Professional Profile in the Hospitality Sector: The Hostels’ Case

Abstract

Recent studies have focused on skills, their importance for the employees’ performance, and how they are valued in several business sectors. The hospitality sector is not an exception to this worry. In this study was performed a qualitative study, aiming to characterise the skills valued in the hospitality sector. The participants were 10 hostel managers, 6 were males and 4 females with a mean age of 31 years old. Data were collected from May to July 2019 with a semi-structured interview, and being analysed according to thematic analysis. Two main categories emerged from the data: training and hospitality. Training emerged from the category’s qualification, soft skills, and hard skills. Regarding the hard skills, our participants valued language domain, manager of the social network, information and communication skills, booking management, and geographical knowledge. Regarding soft skills, it was referred polyvalent, empathy, ethical behaviour, and customer orientation. The category hospitality referred to the trends and the departments needed in the hostels to achieve the organisation goals. In conclusion, our data suggested that graduation is a competitive advantage for service quality and customer satisfaction. Additionally, it contributes to human resources development, allowing the recruitment and selection of more skilled professionals.