By Keith Kefgen & Rosemary Mahoney-Browning

Every two years we conduct the lodging industries most comprehensive survey of compensation and benefit information, the HCE Hospitality Compensation Exchange®. This fall we will be doing just that. But before we do that, take a look at how Sales & Marketing professionals earned in recent years.

The findings below include compensation data from 135 hotel companies. At the time these were taken, executive compensation in the lodging industry was trending upward. Will the new results portray the same incline? 

One of the most significant increases in base salaries was the VP Sales. In addition, bonuses rose at an average of 8% per annum.

System Sales of a company seemed to have the strongest correlation with salaries. In essence, as a company’s system sales increased, executive compensation paralleled. For example, a VP of Marketing representing a company with revenues less than $50M, received a median base salary of $50,020, while a VP of Marketing at a company with revenues between $50M-$500 and greater than $500M, earned median salaries of $140,000 and $168,400, respectively.

Our Lodging property results are based on compensation data from more than 2,400 hotels in North America. At the time, our results were impacted by the expansion in public securitization, Real Estate Investment Trusts and industry consolidation. This year we should see some of these factors play a role in compensation, in addition to a few new forces. Although property level compensations were generally on the rise, the majority of the property positions increased to a lesser degree than the corporate positions.

Similar to system sales, number of rooms is most closely correlated to compensation. As the number of rooms increases, so does one’s compensation. The only exception to that rule was found at small, luxury resorts and boutique properties. With greater rooms, there tend to be more guest services and complexities, thus contributing to the need for higher compensations.

Another factor that can significantly impact compensation is geographic location. Salaries are generally higher for hotels located in the New England/Mid-Atlantic region and the Mountain/Pacific region. Such discrepancies can be due to higher cost of living and competition. For 2000, such factors will most likely remain; however, we shall see.