Hotel org chart example
A full-service hotel drawn by division, which is how every hotel on earth is organized: rooms, food and beverage, sales, engineering, finance, people — the heads of department around one general manager.
How a hotel is usually structured
Hotels standardized their org chart decades ago, and the brands enforce it. A general manager, and beneath them the heads of department: rooms, food & beverage, sales & marketing, engineering, finance and human resources. The GM's morning meeting is these six people. Above the GM sits an owner, an asset manager or a management company — off the property chart, but the GM's actual boss.
Rooms is the biggest division and has two halves: front office (front desk, reservations, night audit, concierge) and housekeeping, led by an executive housekeeper with the widest span in the building. Food & beverage splits between the back of house under an executive chef and the front of house under restaurant and banquet managers. Both divisions run around the clock, so each has shift leaders who don’t appear as a level on the chart but hold the building at 3 a.m.
Sales & marketing holds group sales, catering sales and revenue management; finance holds the controller, accounting and often purchasing and IT; engineering keeps the building alive. The night auditor is the classic dotted line — a front desk employee who closes the day's books for the controller.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Leadership | General Manager, Hotel Manager or Resident Manager (larger hotels), Executive Assistant to the GM |
| Heads of department | Rooms Division Manager, Director of Food & Beverage, Director of Sales & Marketing, Chief Engineer, Controller, Director of Human Resources |
| Managers and supervisors | Front Office Manager, Executive Housekeeper, Housekeeping Supervisor, Executive Chef, Sous Chef, Restaurant Manager, Banquet Manager, Sales Manager, Revenue Manager, Reservations Manager, Night Manager, Assistant Chief Engineer |
| Line staff | Front Desk Agent, Night Auditor, Concierge, Bell Attendant, Room Attendant, Houseman, Line Cook, Steward, Server, Bartender, Banquet Server, Maintenance Technician, Accountant, Purchasing Agent, HR Coordinator |
Where these charts go wrong
Hotel charts go wrong by drawing every room attendant and server in a row, by leaving off the contracted departments so the security desk answers to no one on paper, by listing the management company’s regional staff as if they worked in the building, and by hiding the night team — the same chart is true at noon and at midnight, and it should show who holds it then.
Questions people ask
- What departments does a hotel have?
- Six, almost everywhere: rooms (front office and housekeeping), food & beverage, sales & marketing, engineering, finance and human resources. Resorts add recreation, spa and golf; conference hotels add a large banquets department under F&B; small hotels merge the six into three or four people.
- Who does a hotel general manager report to?
- The owner, or the owner's asset manager, if the hotel is owner-operated; a regional or area vice president if a management company runs it. The brand is a contract, not a boss, though it often feels like one. None of them belong on the property chart.
- How many room attendants per housekeeping supervisor?
- Twelve to fifteen is typical, with each attendant cleaning 12 to 16 rooms a shift. An executive housekeeper in a 200-room hotel therefore runs 25 to 40 people through two or three supervisors — the widest span in the building.
- Does a restaurant org chart look the same?
- It's the F&B division on its own. A general manager over a front-of-house manager (servers, hosts, bartenders) and an executive chef (sous chefs, line cooks, dishwashers), with an office manager or bookkeeper for the money. Copy this chart's F&B branch and put a GM above it.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- LogisticsDispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startupSquads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programs beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities servicesSites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Sales teamRegions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
- Accounting firmA partner pyramid, three service lines.
- Law firmPractice groups, and the business side that runs the firm.
- ChurchA board that governs, a pastor who leads, ministries below.
- RestaurantFront of house and back of house, meeting at the pass.
- IT departmentRun, build and secure, under one director.
- HR departmentPartners, specialists and operations: the three legs.
- Local governmentElected above appointed, and two officers who answer to the council.
- Utility companyField crews, a 24-hour control center, and a regulator in the room.
- BankThree lines of defense, drawn as lines.
- Staffing agencySales desks, recruiting desks, and a back office that pays two thousand people.
- HospitalTwo hierarchies that meet at the bedside.
- Retail chainHead office, the field, and a store drawn once.
- Small businessOne owner, two managers, and the jobs the owner still does.
- Finance departmentAccounting closes the books; FP&A says what they mean.
- Marketing departmentDemand, product, brand, and the operations under all three.
- Customer service departmentTeams on the floor; quality, training and scheduling beside them.
- Engineering departmentProduct teams under a VP of engineering; platform, data and security under the CTO.
- Operations departmentSupply chain, fulfillment and the functions that keep both honest.
- Product departmentProduct, design, research and the operations that measure them.
- Consulting firmThree practices, one firm behind them, and no engagement on the chart.
- Real estate brokerageAgents who are not employees, on the chart anyway.
- Insurance agencySales on one side, service on the other, and the lines where they meet.
- Dental practiceA clinical line the law draws, and a business line the office manager runs.
- UniversityAn academic line and an administrative line, and governance kept off the chart.
- E-commerce companyThe site is the store, the warehouse is a contractor, and the lines between them are drawn.
- Veterinary clinicThe doctors own the medicine, the manager owns the day, and the technicians answer to both.
- Auto dealershipThe front end sells the cars; the back end pays the bills; the chart shows where they meet.
- School districtSchools on one line, the money on another, and a board that governs from a second chart.
- Police departmentPatrol takes the calls, investigations takes the cases, and professional standards answers to the chief alone.
- Nursing homeThe administrator holds the license, the director of nursing holds the building, and the survey reads both lines.
- Property management companyThe owners and the boards are clients, the site staff are employees, and the chart is where the two facts meet.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet. The guides cover a reorg, a merger, an assistant's chart and a consultant's deliverable.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.