Hotel Finance Director: Role, Responsibilities & Resources
Hotel Finance Directors oversee hotel profitability including accounting, credit, inventory control, risk management, budgeting, compliance and more. Their role is to assist the General Manager in quantifying hotel operations revenues and costs to make important investment decisions.
What are a Hotel Finance Director's responsibilities?
Hotel Finance Directors are responsible for:
- Overseeing financial and accounting management
- Representing finance department in managerial meetings
- Ensure local, state and federal tax compliance
- Prepare annual budgets, forecasts, and operating results
- Prepare finance reports for general manager
- Control costs and maximize profit
- Outline potential hotel business risks
- Explore new revenue opportunities for hotel
- Oversees any audit process
- Hire, train and oversee finance staff
What is a Hotel Finance Director's Annual Salary?
A Hotel Finance Director's salary can vary a lot depending the following factors:
- Is the property independent or corporate?
- What is the market the property competes in?
- Where is the property located?
- How many rooms are in the property?
- What is the experience level of the applicant?
- How is the overall job market demand?
There are many more factors that contribute to salary data variation, so most sites provide salary information in a range to ensure that there is proper coverage. The table below shows the latest salary ranges for Hotel Finance Director's across the major salary reporting platforms:
What are characteristics of a typical Hotel Finance Director?
The average age of an Hotel Finance Director is 40 and average education level is a bachelors degree, with some having masters degrees. Finance Directors often have accounting accreditations such as Certified Hospitality Accountant Executive (CHAE) or Certified Public Accountant (CPA). They possess technical skills in:
- Taxes
- Computer systems
- Personnel management
- Cash management
- Statistics
- Auditing
- Internal controls
- FASB rulings
- Risk management
Beyond education, a good Hotel Finance Director has at least 8 to 12 years of industry experience and has managed teams before. A Hotel Finance Director must be able to create accurate financial projections and set standards for their teams to achieve, as well as provide recruiting and training for new staff members.
Average Age: 40
Average Education Level: Bachelors Degree
Average Salary Range: $75,000 - $125,000
Industry Experience: 8-12 years
Management Experience: 2-3 years
Key Traits:
- Financial literacy
- Able to simplify complex data sets
- Macro-environmentally conscious
- Disciplined decision maker
- Detail Oriented
- Organized
- Great communicator
- Lead by example
- Understands hotel operations
Top Resources for an Hotel Finance Director
Xenia offers tons of free educational resources for frontline teams. For Hotel Finance Director, we recommend visiting:
- Ultimate Hotel Operations Management Guide [+10 Free Checklists]
- Hotel Risk Assessment Checklist
- 99 Lodging Competencies Checklist
