Most of the large hotel groups run a structured entry route for graduates: a paid program of a year or two inside one or more hotels, rotating through departments before settling into a supervisory or junior management role. The names differ, the shape is much the same, and several of the general managers in my books came in this way. This page describes the programs the luxury groups publish, in alphabetical order, and then what the interviews say about arriving through one.
A note on what is here and what is not. Each entry describes the program as the company itself presents it and links to the company’s own careers page, which carries the dates, locations and requirements that change from year to year. I have left out pay, intake dates, cohort sizes and deadlines on purpose. Several groups recruit trainees hotel by hotel rather than through a single global intake, so the right place to look is usually the vacancy listings on the group’s careers site, searching for the program’s name.
The programs, group by group
Accor (Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel and the group’s other brands): INSPIRE. Accor’s graduate program runs in its hotels worldwide with two tracks, a cross exposure track that rotates through several departments before a focus area, and a specialization track that goes deep in one. Each graduate has a mentor, a business project and sessions with senior leaders. The luxury brands advertise it under their own names, as INSPIRE by Raffles and as the INSPIRE Leadership Development Program at Fairmont hotels; Sofitel hotels recruit through the group listings. Accor graduate opportunities.
Aman: IGNITE. A management development program based at a single Aman property, in a rooms or a food and beverage pathway, in five named stages from arrival to graduation. Participants are full time employees from the first day. It is aimed at recent graduates who want an international career. Aman IGNITE.
Dorchester Collection: Ultimate Leaders Programme. Participants work in several departments at supervisor level to build operational and leadership experience, with the aim of becoming a strong supervisor and assistant manager. It is advertised in rooms, housekeeping and food and beverage at hotels such as The Dorchester and Coworth Park, and alumni get priority access to the group’s academy and to future openings. Dorchester Collection, your development.
Four Seasons: Manager in Training. A rotational program run at individual Four Seasons hotels, built around two operational leadership roles in the trainee’s chosen division, rooms or food and beverage, with a senior mentor, projects and structured feedback. Four Seasons presents it as the bridge between hospitality school and a leadership career in the company. It is recruited property by property, so search the careers site for Manager in Training vacancies. Four Seasons student and graduate programs.
Hilton (Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, LXR and the group’s other brands): Elevator and the Management Development Programme. Elevator, the group’s hotel leadership program for graduates in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is made of two placements in two countries, with departmental rotations, two business projects, a mentor and a senior sponsor; its stated aim is to bring graduates to hotel general manager within a set number of years. Separate Management Development Programmes run in hotel operations in the Middle East and in the United States, and Hilton also runs specialist graduate programs in finance, revenue management and engineering. Hilton Elevator; Hilton early careers in the Americas.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (The Peninsula): Corporate Management Trainee. A fast track program for future leaders with rotations in food and beverage or rooms, two attachments at other operations, mentorship and a management curriculum. The company notes that almost all of its hotel managing directors and hotel managers are promoted from within. A hotel level management trainee program runs alongside it. HSH careers.
Hyatt (Park Hyatt, Andaz, Alila and the group’s other brands): Corporate Leadership Training and Corporate Management Training. Hyatt’s hotel based programs are tailored to each trainee, combining rotations across departments with intensive training in an agreed specialization, team leading tasks and management projects. In Asia and the Middle East the program is called Corporate Leadership Training; in Europe, Africa and the Middle East it runs as Corporate Management Training in modules, technical skills, management and rotation. Openings are posted hotel by hotel on the careers site. Hyatt careers; Hyatt university programs, EAME (PDF).
IHG (Six Senses, Regent, InterContinental and the group’s other brands): Manager in Training. IHG’s United States graduate program places participants in hotels across its luxury and lifestyle brands for hands on rotations across hotel and restaurant operations before a supervisory role, with a career coach and placement support. Six Senses has no scheme of its own and takes part through this one. IHG US Manager in Training.
Kempinski: Flourish. A management trainee program built on three pillars, learn, experience and grow: cross functional rotations recorded in a training passport, two international cross exposures at other Kempinski hotels, a capstone project and mentoring by a general manager. Graduates move into a middle management role in rooms or food and beverage. Kempinski students and graduates.
Mandarin Oriental: Rising Fan. A graduate program whose first year is spent inside one hotel learning every department, followed by a period at assistant manager level and then a move, either to the same department in another hotel or to a new department in the same one, with a project to run. It ends in a permanent placement in one of the group’s hotels, with mentoring and career check ins afterward. Candidates must be willing to relocate. Roles are advertised as Rising Fan, Leader in Training. Mandarin Oriental graduate opportunities.
Marriott International (The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, EDITION, Bulgari Hotels and the group’s other brands): Voyage. Marriott’s global leadership development program is full time and paid, run at managed hotels in dozens of countries, and combines discipline specific training with a leadership curriculum, short rotations across disciplines, a project and management meetings. Disciplines include rooms, food and beverage, culinary, events, sales, finance, engineering and human resources. Ritz-Carlton hotels take Voyage participants under the same program; there is no separate Ritz-Carlton graduate scheme. Vacancies are posted by country on the group’s careers site under the Voyage name. Marriott careers.
Rosewood Hotel Group: Management Trainee Program. An accelerated program at a Rosewood property combining on the job training, exposure to corporate senior leaders, workshops and self paced learning, in tracks such as rooms, food and beverage, spa and wellness, and talent and culture. It is aimed at recent graduates with internship experience and is posted as vacancies in individual cities. Rosewood Hotel Group careers.
Groups without a published program
Some of the names a student would expect do not run a public graduate intake at group level. Belmond trains through property level schemes and an academy in its Italian hotels. Oetker Collection runs an internal academy for existing team members. Relais & Châteaux is an association of independently owned properties and runs no program of its own; its careers site gathers the vacancies of its members, some of whom advertise their own manager in training roles. Jumeirah, Shangri-La and Langham have run management trainee programs and post trainee roles hotel by hotel, but I could not confirm a current group wide scheme on their own sites when this page was written, so look at their careers pages directly. The absence of a program is no verdict on the company. Many of the general managers in my books never went through one and started on the floor.
What the people in the book say about coming in this way
Several of the general managers in my first book arrived through a management training program, and what they remember is the humbling.
“After studying hotel management, I truly believed I would be hired as a general manager upon graduating. It was a wakeup call when, in my first job as a management trainee, I could barely keep up answering telephones at the reception desk.” George Cozonis, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
Cozonis finished his program at Boston’s Parker House and was offered the laundry manager’s job at the same hotel, which he took. Stephen Ansell, who went on to run the Ararat Park Hyatt in Moscow, counts his early program with Hilton International in Munich as the place he learned the most.
“Looking back at all of my early management experiences, this is where I learned the most. The program gave me insight into all aspects of a hotel, including a six-month position in charge of stewarding.” Stephen Ansell, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
Taljinder Singh entered The Taj Group’s program with no background in hotels at all and later ran the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai.
“I first ventured into hospitality as a management trainee for The Taj Group. It was a two-year program, and I had absolutely no background in the industry before I enrolled.” Taljinder Singh, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
And Marc Brugger, later managing director of Rosewood Hong Kong and Rosewood Beijing, got his first management job because of how he behaved during his corporate training in a hotel restaurant in Cancun, when the new manager brought in above him failed and the staff asked for Brugger instead.
“Having earned the trust and respect of the team in just a few short weeks during my corporate training, it was the wait staff who suggested to the general manager that I be hired for the role.” Marc C. Brugger, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
The pattern across these stories is consistent with the rest of the interviews. The program opens the door and shows you the whole building; the job you are given at the end of it is often small, and the people who became general managers took it. The stewarding post, the laundry room and the reception telephones are where the people in the book say they learned the business.
How to choose between them
The published differences are real and worth weighing: whether the program keeps you in one hotel or moves you between countries, whether you choose a division at the start or rotate first, whether it ends in a guaranteed role, and how the group recruits, centrally or hotel by hotel. The unpublished difference is the general manager you will work under, which the interviews treat as the most important variable in an early career. If you can, find out who runs the hotel before you accept. The question on this site on how to become a hotel general manager sets out what the years after the program look like, and the page on the career ladder places the trainee role among the rungs that follow.