Guests expect to see a smiling face when they check in and out of a hotel, and a good front desk manager always obliges -- no matter what figurative fires he or she may be putting out behind the desk.
For Tyera Brown, a front desk manager at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, those crises can run the gamut.
"I'll be dealing with a phone call about an accounting issue with a travel agent. Meanwhile, there are two employees getting into it. Then there's some issue at the bar, or someone's car got damaged by the valet, or the elevators are too slow, or room service isn't answering, or people aren't happy with their rooms. That's all in a matter of minutes," she says.
The job is certainly no 9-to-5. Brown works 12-hour shifts, typically 2 p.m. to midnight, with about 80 percent of her time spent in the hotel lobby.
But longer hours don't always equal higher pay for front desk managers. The pay varies by the size and location of the hotel, but median pay for an experienced front desk manager is less than $43,000.
