Among all hotel general manager certifications, the Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA) is widely considered to be one of if not the most valuable certifications of all. With this certification, the recipient is recognized as being among the most credentialed professionals in the field of professional hospitality.
Certification Requirements
In order to be considered eligible as a certified hotel administrator, there are generally a number of base educational requirements necessary for demonstrating proficiency for the job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), about 25 percent of hotel administrators have a high school diploma, 20 percent have an associates degree, and 28 percent have a bachelor’s degree.
Though no specific level of higher education is a hard requirement for attaining the profession, those who have demonstrated a higher level of educational achievement will generally be considered a stronger fit for the position overall.
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In order to receive the certification, aspiring certified hotel administrators must demonstrate a high level of proficiency in both the base requirements for receiving the certification in question and in continuing the their education after being awarded it. The level of expertise that the hotel administrator has must be something that they continually work to improve and sharpen as they gain experience in their line of work.
Soft Skills
On the most general level, all who receive the certification will need to showcase a sufficient level of aptitude for managerial excellence and leadership; naturally, this will require not only being proficient in analytical and organizational skills regarding administrative protocols, but also having a certain level of proficiency in maintaining the morale and organization of groups of professional individuals.
Placement Specific Responsibilities
Certified hotel administrators are relied upon to ensure that all of the daily, vital operations of a lodging facility are consistently completed up to standard. Hotel administrators only dedicated to the administration of hotels specifically, but might also provide administration for lodging facilities such as parks and leisure cruises.
The specific tasks that a certified hotel administrator will be responsible for will depend on the size of the facility, but in general, there will be a common pool of responsibilities held by administrators across the board; these responsibilities include hiring and terminating employees, ensuring that the staff remains productive, creating and maintaining a sustainable budget, and issuing daily lodging responsibilities to designated staff members.
Average Salary
A certified hotel administrator’s compensation will vary depending on the kind of financial incentives offered by the specific organizations that they work with, but the median annual wage reported by the BLS is approximately $47,600.
The size of the hotel administrator’s salary will usually be correlated with the size of the lodging facility that they work with and the scope of the company’s services.
Typically, a full-service lodging facility will offer hotel administrators a larger salary than those that are not full-service oriented. The location of the lodging facility will also come into play when determining the most likely salary for the hotel administrator to receive.
Conclusion
The outlook for job growth for certified hotel administrators has been impacted by trends that currently point towards a gradual lowering of the number of full-service hotels across the nation. Because there are more limited service facilities being established, fewer hotel administrators have become certified as a result.
According to the BLS, should these trends continue of their current path, the expected job growth for certified hotel administrators by the year 2020 is approximately 1 percent.