Five Things That Would Have Given Me My Time Back as a GM

I spent six years as a General Manager, running the Radisson Blu in Athlone and the Great Southern Hotel in Killarney. When I look back now, I can see exactly where my time went, and how much of it I could have got back.

Here is what I wish I had known then, and what would have changed my week the most.

What people outside hospitality do not understand about being a GM

It is the sheer amount that is involved. You are constantly thinking about your team, their training and their progression, while also making sure every guest is looked after from the second they walk in till the second they leave.

You are always trying to anticipate needs. This could be someone's one break in a year, their first holiday, or their wedding. Every detail has to be considered so you stay a step ahead. You cannot do that alone. You need your whole team thinking the same way, because with almost a thousand guests coming through the door in a day, one person wanting it to be special is not enough.

Less time on spreadsheets, more time with guests

For me it was roughly 40 percent admin and 60 percent everything else. The extra hours I worked were mostly because of the volume of admin that had to be done. Ideally a GM wants to be able to say 90 percent of their time is on the floor with guests and 10 percent is admin.

Without the right system, that balance is impossible. If I had Alkimii when I was a GM, I might still be a GM.

The task I dreaded every week 

Getting the payroll figures. Everything was manual, which really meant spreadsheets. I had to spend time with the accountants to get those figures as quickly as I could, then go back and review the rosters that had been submitted. If there was an overspend, we had to work out how to pull it back while still offering the same experience to guests and without cutting cover.

What I dreaded most was getting those figures too late. Late figures meant I was always giving managers the bad news after the fact, rather than working with them in time to make the right call.

How I kept track of cost, compliance, maintenance and guests at once

A lot of admin and a lot of Excel. For payroll, I put a process in place with my finance team to get figures as fast as possible, and I invited someone from finance to our daily morning briefing so we could keep track of the previous day's revenue against payroll cost. Even then, the systems we had could not give me a truly accurate live figure.

Maintenance was on Excel too, which is a big part of why the admin was so high. I was not only managing my own admin time, I was adding to the workload of my finance team and my managers to keep those manual processes going.

What would have changed my week the most

Three things stand out:

You see your labour cost today, not on payroll day

Just by putting in a roster and having people clock in and out, Alkimii builds the cost picture as it happens. No waiting on finance, no reviewing rosters after the overspend has already happened. That frees up the finance team, and it means you can guide your managers while the week can still change.

"It gave me information I could actually work with my managers on, day by day. Not when it's too late."

You hear it before the guest tells you

When a handover is an Excel tick box that gets emailed around, nobody is notified, nothing is tagged, and you have to read the whole thing to find what matters. Shift Notes are tagged, flagged and pushed to the people who need them, so you walk into your lobby already knowing what happened last night.

As an example, a note from the late shift might read: "Guest in room 214 unhappy with service in the bar last night. Manager on duty aware, drinks comped." Tagged as a guest complaint, GM notified, waiting for you when you walk in. Instead of meeting that guest on the back foot, you can say, "I heard about that, leave it with me" and resolve it far faster.

Compliance you can stand over, any day of the week

An inspection can land unannounced. In my very first week as a GM, I had one, and the inspector immediately asked to see the qualifications for my chefs. I watched my HR manager freeze; unsure we could produce them quickly. From that day on I knew you always have to have your compliance up to speed..

With every qualification, contract and certificate in one place, you know what is on file, what is missing, and you can produce it on the spot.

The single feature I would pick

The Property Revenue Dashboard. It gave crystal clear information on how each department was performing, so if a department overspent on payroll in the first couple of days of the week, I could work with that manager straight away. It was not only about keeping payroll under control. It gave me a tool to empower and develop my managers, which I was always passionate about, especially for the ones who wanted to become GMs themselves one day.

Time back is time with your team

That is what People First means from the GM's perspective. You are nothing without your team. It means making sure they are looked after and have the tools to do what you are asking of them, knowing them as people and as professionals, and understanding what works for their life outside work, because if you get that right you get the best of them when they are in.

A common mistake is assuming everyone wants to be promoted and keep climbing. That is not the case. Some people are exactly where they want to be, doing work they are passionate about, and that fits their life. Supporting the people who do not want to climb matters just as much as supporting the ones who do.

The week is yours to win back

None of this is about working less as a GM. It is about spending the hours where they matter, on the floor with your guests and your team, instead of in spreadsheets chasing figures that arrive too late. The right system does the gathering, so you get the week back.

See how Alkimii gives hospitality teams that time back. Book a demo today!