The tourism industry is exploding. As more and more people seek out experiences instead of products to fill their recreational time, the need for competent managers to maintain and improve hotels, resorts, and cruise liners has never been bigger.
If you want to jump into this industry and get your start as a hospitality manager, it’s a good idea to check out some of the best online Bachelor’s in Hospitality Management Degrees. These degree programs based in the United States can provide you with the education you need to succeed in this competitive and fast-paced industry any place in the world.
What is a Hospitality Management Degree?
A Bachelor’s in Hospitality Management educates students on the financial, business administration, and leadership aspects of running a hospitality business. Those who complete this degree will be prepared to manage a hotel, bed-and-breakfast, or similar institution.
In addition, many holders of this degree will be prepared to run large-scale social and networking events. Conventions and marketing hubs are all usually run by someone with a hospitality management degree.
Those with hospitality management degrees often work in the tourism industry as well. Many of the employees aboard cruise ships and in resorts have degrees in this field and manage other workers. Rather than working at the front desk or handling day-to-day customer interactions, hospitality managers oversee affairs from a bird’s eye view and make big decisions concerning employee scheduling, event planning, and organization.
Those with a keen eye for detail and an excellent social attitude will find success in hospitality management.
Many degrees with an emphasis on hospitality management will technically be business, not hospitality degrees. But these degrees are not any less valuable than the dedicated type, and in fact may be even more advantageous since they open up additional employment opportunities in other industries.
Depending on the program, you might be able to specialize in various aspects of hospitality administration, including:
- food service
- restaurant management
- lodging management
- event management
Hospitality Management degrees can be a bachelor of arts or a bachelor of science – it really depends on the school in question.
How Much Can You Earn with a Hospitality ManagementDegree?
In general, hospitality managers earn reasonable salaries. The average hospitality manager is paid around $48,000 per year. This figure greatly varies, of course, depending on your work experience.
One opportunity in the hospitality industry is earning commission, which isn’t necessarily counted among the official salary report. In fact, in many cases, hospitality managers can make up to 20 percent of their salary on commissions alone.
If we take a look at some specific professions within the hospitality industry, such as “Lodging Managers,” the mean annual wage is $62,270, whereas a “Food Service Manager” can expect a mean annual wage of $58,960, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In jobs like these, you can expect your daily job to require a vast array of skills – everything from industry-specific skills like food and beverage management and event management to more generally applicable skills like human resources and operations management. And if those higher level management jobs are what you’re looking for, consider the Best Online Business Management Degrees. If it’s the exotic locales that hotel management might offer, consider a degree in International Business.
What is Required for a Hospitality ManagementDegree?
For just about any hospitality management program, you’ll need the standard plethora of initial qualifications like a high school diploma or equivalent certificate. You’ll also need to meet a certain number of credit hours for each university—typically around 120 credit hours.
Classes you’ll likely take during your coursework include:
- food service management
- business administration
- business management
- hospitality law
- information systems
- hospitality marketing
- hospitality administration
These diverse classes will prepare you for a variety of unique situations that you will encounter as a hospitality manager. You’ll also need some real-world experience for most degrees. This experience will come in either internships or after-graduation employment, depending on the school.
When choosing which college to get your online degree from, make sure that that school is strong in its online programs. Are online students happy there? Are they eligible for financial aid?
Are you a transfer student? Many prospective students have already studied at a community college and received their associate degree. If this is your path, verify that you can apply transfer credits toward your degree.
If the hospitality program is housed in the college of business, check out how it compares to other business schools at comparable institutions.
What Are the Best Hospitality ManagementDegrees?
OSR uses six data points: three school-wide and three program specific. For school-wide, OSR uses Student Satisfaction, Admission Rates, and the number of programs the school offers online. For program specific, OSR checks the Median Debt of graduates from that program, how many degrees are offered within that program’s umbrella department, and what percentage of students at that school graduated from that department.
The six statistics are displayed by each school. The sliding bar under each statistic represents how that school compares to other US institutions. “Not reported” means a school did not release that information to the US Department of Education. A more detailed description of the OSR process can be found on the methodology page.
