General Hospitality Management

Types of Degrees General Hospitality Management Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many general hospitality administration/management graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	6,884
Associate Degree	1,415
Basic Certificate	1,168
Master’s Degree	701
Undergraduate Certificate	307
Graduate Certificate	106
Doctor’s Degree	25

What General Hospitality Management Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, hotel and restaurant management majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Hotel & Restaurant Management Majors

Hotel and Restaurant Management majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

Skills for Hotel & Restaurant Management Majors

hotel and restaurant management majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

Abilities for Hotel & Restaurant Management Majors

As a hotel and restaurant management major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Can You Do With a General Hospitality Management Major?

People with a hotel and restaurant management degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Food Service Managers	9.0%	$54,240
Lodging Managers	4.0%	$53,390

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in General Hospitality Management?

This major is dominated by women with about 70% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of hotel and restaurant management majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	571
Black or African American	479
Hispanic or Latino	1,059
White	3,397
International Students	958
Other Races/Ethnicities	420

Geographic Diversity

Hotel & Restaurant Management appeals to people across the globe. About 13.9% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do General Hospitality Management Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Hotel and Restaurant Management majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $58,960 to $62,270 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to General Hospitality Management

Some degrees associated with hotel and restaurant management may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to hotel and restaurant management have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	16.5%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	37.0%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	3.2%
Some College Courses	14.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	1.5%
Bachelor’s Degree	25.8%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	2.4%

Online General Hospitality Management Programs

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 465 schools offered some type of general hospitality administration/management program. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	98	7
Certificate (2-4 Years)	2	0
Associate’s Degree	230	26
Bachelor’s Degree	13	6
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	45	12
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	10	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in General Hospitality Management Worth It?

The median salary for a hotel and restaurant management grad is $58,960 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 48% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $381,200 after 20 years!

Majors Related to General Hospitality Management

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to hotel and restaurant management.

Major	Number of Grads
Hotel/Motel Administration/Management	2,368
Tourism and Travel Services Management	1,303
Meeting and Event Planning	989
Restaurant/Food Services Management	944
Other Hospitality Administration/Management	772
Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant Management	474
Resort Management	214
Casino Management	18
Brewery/Brewpub Operations/Management	1

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Bblackpsu under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.