I am being asked this question over and over again: “What do you recommend, is the best company for me to start ?” or “Can you get me a job in one of the best hotel companies?” Readers of my book and my blog know my answer to this universal and very important question.The right choice will always be to start and continue work with one of the global companies like Hilton,
Marriott, IHG, Hyatt, Accor, and in South Asia IHCL(TAJ). I know that there are some different opinions on this, but I am not evaluating opinions but simply facts. There are alternatives of course, but you want to start your career and job search with a time-saving- and success-producing strategy. A crucial component of this is the importance to position- and mentally conditioning yourself from the very beginning.
Here are 9 unique advantages and benefits, if you are working in one of the top companies:
1. They offer endless job opportunities over the entire spectrum of their brands.
2. They offer endless job opportunities across all locations and geographies.
3. They provide great Intra company – regional and global networking opportunities.
4. They offer regional and international transfers after a certain time with the company.
5. They are interested and invest in your success to remain within their work universe.
6. They offer advancement- and training models that other, smaller companies are simply not able to match. These programs are transferrable and widely accepted in the other top companies.
7. Working in one of these companies over a long period improve your professional credentials.
8. Receiving job offers is potentially 10 times higher than the average.
9. Working for a “NAME” like Hilton or Marriott or Hyatt has a definite impact on your mindset.
I fully understand that the primary objective of any young hotelier is to get a job. It is here, where young hoteliers make their first mistake. They are not investing enough time and research on how to get hired by one of these companies and settle for less. Sending out large numbers of resumes will not bring the same result as working in a focused manner and getting into a small group of pre-selected companies. Those, who use my recommended strategies and conduct proper research are very likely to get around these entry barriers.
Who are these great companies?
Hilton Hotels
Hilton is headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, U.S. As of June 30, 2020, its portfolio included 6,215 properties with over 1 million rooms in 118 countries and territories. 690 hotels are self-managed and 5,405 are franchised. Hilton was ranked as the 36th largest publicly owned company in the USA and has a long and colorful history. Hilton has presently 18 brands like the Waldorf=Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, the Curio collection, Double Tree Hotels, Hilton Garden-Inns, and many others. On this link you get an overview of all Hilton brands:
https://stories.hilton.com/brands
Hilton’s history and some of its hotels are in my personal opinion some of the most colorful and interesting stories in the international hotel landscape. Of course, my view has a slightly personal nuance as I was privileged to work at New York’s Waldorf=Astoria and the Los Angeles Hilton on Century Blvd for several years. I have fond memories and I endorse Hilton Hotels fully as a great place to start a career and to stay for years to come. The company offers a universe of positions all over the world and can truly be a family for those who are ambitious enough to take up the challenge in the long run. Besides being a great company to work for, it is also a great company to invest in.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation
commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago. The company manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacation properties and is owned by the Pritzker family. It all started with the purchase of the first hotel in 1957 at LAX International Airport in Los Angeles. Since 1969 the company has been expanding internationally. Hyatt has grown by developing new properties over the years, with the biggest growth coming from the acquisition of Ameri Suites, now Hyatt Place in 2004. Summerfield Suites (now Hyatt House) in 2005 and Two Roads Hospitality in 2018.
In August 2021, Hyatt Hotels Corporation acquired ALG, a luxury resort-management services, travel, and hospitality group, from affiliates of KKR for $2.7 billion in cash. ALG’s hotel portfolio consists of over 33,000 rooms operating in 10 countries. The acquisition will extend Hyatt’s brand footprint into 11 more European markets. With this portfolio, Hyatt has more than 1100 hotels and all-inclusive properties in 69 countries across six continents and is one of the global players. Here is the overview of the Hyatt brands:
https://www.hyatt.com/development/ourbrands
I never worked with Hyatt, but have gained some familiarity with the brand through my former mentor Klaus Reincke, who worked with the company in Chicago. Klaus was a good friend of Horst Schulz, who also worked with Hyatt before moving to the Ritz-Carlton company. He also describes some interesting stories in interviews and his widely successful book “Excellence Wins”. What I heard was impressive and I still carry with me today an old Hyatt training manual, “The Hyatt Train” which I found to be very useful and employee-oriented. From other colleagues and friends who work with Hyatt, I receive only 100% positive feedback as a place of employment and training with finetuned career planning and promotions.
Marriott Hotels
Marriott is the largest hotel chain in the world by the number of available rooms. It has 30 brands with 8,000 properties containing 1,423,044 rooms in 131 countries and territories. [1] Of these 8,000 properties, 2,149 are operated directly by Marriott, and 5,493 are operated by others under franchise agreements. The company operates 20 hotel reservation centers worldwide and has a truly global footprint with its 30+ brands stretching from Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis via JW Marriott Hotels, Sheraton Hotels, and Four Point hotels. Here is the link to the brand website of Marriott.
https://www.marriott.com/marriott-brands.mi
Its sheer size and volume will give you an early insight into this great company. Its brand scape is truly impressive and so diverse, that any young hotelier will be able to find a position in a large variety of fields. Marriott, just like Hilton grew steadily over the years and its employee philosophy has paid off many times over and over. The company has stayed true to its founding principles and original roots and we can only expect this to remain this way. Besides being a great company to work for, it is also a great company to invest in.
IHG Hotels
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is a British luxury hotel brand created in 1946 by Pan Am’s founder Juan Trippe. It has been part of InterContinental Hotels Group since 1998. As of November 2020, there were 210 InterContinental hotels featuring over 71,045 rooms worldwide. The history of this group is a complicated one and if curious, you can read the details on Wikipedia. After years of change and several different owning companies and deals, the company became an independent corporation IHG or the Intercontinental Hotel group. Despite the frequent changes in ownership it is one of the oldest hotel companies and owns some beautiful hotels across the globe. The company has a long hospitality tradition despite its frequent ownership changes and was one of the pioneers to develop and operate hotels in some challenging locations, especially in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. It operates 17 brands in 6000 locations and should be considered a very interesting company to work with. In 2017 the company appointed a new CEO, Keith Barr, a Cornell University graduate, and the company is headed by a highly qualified hotelier. I assume for interesting developments to happen in the future. The link below takes you directly to the brand page of IHG hotels and helps you to dig deeper into their portfolio.
https://www.ihg.com/content/gb/en/about/brands
Right after my second apprenticeship, I was offered the job as Asst. Chief Steward at the 800-room Intercontinental Hotel in Berlin, Germany. Not only was it a great position with lots of responsibilities for a 23 old but I also IHG offered monthly a wide range of Intra company transfers around the world. This has not changed until today and anyone working with IHG at the present is clearly on his or her way to a promising career.
Accor Hotels
Accor Hotels’ history started with a meeting between Paul Dubrule and Gérard Pélisson in 1963 and the opening of the first Novotel in 1967, in Lille, France. The first Novotel outside of France opened in Neuchatel in Switzerland in 1972. I remember this well, as it was the year when I started my career journey, 16 years old. Accor itself was born in 1983 and the company is the only company with a distinct European flavor. Its development is as colorful as the map of Europe and its growth has been nothing else but spectacular. I did not pay much attention to Accor over the last 40 years and never worked for the company, but it has emerged as one more global giant with unlimited career options for dedicated young hoteliers who are just starting. More about its history you find not only on Wikipedia but also on the company’s website. https://group.accor.com/en/group/who-we-are/our-history. Very interesting and is a huge selection of various brands from the 5-star deluxe segment to the budget level. Historic names like Raffles, Orient Express Hotels, Fairmont Hotels, or Pullman indicate a strong traditional awareness of past glory and far away destinations providing the traveler with an emotional touch of exploration and adventure and the hoteliers working in this group with a distinct collective and historic identity. I find the many unique brands of Accor fascinating and
I can see the brand’s aggressive growth over the past decade nothing else but impressive. I believe, the company leadership does have a very specific vision for the future which makes it even more interesting to explore career opportunities with this group. A description of the many brands is at: https://all.accor.com/brands/index.en.shtml and the career page on the company website is very well conceptualized and provides a substantial amount of information for hoteliers to begin basic research.
IHCL The Indian Hotel Company – Taj Hotels, Resorts, and Palaces
In a timeline that extends over 118 years, IHCL has successfully built for itself an unrivaled reputation in South Asia. At the core of its philosophy stands its service and luxurious splendor reflected in some of its iconic hotels like the Taj Mahal in Mumbai, the Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur, and the Taj Palace in Dubai. The company’s potential was first observed by CEO Raymond Bickson back in 2003 but attempts to develop this potential through alliances and acquisitions did not materialize due to a variety of reasons. Due to Raymond Bickson’s departure in 2013, international expansion stopped and probably will not be a priority for a long time to come. His successor Rakesh Sarna who joined the company from Hyatt left the company only 2 years after he had taken over. The present CEO Puneet Chatwal joined from Germany which was already then a very mature market. IHCL – at that time was, at what he called in an interview: “Inflection point”. He recognized the need for a “mindset change” in a company that was both, competitive and very much focused on itself. His restructuring efforts seem to have worked well and IHCL was recognized as the global No. 1 hotel brand IN 2021.
IHCL is focusing to grow its brand scape primarily in India itself with minor developments in the Middle East and maybe key cities in Europe. Global expansion is for the midterm not in the cards of this company and maybe not even wanted. The time of massive growth opportunities has – in my opinion- passed for the mid term. IHCL has a small selection of brands. (Taj, SeleQtions, Vivanta, Ginger, Qmin, and Amã Stays & Trails). Even though the Indian Hotels Company is not one of the global giants I like to recommend it here, especially for ambitious hoteliers in South Asia. It could be an excellent school for Middle Eastern or Western hoteliers when it comes to unique service excellence and a true USP of this company.
I dedicate some time to sharing some information about this smaller company because of its interesting history but also because I worked with Taj for over 9 years. It was a most interesting time and left me with a strong impression about the service culture at all levels but also about potential hindrances which limit companies in its growth. IHCL is a company best suited for hoteliers within the region. For those, it can easily become your family for a long time but is also very India-centric. It manages several hotels overseas in the USA, the UK, South Africa, Dubai, and Zambia. Despite the restructuring steps by the present CEO the company has maintained its very own “family style mentality”. Joining from the outside will requires mental adjustment, especially when coming from abroad or from a large international company. Here you can visit the company page for more information on career opportunities.
https://www.ihcltata.com/careers/
These are the companies I recommend to young hoteliers as the best place to start their careers. Not everyone interested in hospitality might find a suitable way to get hired or begin a program but with sufficient research and a good strategy applied, it is possible for anyone who is aiming high. Once you got your contract, these companies will focus on your development and help you to grow. Of course, you need to show that you are engaged, and ambitious and also perform accordingly.
Looking at the career of so many talented hoteliers I regret that many of them began their journey without a solid plan and a clear idea of what they wanted to become. I can tell from my journey and experience, that you can achieve all you want to achieve. Proper planning, taking the right action and the right mindset are crucial in this development. If you do not know, where to start and want to find out more about good companies to start working for you can take a look at
https://fortune.com/best-companies/2022/search/?bestcos_industry=Hospitality.
If you are not sure, you are welcome to write to me as always and I will help you to identify the company, which is the right one for you and eventually even, how to get into one of them. Believe me: your positioning at the beginning of your career is extremely important for an impressive outcome.
Remember, it is not about getting just a job or position. Your journey starts with getting the job, which is the right one for you. I know you will choose wisely and if you have too many options, reach out and contact me. I am here to assist and guide You.
Helmut H Meckelburg