Front Office & Guest Experience Manager

The Gibraltar Bowral; Bowral; On-site; AUD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Sponsorship may be available for the r

Beautiful Southern Highlands location

Varied role with changing days

Job summary

The Gibraltar Bowral Hotel in Bowral, NSW, is hiring a Front Office & Guest Experience Manager to lead the guest journey from arrival to departure. You will manage the Front Office, Reception and guest services, ensuring a warm, engaging atmosphere for all guests.

You will champion guest satisfaction, coach and develop a high-performing team, and collaborate with Housekeeping, F&B and Maintenance to deliver seamless service. A people-first mindset and ownership are essential.

Qualifications

• Experience in front office management or guest experience roles.
• Hospitality experience is essential.
• Ability to lead and develop a team.
• Strong customer-service mindset and guest-centric approach.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the overall guest experience, with customer satisfaction as the priority.
• Lead the Front Office and Reception team with warmth and hospitality.
• Create a welcoming and memorable experience for every guest from arrival to departure.
• Build genuine relationships with guests and understand their needs.
• Be visible and approachable, acting as a senior point of contact for guests.
• Proactively identify opportunities to exceed guest expectations.
• Take ownership of guest feedback and resolve issues promptly.
• Follow up with guests to ensure satisfaction.

Skills

Front Office

Guest Experience

Hospitality

Team Leadership

Communication

Tools

Hotel PMS systems

Job description

The Gibraltar Bowral Hotel | Bowral, NSW

Front Office & Guest Experience Manager

About The Gibraltar Bowral Hotel

Located in the heart of Bowral in the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW, The Gibraltar Bowral Hotel is a premium 78 room boutique hotel offering a relaxed and memorable destination for guests visiting the region.

With its combination of accommodation, dining, events, golf course and genuine country hospitality, The Gibraltar is a place where people come to stay, celebrate, connect and enjoy everything the Southern Highlands has to offer.

We are proud of our warm, personal approach to hospitality and believe the experience our guests have is shaped by the people who look after them. That's why we are looking for someone who shares our passion for creating memorable stays and genuinely enjoys making people feel welcome.

About the Role

At The Gibraltar Bowral Hotel, we believe great hospitality starts with great people.

We are looking for a Front Office & Guest Experience Manager who genuinely loves people, takes pride in creating memorable experiences and understands that the most important measure of success is how our guests feel when they leave our hotel.

This is a role for someone who naturally makes people feel welcome. Someone who notices the little things, enjoys having a conversation with a guest, takes ownership when something isn't right and gets genuine satisfaction from turning a good stay into a great one.

Reporting directly to the General Manager, you will take ownership of the guest experience across the Front Office, Reception and guest services functions, while leading and developing a team that shares your passion for hospitality.

This is not simply a Front Office management position.

We are looking for someone who will become a champion for our guests — someone who is constantly looking for ways to improve their experience, build genuine connections and ensure every guest feels welcomed, valued and looked after.

You will lead the Front Office team and be a highly visible presence within the hotel, working closely with Housekeeping, Food & Beverage, Maintenance and the wider team to ensure the guest journey is seamless from arrival through to departure.

While operational capability is important, personality, attitude and genuine hospitality are what will set you apart.

Key Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the overall guest experience, with customer satisfaction as the number one priority.

• Lead the Front Office and Reception team with warmth, energy and a genuine focus on hospitality.

• Create a welcoming and memorable experience for every guest from arrival to departure.

• Build genuine relationships with guests and take the time to understand their needs.

• Be visible and approachable throughout the hotel and act as a senior point of contact for guests.

• Proactively identify opportunities to exceed guest expectations and create memorable moments.

• Take ownership of guest feedback, concerns and complaints, ensuring issues are resolved quickly, personally and professionally.

• Follow up with guests to ensure they are satisfied and feel heard.

• Lead by example and create a culture where the team genuinely cares about delivering exceptional service.

• Coach, motivate and develop team members, focusing on attitude, service and guest engagement.

• Work closely with all hotel departments to ensure a consistent and seamless guest experience.

• Support the day-to-day operation of Reception, including check-ins, check-outs, reservations and guest enquiries.

• Ensure Front Office procedures, systems and administration are managed accurately.

• Monitor guest feedback and identify opportunities to continually improve the guest journey.

• Assist with rostering, training and operational planning.

• Ensure relevant financial, cash-handling and Front Office procedures are followed.

• Support the General Manager with initiatives designed to improve guest satisfaction and hotel performance.

• Be willing to roll up your sleeves and get involved wherever needed to make sure our guests have a great experience.

About You

We are looking for a personality, not just a résumé.

You might already be an experienced Front Office Manager, Guest Experience Manager or hospitality supervisor. Or you might be someone with strong hospitality experience who has never formally held a Front Office management title but has the personality, maturity and passion to step into the role.

Front Office experience is ideal, but it is not essential. Hospitality experience is.

Most importantly, you will:

• Genuinely love hospitality and enjoy making people feel welcome.

• Have a naturally warm, positive and engaging personality.

• Be someone who enjoys talking to people and building genuine relationships.

• Have a strong customer-service mindset and genuinely care about guest satisfaction.

• Take ownership rather than waiting for someone else to solve a problem.

• Be proactive, energetic and comfortable taking initiative.

• Have the confidence to deal with challenging situations while remaining calm and professional.

• Be naturally curious about what guests want and how we can make their experience better.

• Lead from the front and be comfortable getting involved in the day-to-day operation.

• Have excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

• Be able to motivate and bring out the best in others.

• Be organised and capable of managing competing priorities.

• Have hospitality experience in a hotel, restaurant, venue or similar customer-facing environment.

• Be comfortable working across a rotating roster, including weekends and public holidays.

Experience with hotel PMS systems, reservations and Front Office operations would be an advantage, but we are far more interested in who you are and how you make people feel than whether you know every system on day one.

What Success Looks Like

For us, success isn't simply a well-run Reception desk.

Success is:

Happy guests. Engaged team members. Problems solved. Expectations exceeded. Guests who want to come back.

You'll know you've done your job when guests remember the people, the service and how the team made them feel.

What We Offer

• A key leadership role reporting directly to the General Manager.

• The opportunity to make a genuine impact on the guest experience at The Gibraltar Bowral Hotel.

• A role where your personality, ideas and initiative will be valued.

• A supportive hospitality team and collaborative working environment.

• The opportunity to develop your leadership and hotel management experience.

• A varied role where no two days are the same.

• The opportunity to work in the beautiful Southern Highlands.

• Sponsorship may be available for the right candidate.