A Step-by-Step Approach to Training Hotel General Managers (That You’ll Never Learn in a Classroom)

At 4:15 PM, just before check-in peak, a kid throws up in the lobby. That’s where GM training begins.

It’s not in the classroom. Not in the onboarding portal narrated by an actor in a golf shirt. And definitely not in the ten-week crash course that skips over what actually makes or breaks a leader.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “We have a training program for GMs,” followed by “but we can’t keep one longer than six months,” I’d own a chain of boutique resorts by now.

You don’t train a great General Manager by tossing them into the deep end or by wrapping them in bubble wrap and PowerPoints. You train them by building muscle. Operational, emotional, financial, and people muscle.

That takes time, trust, and a whole lot of real-life curveballs.

Here’s how I’d do it if we actually cared more about sustainable leadership than polished LinkedIn titles.

Start With the Mop

Before anyone gets a fancy name tag or a bonus structure, they need a mop and a radio. The job starts with understanding what the team endures daily.

Want to know if someone’s got what it takes? See how they respond when chaos shows up, like during the Friday check-in rush when a child throws up in the hallway.

If they step back and say, “Can someone handle that?” they’re not ready.

I once trained a future GM by handing her a vacuum at 6AM. She’s now running a 500-room convention hotel.

Empathy is built in the back hallways. Leadership is forged in the moments no one wants to own. Start there.

Shadow the Quiet Pros

Let them learn from the real experts, not just department heads, but the people who hold the place together.

Have them spend time with the overnight front desk agent who handles every curveball while the world sleeps. The houseman who’s been there 15 years and can fix a lock better than engineering. The breakfast attendant who calls every guest “honey” and has a line of regulars waiting for her eggs.

Let your trainee feel the culture, not just read it off a framed mission statement.

Let Them Handle the Chaos

Don’t just let them observe the mess, let them step into it. Stand back, arms crossed, and resist every urge to intervene.

Let them field the call from the wedding planner whose décor was sent to the wrong hotel. Let them solve the double-booked penthouse on a sold-out night. Let them face the parent of a kid with a shellfish allergy who just ate a meatball with shrimp paste.

You can’t train composure. You can only test it.

Now Teach the Numbers

Once they’ve been through the fire, then teach the numbers. And I mean really teach them.

P&L sheets, budget projections, RevPAR, none of it sticks until they’ve felt the ripple effect of their own decisions.

Let them live through a labor crunch. Watch linen invoices pile up. See the waste from a poorly forecasted group order. Then, when the numbers hit the screen, they’ll understand the story behind every digit.

Teach them how to move the levers, budget with compassion, drive revenue without gutting the guest experience, and grow profit without losing the people who make it all happen.

Test Their Influence

Here’s what most training programs miss. Decision-making matters, but influence is what gets results.

Will the team text them when something breaks, or avoid them altogether?

Do staff vent to them or about them in the break room?

Do they walk the floor with presence, or pass through it like a stranger?

You don’t need a manager who barks orders from the office. You need someone who makes the dishwasher laugh on a Friday night and still holds everyone accountable come Monday morning.

If they haven’t earned the team’s respect, they haven’t earned the title. Period.

Every hotel is different. Every leadership style is different. But this approach is rooted in something universal: real experience.

Not pretend scenarios. Not boardroom theory. Actual sweaty, stressful, magical, guest-hugging, owner-pleasing, team-lifting, sink-unclogging hotel life.

You want to train a General Manager?

Don’t just teach them the playbook.
Teach them why we play.
Because if they don’t know why we play, they’ll never win the team.