Hotel Director
If you love the idea of running a hotel that happens to move around the world, we’d love to hear from you.
Ready to swap the hotel lobby for the high seas?
We’re looking for experienced Hotel General Managers to lead the hotel operation onboard large, busy, mass-market cruise ships.
Previous cruise ship Hotel Director/Hotel GM experience is very welcome, but it isn’t essential. We’re also particularly interested in speaking to successful land-based Hotel GMs who are ready to take their experience into a completely different operating environment.
What we’re looking for
You’ll need at least 3 years’ full-time GM experience managing a large, complex hospitality operation, ideally:
A large resort
A multi-property or cluster operation
A high-volume hotel
A large property with a recognised international hotel brand
Or a large cruise ship hotel operation
You should be comfortable leading and developing a large, highly diverse multinational team, managing multiple departments and keeping standards high in an extremely busy, fast-paced operation.
We’re looking for someone who is:
Hands-on, visible and operational
Genuinely guest-centric
A strong people leader and developer
Commercially and financially aware
Calm under pressure
Flexible, pragmatic and solutions-focused
Comfortable working with different cultures, personalities and leadership styles
The lifestyle
Cruise ship life isn’t a normal hotel GM job. You’ll live and work onboard, travel extensively and spend long periods away from home.
Typical rotations are approximately 4 months onboard followed by 2 months' vacation, so you must be able to spend around 8 months of the year at sea.
Applications are welcome from suitably qualified candidates worldwide.
- Department
- Hotel General Management
- Role
- Hotel Director
- Locations
- Shipboard Worldwide (USA), Cruise Academy - United Kingdom, Shipboard Worldwide (Central America), Shipboard Worldwide (Eastern Europe), Shipboard Worldwide (Western Europe), Shipboard Worldwide (UAE), Shipboard Worldwide (South America)
About Cruise Academy
Straight Talk. Real Experience. No Bull-ship. 🚢✨
At Cruise Academy, we don’t just teach it - we’ve lived it. Founded in 2017 by seafarers for seafarers, we specialize in maritime training and shipboard recruitment for the global cruise industry.
We tell it like it is - the good, the bad, and the downright exhausting. No sugarcoating, no sales pitch - just real, honest insights from those who’ve been there. Because you deserve to know exactly what to expect before stepping onboard.
We are MLC Certified and proudly audited and approved by the UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency, ensuring the highest standards in training, recruitment, and compliance.
If you're serious about a career at sea, we’ll get you there - the right way.