Ok, pay up, right? This is written long after I've left the "industry." Take this with a grain of salt, will ya?
If you're looking for the big bucks in hotel sales, it's not there. If you're in F & B, line cook, a cashier in the retail restaurant, or you've got a snappy personality at the front desk, or cashier, you've got a better than average chance at moving into sales.
BUT, remember, you've got to be POSITIVE in thought, word, deed. DO NOT BE NEGATIVE. There are three ways to look, assess and talk about anything. Not at all, negative, and cheery, lighthearted, happy and positive.
Got it? The last one gets you into the sales department and a bigger salary. All other departments are wages ( hourly), sales - salary. You get paid by the month. You ask for dollars per month. Those dollars you ask for depend on how big your hotel/motel/hovel is.
If you work at a 300 room hotel, that's a good size, and this is the 21st Century, When you discuss salary, save that for the LAST thing in the interview. Push it off to the very last. Sell yourself first during the interview, " this is what I can do for YOUR HOTEL," then the last thing is " this is what I NEED to do it."
I'd suggest you start at $1800 a month and negotiate down. He will probably gasp at that figure (tactic). As you slide down, ask for something - days off lunch privileges, think of something for
each give=away. Here you demonstrate your " power of negotiation." Got it.y ?
They may so NO. If they do, get up, be gracious, thank them for a wonderful interview and walk away. (Go interview someplace else and tell no one.) If you're good enough there, you are to elsewhere as well.
###
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Salaries in Hotel Sales - How to negotiate
If you're new to hotel sales, and I suspect if you are, your last job was in the front desk, checking people in, or as a cashier in the restaurant, you probably looked at the hotel sales job as an enviable " promotion" up the ladder towards success, right?
Understand who you will be negotiating with: a general Manager in all probability will be an ex-chef, line cook, operations manager from what is known as " the back of the house" in the hotel business.
His practical experience in dealing wit people face to face is this: " heads in beds, baby - YOU go get em." And that's pretty much how you can expect to be treated. Hotel General Managers last time I looked are still the last bastion of total control freaks of thei kingdoms. What they say goes. In hotels, Inns, any establishments of 300 rooms or less, don't expect a G.M. with a college degree to go around spouting Plato, or a high degree of public intelligence.
To whit, a life-long friend of mine, former Area Director over 26 Holiday Inns tells me of a story of one such 300 room hotel where the GM and his faltering numbers employed 4 20+ something single "chicks" to run around " enticing" male clients over for lunch and a hotel tour to sell the on using their hotel.
Understand, all 4 kids didn't know a rack rate from a master key, but his favorite qualification was a short skirt and pretty face will go farther to fill a room than an education. That was just 3 years ago.
In my vast experience, I was lucky to find a half dozen GMs who could speak English properly, let alone manage people: it was ego and control that managed bricks and mortar, not an education from college.
Negotiation: If you're desperate, (single mom, kids at home, DO NOT TELL THEM) You make your own peace with that. Tell them you're desperate, you'll get a low salary AND an occasional offer for a higher salary pinned to one of the pillows in one of those bedrooms over your head. (just trust me on that will you?) If you're a stalwart, set a figure, and stick to it.
If they say, Yes, right away, ask, " does that include......then ask for something additional, anything. If they say yes, do it again. Ditto, ditto, ditto.
When you hit the wall, say to him, " you have my assurances that our salary agreement is confidential between us." And let it go.
Lastly, in a hotel, everyone gossips, it's endemic. .........DON'T. Not ever, don't trust anyone, and I mean it. I don't care if they seal it in blood, it will wind up in the GM's secretary's desk who will rat you out to the boss. Be 1001% professional and confess nothing to anyone, no matter how much you want to.
If you're a man, stay away from the women, that is the surest way to get fired. If you dally with one of the staff, everyone will know it by the time you get back to your desk. Trust me. The Hotel Business attracts psychological low self esteemers.
###
Understand who you will be negotiating with: a general Manager in all probability will be an ex-chef, line cook, operations manager from what is known as " the back of the house" in the hotel business.
His practical experience in dealing wit people face to face is this: " heads in beds, baby - YOU go get em." And that's pretty much how you can expect to be treated. Hotel General Managers last time I looked are still the last bastion of total control freaks of thei kingdoms. What they say goes. In hotels, Inns, any establishments of 300 rooms or less, don't expect a G.M. with a college degree to go around spouting Plato, or a high degree of public intelligence.
To whit, a life-long friend of mine, former Area Director over 26 Holiday Inns tells me of a story of one such 300 room hotel where the GM and his faltering numbers employed 4 20+ something single "chicks" to run around " enticing" male clients over for lunch and a hotel tour to sell the on using their hotel.
Understand, all 4 kids didn't know a rack rate from a master key, but his favorite qualification was a short skirt and pretty face will go farther to fill a room than an education. That was just 3 years ago.
In my vast experience, I was lucky to find a half dozen GMs who could speak English properly, let alone manage people: it was ego and control that managed bricks and mortar, not an education from college.
Negotiation: If you're desperate, (single mom, kids at home, DO NOT TELL THEM) You make your own peace with that. Tell them you're desperate, you'll get a low salary AND an occasional offer for a higher salary pinned to one of the pillows in one of those bedrooms over your head. (just trust me on that will you?) If you're a stalwart, set a figure, and stick to it.
If they say, Yes, right away, ask, " does that include......then ask for something additional, anything. If they say yes, do it again. Ditto, ditto, ditto.
When you hit the wall, say to him, " you have my assurances that our salary agreement is confidential between us." And let it go.
Lastly, in a hotel, everyone gossips, it's endemic. .........DON'T. Not ever, don't trust anyone, and I mean it. I don't care if they seal it in blood, it will wind up in the GM's secretary's desk who will rat you out to the boss. Be 1001% professional and confess nothing to anyone, no matter how much you want to.
If you're a man, stay away from the women, that is the surest way to get fired. If you dally with one of the staff, everyone will know it by the time you get back to your desk. Trust me. The Hotel Business attracts psychological low self esteemers.
###
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)