous and fascinating people from all walks of life, to travel, to entertain, as well as status and prestige, excellent industry advancement, and high salary potentials. Perhaps more significant are the unique opportunities hotel/motel sales and marketing can offer you in the fulfillment of your own very personal career wants and needs.
For example, ask yourself these questions: Would I enjoy the challenge of motivating people to purchase useful services or products, particularly by face-to-face selling? Would I particularly like the areas of business management and administration of being in charge of an active, productive sales office? Do I especially seek out opportunities to use my creative abilities? Am I better suited to detail work-such as that involved with proper servicing after the sale is made?
If your answer to any or a combination of, the above is yes, then there certainly is a most profitable place for you in hotel/ motel sales and marketing. What type of place? What specific job or position? The following offers a brief description of just some of the wide variety of challenging career positions in hotel sales and marketing.
