The Skills Hoteliers Want In Employees to Make Guest Experiences Better


Skift Take

The skills hotels want from young employees don't require dissertations or multiple semesters of coursework to gain. They are behaviors learned at a young age that can be molded to fit the hospitality space.

Editor's Note: This is the final story in our State of Travel Education series, where we look at how schools prepare the next generation of travel industry employees to handle 21st century challenges and what kind of talent employers want. Read our previous travel education stories here. Coming home means reentering a place where familiarity reigns, people understand how you're feeling and what you're thinking. On the other hand, returning to a hotel room after a long day of business meetings or touring doesn't always stir the same empathy. Many hotel general managers' wish lists of what skills and backgrounds they'd like employees to have reflect this coming-home theme. Fancy degrees or tech skills aren't all-important, although managers increasingly seek the latter in hospitality. Instead, general managers want employees to focus on skills they learned as children: listening, looking at people when speaking to them and exuding a caring attitude. Hilton Worldwide CEO Chri