emerit Hotel GM / CHGM common mistakes
emerit Hotel GM / CHGM · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering people-management questions with a list of tasks completed (rostering, appraisals, disciplinary meetings) rather than describing how the situation was diagnosed, what was decided, and what changed as a result.
Candidates draw on CV bullet points and daily routine memory, and under time pressure they recite activity instead of reasoning, because describing a decision feels riskier than listing duties.
What to do instead
Before the exam, build a bank of six to eight STAR stories from real hotel experience. For each, write one sentence for Situation and Task, two to three sentences for Action that include the reasoning behind the choice and one alternative rejected, and one sentence for the measurable Result. Rehearse each aloud in under 90 seconds so the structure becomes automatic.
Giving generic answers about 'excellent customer service' or 'high standards' without naming the specific standard, service sequence, or measurable target that applies in a hotel operation.
Candidates confuse enthusiasm for competence and assume the assessor will infer the operational detail, so they stay at the level of values rather than evidence.
What to do instead
Convert every quality claim into a number, a named procedure, or a documented standard: for example a check-in time target, a guest complaint recovery window, an inspection score, or a brand standard reference. Practise rewriting each sentence of a practice answer to end in a measurable outcome.
Treating financial questions as pure arithmetic and producing a calculation without interpreting what the variance means for the business or what action follows.
Candidates who are weak on ratio analysis or departmental accounting cling to the formula they remember, deliver the number, and stop, hoping the figure alone earns the marks.
What to do instead
For every calculation, add a fixed three-part commentary: what the figure shows, the two most likely operational causes, and the management action with an owner and timeframe. Drill this on common hotel metrics such as RevPAR, GOPPAR, payroll percentage, cost of sales, and flow-through until the commentary is as practised as the maths.
Ignoring the commercial context in revenue questions, quoting a single room rate or occupancy figure instead of explaining segmentation, channel mix, displacement, and total revenue per available room.
Candidates are trained in front-office or rooms operations and think in terms of rate and occupancy, so they miss that the question is testing commercial judgement and asset profitability.
What to do instead
Study the revenue-management vocabulary and practise answering with a structured sequence: demand segment, pricing and channel decision, displacement cost, and effect on total revenue and profit. Build two or three worked examples from a property you know, including group versus transient displacement and the impact of OTA commission.
Answering leadership and team questions by describing how the candidate personally did the work, rather than how they set direction, delegated, developed people, or handled underperformance.
Many candidates were promoted from hands-on operational roles and are used to solving problems themselves, so their instinctive answer centres on personal effort rather than managerial leverage.
What to do instead
Reframe each story around what the team did because of the candidate's intervention. Use a deliberate structure: the performance gap, the conversation or coaching given, the support or training provided, the accountability mechanism, and the outcome for the individual and the department. Include at least one example of a difficult performance conversation and one of developing a successor.
Giving legally or procedurally unsafe answers on employment, health and safety, licensing, or food safety, such as dismissing someone on the spot or skipping a statutory step.
Candidates rely on what they have seen done informally in past workplaces, and they underestimate how heavily the standards weight compliance and duty of care.
What to do instead
Build a one-page compliance checklist covering recruitment and right-to-work checks, disciplinary and grievance process, working-time limits, accident reporting, fire and evacuation duties, food hygiene controls, and licensing conditions. For any scenario answer, state the immediate safety or legal step first, then the internal process, then the record-keeping and escalation route.
Producing answers that are structurally rambling, with the recommendation buried at the end or never stated, so the assessor must hunt for the judgement.
Candidates speak as they think, in chronological order, and nerves make them add context they have not planned, which crowds out the decision and the outcome.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed answer shape for every question: headline recommendation in the first sentence, brief context, analysis of options, action plan, and result or review point. Practise with a timer and record answers, then cut anything that does not support the headline. Aim to state the recommendation within the first fifteen seconds.
Misreading the question's role and scope, answering as a department head for a whole-property or asset-level question, or vice versa, and missing the stakeholder the question is really about.
Candidates prepare from their own job description and default to their current level of responsibility, and under pressure they skim the question for a familiar keyword rather than reading the command verb and the scope.
What to do instead
Underline the command verb and the scope words in every question before answering: evaluate, recommend, justify, or describe, and department, property, group, or owner. Rephrase the question in one sentence in your own words before starting. Practise a set of questions deliberately written at different organisational levels.
Neglecting the guest-experience journey beyond the front desk, so answers cover check-in and complaints but omit housekeeping standards, maintenance response, food and beverage consistency, online reputation, and post-stay follow-up.
Candidates often come from rooms or front-office backgrounds and know that area in depth, so they unconsciously narrow every service question to their comfort zone.
What to do instead
Map the full guest journey from pre-arrival to post-stay and prepare one improvement example and one measurement for each stage. When answering a service question, deliberately name at least two touchpoints outside the candidate's home department and link them to review scores, repeat business, or complaint data.
Presenting no evidence of commercial or strategic thinking about the asset, such as owner reporting, capital expenditure prioritisation, competitive positioning, or sustainability and risk planning.
Candidates concentrate revision on day-to-day operations because that is what they know best, and they assume strategy will be covered by general business knowledge rather than hotel-specific asset language.
What to do instead
Prepare a short position paper on a property you know: competitive set, positioning, three-year capital plan, key risks, and the metrics reported to owners. Learn to speak about return on investment, payback, brand standards compliance, and environmental and safety risk in operational terms, and include one strategic example in practice answers.