Sector · Hospitality & Leisure
Hospitality and leisure executive search.
Retained search for hotel groups, luxury and premium hospitality operators, restaurant groups and leisure businesses.
Industry insight
Understanding the landscape.
Brand + operator + owner dynamics
Senior appointments in hospitality require candidates who can navigate the three-way relationship between brand, operator and owner. The best General Managers and hotel-group CEOs bring this fluency; the ones who don’t create cost quickly.
Luxury and lifestyle segmentation
The luxury and lifestyle segments of the market have professionalised sharply in the last decade. Candidates who came up through classical luxury service now compete with candidates who came up through lifestyle brands — and the two profiles are not interchangeable.
F&B as a competitive lever
The Head of F&B is increasingly the most consequential operational appointment in a hotel group, driving both revenue and brand differentiation. The candidate pool is small and heavily networked.
Talent shortage post-pandemic
The senior operational leadership pool in UK hospitality shrunk materially between 2020 and 2023 and has not fully recovered. Retained search reaches candidates who are not looking; open advertising does not.
Roles we recruit
Senior appointments across the sector.
We recruit across seniority levels, from senior specialists to board-level appointments.
- Chief Executive Officer (Hotel Group)
- Managing Director / General Manager
- Head of Food & Beverage
- Head of Operations
- Head of Revenue Management
- Chief Marketing Officer (Hospitality)
- Head of Development / Real Estate
- Head of Spa & Wellness
- General Manager (individual property)
Why work with us
Retained, senior-partner-led, sector-fluent.
- Sector understanding: We understand the brand-operator-owner dynamic and speak the language of hotel groups, restaurant operators, and leisure businesses.
- Discretion: Senior hospitality appointments are heavily networked. We handle every mandate confidentially, including where the incumbent remains in seat.
- International reach: Many senior UK hospitality mandates draw candidates internationally. We coordinate visa, relocation and family-office-adjacent considerations where relevant.
- Retained and senior-partner-led: Every mandate is owned end-to-end by a named partner from brief to onboarding at 30, 90 and 180 days.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Do you handle luxury and premium hospitality specifically?
Yes. Luxury and premium hospitality (Forbes 5-star, Leading Hotels of the World, Relais & Châteaux, comparable independent luxury properties) is a specialism. The candidate pool and the cultural expectations of these operators are distinct from mid-market and require dedicated market mapping.
Do you recruit for hotel groups or individual properties?
Both. Corporate hotel-group appointments (Group CEO, MD, Head of F&B, CMO) run through our headquarters practice. Individual General Manager appointments for flagship properties run as retained searches in their own right.
Can you support restaurant group leadership?
Yes. Restaurant group CEOs, Managing Directors and Head of Operations appointments are a growing specialism, particularly for growth-stage restaurant groups moving from single-concept to multi-brand operators.
How long does a hospitality search take?
Twelve to sixteen weeks brief to accepted offer is typical. International candidates or roles requiring visa sponsorship can add three to four weeks.
How is compensation typically structured?
Base salary, discretionary bonus tied to property or group performance, and (in senior appointments) equity participation or a long-term-incentive component. Senior GM packages at luxury flagship properties often include accommodation.
Discuss a mandate