Duty Manager job description
A Duty Manager is the senior person in charge of a hotel or resort during a shift. The role keeps guest service, rooms, food and beverage and security running and decides on the spot when problems arise.
Why the role exists
Hotels and resorts run around the clock, and the general manager is not always present. The Duty Manager holds the property for a shift, whether morning, evening or night. The role handles guest issues, coordinates departments, handles incidents and hands over cleanly. It reports to the general manager or front office manager.
What the person does
- Take handover from the previous manager, reviewing arrivals, departures, in-house guests, VIPs and open issues.
- Walk through the lobby, rooms, restaurant and back areas each shift to check standards and guest comfort.
- Handle guest complaints, room moves, billing disputes and service recovery within the authority given.
- Coordinate front desk, housekeeping, food and beverage, engineering and security during peak check-in and events.
- Manage emergencies such as power cuts, fire alarms, lift failures and medical incidents using the property's procedures.
- Check the night audit, cash and credit handling and room status in the property management system.
- Brief shift staff, approve small adjustments to rosters and cover absences on the day.
- Write the shift log and escalate serious incidents or repeated issues to the general manager.
Skills and tools
- Guest handling and service recovery under pressure
- Property management systems such as Opera, eZee or Hotelogix
- Coordination across front office, housekeeping and food and beverage
- Emergency response using the hotel's plan and calm decision making
- Shift handover and clear written logs
- Cash, billing and audit awareness
- Fluent English and Hindi or the local language
- Staff briefing and leading a team through a busy shift
Education and experience
Preferred, never a bar: equivalent experience counts.
- Degree or diploma in hotel management preferred, or equivalent experience in hotel operations.
- Preferred experience in front office or food and beverage supervision before moving to duty level.
- Preferred working knowledge of a hotel property management system.
- Fire, first aid and emergency training depends on the employer, state and facts, so confirm with your adviser.
How the work is judged
- Guest satisfaction scores and online review comments for shifts led.
- Speed and quality of resolving complaints and service recovery cases.
- Accuracy of handover logs, night audit and cash for the shift.
- Smooth handling of incidents and emergencies, shown in incident records.
- Team discipline and punctuality, and cross-department cooperation on shift.
Where the role can lead
- Front Office Manager or Assistant Manager Operations.
- Rooms Division Manager or Resident Manager at a larger hotel.
- General Manager of a smaller property after wider experience in food and beverage and sales.
Interview questions to ask
Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order and score them against written anchors, so the decision rests on the work and not the impression.
- It is midnight, the hotel is full and the power fails. What do you do in the first fifteen minutes?
- A guest wants a refund for a noisy room and is shouting at the desk. How do you respond?
- You find a billing error that was charged to a guest who has already left. What do you do?
- Describe how you handle a large wedding check-in arriving while a conference breaks for lunch.
- A housekeeping and front desk disagreement leaves a room not ready for a VIP. How do you fix it?
- How do you write a handover so the next manager can act without calling you?
Hiring tips for this role
- Test judgement, not only service skill. Offer two or three night-shift scenarios and ask what the candidate would decide alone and what they would escalate.
- Ask for hotel names, room counts and shift types handled. A person from a small guesthouse may struggle in a hundred-room property with events.
- Check experience with night shifts and rotating rosters. Many candidates prefer fixed days and leave once the shift pattern is clear.
- Speak to a former general manager, not only a colleague. Trust in decisions when the manager is absent is the real test.
Questions about hiring a duty manager
The Front Office Manager runs the desk and its team across the week. The Duty Manager is in charge of the whole property for a shift, including rooms, food and beverage and incidents, and hands over at shift end.
Usually yes, through a rotating roster covering morning, evening and night. State the pattern, rest days and any night allowance policy in the offer so the candidate knows before joining.
Set limits in writing for refunds, room upgrades, complimentary services and emergency spend. Clear limits let the manager act quickly at night without calling the general manager for every decision.
GullyHR agrees the job description with you, finds and screens candidates with hotel operations experience, and supports the offer. We hire for permanent roles, so you meet people matched to your property size.
Hiring a duty manager?
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles. We agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.