This is a short list, on purpose. Every site below was opened and checked when the page was written, and each is here because it carries the kind of job this site is about: a position in a luxury hotel, a resort, or a serious restaurant. General purpose job sites are left out, as are boards that could not be confirmed. None of these charges a job seeker to search or apply; the search firms are paid by the employer.
One observation from the interviews before the list. Many of the jobs that shaped the careers in my books were offered by someone who had watched the person work. Christian Hassing, later general manager of Mandarin Oriental, Singapore, began as a bellboy and made a habit of helping fellow apprentices; one of them, who graduated before him and rose to director of food and beverage, later offered him the assistant manager’s job in that department. The boards get you in the door; what people see of you inside the building gets you the rest. Peter Hopgood, then general manager of the Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort, described a practice that is common at the luxury end and worth knowing before you apply from outside.
“To encourage internal promotions and to give staff at all levels the opportunity to progress, any vacancy that becomes available is first advertised internally.” Peter Hopgood, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
The luxury groups’ own careers sites
The surest place to find a job at a specific company is the company’s own careers site, which lists every property and department and is where the management training programs are advertised. These are the groups a person aiming at the luxury end will be looking at, and several of them employ the hoteliers in my books.
- Four Seasons: roles grouped into operations, leadership, corporate, students and new graduates, with a talent community you can join before a vacancy opens.
- Mandarin Oriental: the group’s careers page, with its graduate opportunities and a link to the job search.
- Rosewood Hotel Group: a job search filterable by country and department across Rosewood and its sister brands.
- Aman: resort, urban hotel and corporate roles for Aman and Janu.
- The Peninsula Hotels: The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ careers page, organized by location.
- The Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis: brand pages on Marriott’s careers site, searchable by country and category.
- Waldorf Astoria, Conrad and LXR: found through Hilton’s job search by brand keyword or region.
- Six Senses: the brand page on IHG’s careers site.
- Dorchester Collection: The Dorchester, Hotel Bel-Air, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Le Meurice, Hôtel Plaza Athénée and their sister hotels.
- Belmond: hotels, trains and river cruises.
- Oetker Collection: Le Bristol Paris, The Lanesborough, Brenners Park-Hotel, Eden Rock and their sister properties.
- Kempinski: roles across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and the group’s training programs.
- Jumeirah: city hotels, resorts and the Dubai head office.
For the independent houses, including many of the hotels and restaurants in my books, there is no group site. Go to the property’s own site and look for careers, and if there is nothing listed, write to the general manager or the chef directly.
Luxury specific boards
- Journal des Palaces, careers: the careers section of the daily news site for the luxury and palace hotel industry, in French and English, with a large volume of luxury hotel, restaurant and spa vacancies in France and at luxury groups internationally. The strongest luxury only board I found.
- Relais & Châteaux careers: the association’s own recruitment site, where its independently owned member hotels and restaurants post kitchen, dining room, rooms and management roles, in several languages. Many are Michelin starred kitchens and country houses that advertise nowhere else.
General hospitality boards, by region
- Hosco: a hospitality careers network with jobs and employer profiles in many countries, with strong coverage of Europe, the Middle East and Asia and a close relationship with the hotel schools. Good for internships, graduate jobs and entry and mid level roles.
- Hcareers: a long running North American hospitality board for hotel, restaurant and resort roles in the United States and Canada, including luxury resorts and management companies.
- Hospitality Online: hotel, resort and restaurant openings across North America at all levels.
- Caterer.com: the United Kingdom’s largest hospitality recruitment site, from kitchen and front of house to general management. The trade magazine, The Caterer, is a separate site.
- Hotelcareer: an international hotel and gastronomy board in German, English and French, strongest in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and in destinations such as Dubai and the Maldives.
- Hozpitality: hotel jobs in the Middle East, India and Asia, including the luxury groups recruiting in the Gulf.
- HotelJobs.co.za: lodge, hotel and restaurant jobs in South Africa, including the safari lodges.
- Harri: the public listings of a hiring platform used by restaurant and hotel groups, mainly in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
Kitchen and restaurant boards
- Culinary Agents: the main career platform for fine dining in the United States, with kitchen, dining room and sommelier roles in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, and listings in Italy, France and the United Kingdom.
- StarChefs JobFinder: the job board of the New York culinary media company, for cook, chef de cuisine, pastry and beverage roles at chef driven restaurants.
- Poached: restaurant jobs in American cities, from cook and server to manager.
- Good Food Jobs: restaurant, wine and food business roles with a craft or sustainability angle.
- Only Chefs: professional chef and kitchen team jobs across the United Kingdom.
- iHireChefs: chef, cook and baker jobs across the United States.
Executive search
For general manager, hotel manager, executive chef and corporate roles, a large share of hiring at the luxury end runs through a small number of search firms. They are paid by the hiring company, keep candidate pools, and are worth a conversation well before you need one.
- AETHOS Consulting Group: hotels and resorts, restaurants, private clubs, cruise and leisure, mainly senior and corporate searches in North America.
- Renard International: a Toronto based firm placing general managers, executive chefs and department heads at hotels and resorts worldwide, with a candidate talent pool.
- HVS Executive Search: the search arm of the hospitality consultancy, with offices across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
- Madison Mayfair: a London based firm for general management, head of department and commercial roles at luxury hotels in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
- The Boutique Search Firm: a Los Angeles based retained firm working in luxury hotels, private clubs and fine dining.
- Gecko Hospitality: restaurant general manager, executive chef and hotel management roles across the United States.
LinkedIn belongs on this list too. Every group and search firm posts there, and it is where recruiters look first for management candidates. Follow the hotel groups and the search firms above, and keep the profile current enough that a consultant can find you.
Associations and schools
- HSMAI Foundation Career Center: the job board of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, for sales, marketing, revenue and distribution roles.
- Institute of Hospitality jobs board: the United Kingdom professional body’s publicly viewable board for hospitality management roles.
- Les Clefs d’Or: the international association of hotel concierges. It runs no job board; concierge hiring at the luxury end moves through its members, which is a reason to meet them.
- The hotel schools’ own portals and recruitment fairs, such as EHL’s career fairs and the recruitment days at Les Roches, are where the luxury groups interview for their graduate programs. They serve students and alumni of those schools rather than the public.
Two names a student might expect are absent for a reason. Forbes Travel Guide, the rating organization, posts no hotel jobs; its listings are for its own evaluators and trainers. The American Hotel & Lodging Association’s careers page lists only its own staff openings, and its foundation routes job seekers to general job sites.
How to use the list
Pick the region, open the group sites for the companies you most want to work for and join their talent communities, then set alerts on one general board and one luxury board. For kitchens, Culinary Agents or the regional equivalent and the restaurant’s own site are enough. For anything at head of department level or above, add a conversation with one of the search firms. And read the page on management training programs before applying to a group: for a graduate, the program is usually the better door than a standalone vacancy.