Hotel and Hospitality Management

The hotel and hospitality industry has a surprisingly wide variety of hospitality careers available when you begin to take into account the variety of facilities that are included in the industry definition.  Hotels, motels, resorts, convention and meeting facilities, even casinos qualify as businesses where hotel and hospitality professionals are employed.

There are also a surprisingly wide variety of online hospitality colleges offering degrees, certificates, training, and general education for people who are seeking careers in the hospitality business.  Many online hospitality and hotel management schools offer bachelors’ degrees in business administration with specialization in tourism and hospitality management.  This is the educational track for people who wish to build a career managing hospitality facilities.  There are several levels of management in the hotel and hospitality industry, so there are multiple opportunities for a person with an online degree in hospitality management to fit in.

Larger facilities will have a general manager, but will also require an operations manager, personnel manager and director of guest services.  The online degree programs in hospitality management from hotel schools and colleges will prepare you for all of these roles.  Resorts in particular cater to guests by developing recreational programs and promotions; the marketing role is important in the hospitality industry.  Ashford University has an online bachelors’ program in organizational management with specialization in hospitality management.  This degree will prepare you for every management role in the facility, from catering to group management to operational concerns to facility marketing. You will be sure to find a plethora of hotel management classes and hotel management degrees available to you online. 

You can also obtain an online bachelors’ degree in restaurant or culinary management. Larger hotels and almost always have banquet rooms, exhibit halls and ballrooms to accommodate conventions, business meetings, private receptions and large dinners hosted by local organizations.   Convention and catering business are major sources of revenue for the large hotels.  An online degree in restaurant management or culinary management will prepare you for a career in the hotel catering business.  This can mean planning and oversight of any number of public events, from dinners to receptions to day-long meetings with catered lunch breaks to large public meetings.

Online training is available for those who want to specialize in banquet management, a career that could easily lead to a career in planning weddings.  Your online degree can take you in a number of directions in the hospitality industry, once you understand the skills that are required.   Many current employees of city Convention and Visitors Bureaus are people that broke into the industry through hotel employment. 

There are nearly 62,000 establishments in this country that provide overnight accommodations of one sort or another.  Those range from major hotels to resorts to motels to RV parks.  All of them will look for management and operations employees who have attained the education that provides them with an understanding of the industry.  There is no better way to develop your skills for the hotel and hospitality business than by using distance learning to study the various specialties within the industry.  You can do it one course at a time if you wish; your online school counselor can help you select the courses that will ultimately get you the hospitality certificate or degree that will get your career started.