It has been my experience since the seventies that the hotel sales and marketing communities in larger cities are more sophisticated than in smaller towns.
Lower level bergs like Akron, Tucson, Yuma, Sheffield, Portland Oregon in the 90's, Trenton, Newark, and other similarly profiled towns are filled with sub prime time players struggling along with waitresses from the banquet departments or front line restaurants, or the secretaries in the executive offices wanting...no, needing to desperately advance.
That kind of desperation usually breeds an unfair internal competition between fellow employees; some guys just can't compete. The "hospitality" industry, across the country, is the largest employer of unskilled, non-college educated work force in America. And in small towns, you will find this malfunction.
My experience illustrates this disease gravitates up to the top of the management chain - the general management of hotels at the local level. Here Federal Employment laws are frequently and openly broken by managers ignorant of both the laws and their consequences.
My advice? Wear a wire during your interview in case you are disqualifies for the position based on age or over-qualification, both examples of illegal by the way. On the other hand, if the hotel's HR department or the general manager are stupid enough to blatantly disqualify you on those grounds UP FRONT, just think what they will subject you to once you are hired.
The Acid Test: is a college degree required? No? Why not? If it is, ask the question: in what areas will you require that knowledge acquired in college? Why IS a degree required?
Granted, these days, everybody is starving, out of work, and looking for any port in a storm, and a job in a hotel is just that - A JOB. Do not delude yourself into thinking this is a great career. One should always consider options, continually even within the first weeks of a new JOB.
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