General Manager (GM)

How to Apply: Send your CV and a brief highlight of your past hotel operations management experience to jobs@phinaconsultant.co.ke. Use "Executive Assistant Manager" as your email subject line.

Prove You Can Run a 182-Bed Property Before You Sit in the GM Chair

This is not a role for someone who has only managed one department. The board wants evidence you have carried full P&L responsibility, handled conference surges, and held HODs to hard targets. Your application needs to read like an operations audit, not a career summary.

1. Lead with revenue and cost numbers: Your CV should open with the properties you have managed, their room counts, and the revenue or GOP figures you moved. State occupancy percentages, conference sales growth, and payroll cost ratios you controlled. A GM who cannot quantify commercial impact will not survive the first screening. For example, write "Grew conference revenue 22% across 18 months while holding payroll at 28% of total revenue."

2. Name the PMS and POS systems you know: The posting specifically asks for proficiency with hotel PMS/POS systems. List the exact platforms you have used, such as Opera, Micros, or similar, and describe how you used them for forecasting, rate management, or audit trails. Vague claims like "computer literate" will not pass a hospitality executive screen. If you trained HODs on these systems, say so.

3. Show you have managed HODs, not just staff: The role demands direct accountability over all Heads of Department. Describe how many HODs reported to you, how you set their targets, and how you handled underperformance. Give one concrete example of a performance review cycle you led that changed a department's results. Boards want to see you can hold senior managers accountable without creating friction.

4. Prepare for owner and board relationship questions: Reporting directly to Ownership and the Board means your stakeholder management will be tested. Think through how you have handled difficult owner requests, budget pushback, or capital investment debates. Prepare a short story about a time you presented a turnaround plan to a board and defended your numbers. They will probe whether you can balance autonomy with accountability.

5. Demonstrate conference and events muscle: This property has extensive conference facilities and a busy event calendar. Your application should mention specific conference capacities you have managed, how you handled simultaneous room and event surges, and how you coordinated F&B, AV, and housekeeping under pressure. If you have driven corporate conference sales, quantify the accounts you won or retained.

6. Address compliance and safety head-on: The GM owns licensing, health and safety, food safety, labor laws, and security mandates. List the statutory inspections you have led, any audit results you improved, and how you built internal controls around procurement and revenue assurance. A brief line about zero compliance breaches or a clean food safety audit will carry weight. Do not assume the board will take compliance for granted.

7. Show you can develop a leadership pipeline: Talent management and structured management development programs are explicit duties. Describe a time you recruited a senior leader, built a training plan for HODs, or promoted from within. Boards worry about GMs who leave no bench strength behind. Give evidence that you have made a property stronger after you left, not just while you were there.

8. Use the subject line and email body to signal fit: The posting asks for a brief highlight of your past hotel operations management experience and a specific subject line. Write three tight paragraphs: your years in senior hotel leadership, the largest property you ran, and one commercial turnaround you led. Attach a clean two-page CV with your property sizes and revenue figures visible. Send it to jobs@phinaconsultant.co.ke with the exact subject line requested, because attention to instruction is part of the screen.