The hospitality industry includes all hotels and inns. If you want to get into the fast-paced and challenging hotel industry for a career, you have to develop a few skills that will pay dividends throughout your entire career in the hospitality industry.
These skills will also play in your everyday life as well:
- Ensuring customer satisfaction is a commitment that all hospitality staff has to master quickly to build a successful career in the industry. Even the corporate executives who run hotels have long since committed to helping customers get what they want at their hotels.
- Communication skills. Communicating is a useful skill to have in any industry, but in the hospitality industry, it is even more important to communicate with co-workers, those below you in the company organization, and with customers to ensure excellent service.
- How to use a computer. Knowing basic functions using software is a key skill that many hotel managers value in their workers because of the new emphasis on using Information Technology to manage hotel operations and key in on customer’s needs at all times.
- Not so much a skill as a state of mind, you have to go into the hospitality industry with enthusiasm and a work ethic that will get you noticed. If you can’t get excited about doing your work well and helping people, you’re in the wrong business.
Neil Castaldi has enjoyed 35 years working in the hospitality industry. He is the General Manager of the Nottoway Plantation, in southern Louisiana.
Recommended Read: Neil Castaldi: Three Skills Every Hospitality Professional Has to Possess
Neil Castaldi - Managing Partner of Nottoway Plantation 