What Is A Hospitality Consultant And What Does Their Job Involve?

Updated On: April 16, 2024 by   Ciaran Connolly

Hospitality is now one of the largest industries in the world, with growth in all parts of the world. With success there will always be failures as it can be a tough industry and tough to please customers. In many cases failing businesses within the industry will invest in a hospitality consultant to try and save their business. 

A hospitality consultant is someone who tries to work with a business suffering from low sales and a bad reputation amongst a range of other issues, to try and turn the business around through the likes of renovations and improvements within the business. They also work with new and upcoming business in the hospitality industry to try and save them from suffering the same fate as competitors.

Usually a hospitality consultant is tasked with a specific project within a business. For example, sales might be down for a hotel in the past two years. A consultant might be tasked with improving this. They could then create a marketing campaign for the business or gain contracts with travel agents to include the hotel within holiday packages. Solutions to improve the business can be both long-term and short-term.

The Common Goal

No matter what segment of the hospitality industry a consultant works within, they will all have the same common goal. One of the most popular types of hospitality consultants we see, are hotel consultants. There are also restaurant consultants and bar consultants

The main common goal shared between all these roles is to improve the business and its growth. This can be done in many ways depending on the reason(s) a business is failing.

Consultants will then create a range of solutions to turn the misfortunes of the business around.

The Role of a Hospitality Consultant

A Hospitality Consultant can have a difficult role. Many of the issues within the business may have existed for years and to improve on old habits can be a difficult task. This alongside the likes of a bad reputation of a business will be putting a lot of weight on the consultant’s shoulders.

One thing to note is that a hospitality consultant should have a real in-depth experience of the industry and have dealt with similar issues before. This experience will help them not feel the pressure within the job role. 

A consultant will also need to make the owners of the business aware of all issues and share their ideas with the owners or managers. Otherwise they might not see the difference once new processes and changes are made. This also includes advising owners on the scope of opportunities and threats.

To understand the issues of a business, a hospitality consultant will conduct a survey of the business to understand the business growth. These surveys will also show the consultant all the positives and negatives of the business. 

Finally, a consultant will create and develop solutions and a business plan that will help the business succeed both in the short-term and the long-term. Once this is created, they will show the owners the plan. The plan will include new processes and how to implement them.

Hospitality Consultant Solutions

We now live in the age of the online business. This opens up new doors for businesses to expand online. Consultants should understand the opportunities within the physical business as well as the online issues. The physical part of the businesses will be the place with the most issues and room for improvement as online you can paint a mask.

That means all physical issues should be dealt with urgently.

Some examples of problems and issues within a business could be the owners or staff. It might be the processes used within the business such as the software used or the lack of processes. 

The consultant will need to create solutions for these issues within a business plan. If owners are too persistent in their ways and don’t adapt to change, the consultant will need to make them aware of this issue and why it’s beneficial to open up to newer and improved solutions. This is the same for other members of staff. Staff might not be good enough for their job role, which could lead to staff being sacked from their position as they are not beneficial to the business. 

Online solutions could include online marketing. A business may not exist online and to simply change this, a website could be created along with social media accounts. People would then be able to find the businesses much easier and it could lead to a lot more customers.

This also helps to establish a brand; which people can recognise and feel more comfortable with. 

Once solutions are implemented and changes are seen to be happening for the better, then the role of the hospitality consultant won’t be needed any more. If these solutions are then kept in place, the business could become more successful than ever, and who knows the owners may even feel the need to expand the business in the future, due to the new successes of their business.

There are many high paying jobs in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry, which is another interesting read for you to enjoy!