Changing leadership for your hotel or restaurant is hard. You need to keep your operations running smoothly in the moment, but you also need to make sure you make the right hire for your future. When you need to make a change, interim hospitality management can help you manage the transition period.
1. Cost Management
Your manager usually holds responsibility for managing costs for your property. This duty does not go away when the manager leaves. Rather than scramble to cover your bases, though, you may benefit from having an interim manager look objectively at your expenses. He or she may be able to identify opportunities to save, or to invest in ways that give you greater returns through new or existing revenue potential.
Your balance sheets provide a wealth of information. An interim manager combines experience in managing properties with an openness to analyzing and investigating the numbers in all corners. This process can help you find savings and opportunities in places your previous management might not have noticed. Further, interim hotel management professionals often have contacts and experience with different vendors who can provide opportunities you might not have known existed.
2. Fresh Ideas
Over time, businesses often settle into routines. This isn’t always bad, of course; consistency can be a great thing for you. Still, interim hospitality management can give you a new perspective on your current leadership model. The interim manager is generally unencumbered by the way you have been doing things. He or she can identify the plans that are working well and separate them from some areas that might improve from different methods. He or she can also look at your staff through a new eye, and identify your top talent without any preconceived ideas of performance. It isn’t always about changing the way you do things, but rather finding ways to continue the best of what is happening and tweak what may need to be tweaked.
This can come in any aspect of your property. An interim manager might collect and analyze customer reviews, vendor contracts, industry trends, or myriad other areas that affect your business. This may lead to changes or affirmation of present plans, but in either case, getting a fresh look at what you are doing can create benefits for your property.
3. Transition Leadership
Sometimes an interim leader can help you implement major changes in direction. Maybe you are part of a new ownership, or are performing renovations or building a new structure. At times, interim hospitality management can be instrumental in navigating the changes. You can bring in someone equipped to help you in the short term, without having to personally convert into your long-term plans.
Interim hospitality management can also help you move past plateaus in your revenue. Most properties, at some time, reach a point of stasis in their business. An interim manager can lead the charge to break through that point and lift you to new levels of growth and revenue. Your profitability can usually improve over time, and the fresh perspective that an interim manager provides can create new ideas and new paths to create that growth.
