Do you have what it takes to go into the Hospitality Services Management business?  Not everybody has the right stuff.  Here is a breakdown of the kind of social, emotional and other skills that you might need to succeed in the Hospitality Services Management field.

• You must love people. If you do not like meeting people, making them happy and dealing with them day in and day out then a career in Hospitality Services Management is definitely not for you – consider a freelance career where you stay at home all day instead!

• You must have patience. If you are short tempered, want to make a big salary quick or do not like waiting for others to make decisions then this is not the career for you. Hospitality Services Management is all about putting the needs of other people before your own.

• You must be an excellent accountant. Most people in Hospitality Services Management also manage the books at a hotel. That is why you need a good course in accounting as part of your education.  You must know how to balance a checkbook, be familiar with how a payroll is put together and how to buy food and drink for the hotel.

• You must savvy about safety.  A huge part of being in Hospitality Services Management knows how to keep your hotel or restaurant safe, clean and fit to be frequented by other humans. You must know how to keep kitchens and bathrooms clean and how to develop a relationship with local fireman and police so that your enterprise is kept absolutely secure. It also helps you to know everything about First Aid and if your hotel property has a pool, all about how to keep swimmers safe.  It also helps if you know quite a bit about security cameras, credit card fraud and other issues to do with your customer’s security.

• You must an eye for beauty and detail. The best-run hotels and restaurants always seem well put together.  A good manager or administrator knows how to make a room, a hallway or a lobby look good.  You know that the smallest of details, such as a vase with a rosebud in it in a public washroom, can make all the difference.

Finally, you must be a follower and then a leader. This is probably the trickiest part because when you are first hired you will be expected to perform seamlessly within a team.  However as your career in Hospitality Services management progresses you will be expected to take the reins more and be in command of other people.