Hotel General Manager

By The Sea Resorts; Panama City Beach (FL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

By The Sea Resorts in Panama City Beach, FL seeks a General Manager to lead an active beachfront hotel through a renovation while maintaining day-to-day operations. The role requires hands-on leadership of housekeeping and engineering, with the ability to diagnose root causes and rebuild guest satisfaction.

You'll own renovation sequencing, capital projects, revenue performance, budgeting, and staff development to drive measurable improvements in guest experience and asset condition.

Qualifications

• Proven hotel GM experience, ideally mid-market beach/resort properties.
• Direct hands-on management of housekeeping departments.
• Direct hands-on management of engineering/maintenance departments.
• Experience operating a hotel through active renovation.
• Franchise/brand standards experience preferred.
• Financial fluency: RevPAR, CPOR, labor, budgeting, forecasting, P&L.

Responsibilities

• Oversee renovation and capital projects while hotel remains operational, coordinating timelines and contractor work.
• Direct hands-on leadership of housekeeping for staffing, inspections, and room-condition standards.
• Lead engineering/maintenance with preventive maintenance, work orders, and safety compliance.
• Manage revenue and financial performance: RevPAR, ADR, occupancy, budgeting, and cost controls.
• Recruit, train, and retain department heads, enforce accountability and consistency.

Skills

Hotel GM experience

Housekeeping leadership

Engineering/maintenance leadership

Renovation during operation

Brand/franchise standards experience

Job description

General Manager — By the Sea Resorts

Panama City Beach, FL

The Opportunity

We're hiring a General Manager to lead a large beachfront hotel through a physical and operational turnaround. This is an active, occupied property — not a dark reopening — requiring a leader who can run day-to-day operations while simultaneously managing capital renovation work and rebuilding guest satisfaction.

The right candidate has hard operational chops in the two departments that drive guest experience and asset condition: housekeeping and engineering. This is not a role for a GM who delegates those functions and reviews reports — we need someone who can walk the property, diagnose root causes, and rebuild both departments from the ground up.

What You'll Own

Renovation & Capital Project Management

• Manage active or phased renovation work while the hotel remains operational — sequencing, contractor coordination, minimizing guest disruption and OOO inventory.
• Serve as property-side owner of the capital project punch list; report progress and issues to ownership with clear timelines.
• Prior experience leading a hotel through renovation-while-operating is strongly preferred.

Housekeeping Leadership

• Direct hands-on management of the housekeeping department: staffing model, inspection standards, deep-clean cycles, and room-condition consistency.
• Own the housekeeping component of guest satisfaction recovery — this is the single largest lever on review scores.
• Strong housekeeping management experience is strongly preferred, not just oversight of a director.

Engineering & Property Condition

• Direct hands-on management of the engineering/maintenance department: preventive maintenance program, work-order discipline, life-safety compliance, and internal physical product requirements.
• Own remediation of deferred maintenance backlog and coordinate with capital renovation scope to avoid duplicated or wasted work.
• Strong engineering/maintenance management experience is strongly preferred, not just oversight of a chief engineer.

Revenue & Financial Performance

• Strong understanding of RevPAR, ADR, occupancy, and channel mix; execute against a centralized revenue management strategy set by the Chief Commercial Officer.
• Own CPOR, labor productivity, purchasing controls, budgeting, and flow-through.

People & Culture

• Recruit, train, and retain department heads and line staff in a challenging labor market.
• Build accountability and consistency, particularly within housekeeping and engineering.

What Success Looks Like

• Measurable, sustained improvement in guest satisfaction scores and inspection results.
• Housekeeping and engineering functioning as strengths rather than liabilities.
• Renovation milestones hit without unplanned OOO expansion or guest-facing disruption.
• CPOR and labor targets held while service and condition improve.

The Ideal Candidate

• Proven Hotel GM experience, ideally in a mid-market beach or resort property.
• Direct, hands-on experience managing housekeeping departments — required.
• Direct, hands-on experience managing engineering/maintenance departments — required.
• Experience operating a hotel through active renovation — strongly preferred
• Franchise/brand standards experience (any major flag) - preferred
• Financial fluency: RevPAR, CPOR, labor %, budgeting, forecasting, P&L.
• Panama City Beach / Emerald Coast market familiarity is a plus but not required