Duane Harrison Hunter
Watkinsvillle,Ga
Summary
To obtain employment with a company that can clearly see what I bring to the table in areas such as customer service, Staff management and the like.
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Assistant Manager
SPRINGHILL SUITES BY MARRIOTT
01.2024 - 01.2025
- Assist the General Manager in upholding the standards of this Marriott Brand hotel.
- Responsible for front office, engineering and bar staff scheduling.
- Rooms control, balancing room types, upgrading as necessary, making sure front desk has addressed all VIP concerns. Heavy guest interaction for discovery; early detection of guest sentiment, so to “intercept” any guests issues and resolving them expeditiously.
- Assist the housekeeping department. Completing room attendant boards and assigning master keys. Conducting quality control inspections when needed.
- Rooms Inspection with engineering to send report to Regional Director of Engineering.
- Trained front desk staff in all areas of front office and Springhill Suites Brand culture.
- Preventive maintenance “watch dog” coordinating with Engineering to make sure its being done in accordance with Marriott and Apsilon Hotels standards. Making sure the PM’s are correctly entered into Quore.
- Ensuring Out Of Order rooms are addressed promptly. Reporting any capital expenditures necessary to G,M. and Corporate office via email.
- Ordered supplies for front office, market place, engineering and breakfast bar.
- ServSafe (food) Certified From 2/26/25 -2/26/30
- Group rooms and meeting space hotel coordinator.
- Attended Mandatory weekly revenue meeting. Covering the star report Business on the books, special events etc…
- Lite sales/guest room and meeting space showings. Answering questions from potential clients.
- Reputation Manager: Responded to all online comments via Medallia, Booking.com, Expedia and the like.
- Lite HR duties: Interviewing, hiring, Onboarding, training and progressive disciplinary action as needed.
Task Force Front Office Operations Manager
PHM HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
01.2019 - 01.2020
- The main function of Task Force is to assist hotels in their areas of difficulty while they are going through a transitional phase: difficulty finding qualified staff for a particular department, Hotel is opening/closing and is in need of Hotel leadership and the like.
- Task force requires team members to highly skilled in their prospective fortes in Hotel hospitality industry.
General Manager
BEST WESTERN HOTEL
01.2017 - 01.2018
- Responsible for overseeing the successful operations of the hotel to ensure guest and employee satisfaction and enhance the hotel’s reputation among travelers.
- Lite HR duties: Interviewing, hiring, Onboarding, training and progressive disciplinary action as needed.
- Develop action plans for various projects to be submitted to Corporate office.
- Lite accounting duties: hotel payables, receivables, collections, Chargebacks.
- Managed budgets for each department.
- Heavy guest interaction for discovery; early detection of guest sentiment, so to “intercept” any guests issues and resolving them expeditiously.
- Oversee the implementation of the brand service strategy and brand initiatives with the objective of meeting or exceeding guest expectations.
- Inspect the grounds, public areas for appearance and cleanliness
- Ensure company and brand standards for housekeeping, decor and guest services are met.
- Monitor staff performance by actively monitoring MEDALLIA the brand metrics.
- Approve expenditures.
- Managed all LNR accounts with direct billing (aging report) nothing past 60 days.
- Inspected 10 rooms daily with chief engineer.
- Property “walk around” every morning before starting the day.
- Conduct department head meeting daily.
- Manage F&B Breakfast area.
- Hotel staff briefing every morning at 8:30am.
- Reputation Manager: Respond to all online comments via Medallia, Booking.com, Expedia and the like.
Director of Front Office Operations
HOLIDAY INN FORT LEE
01.2011 - 01.2019
- Company Overview: (Now Mitchell Executive Hotel)
- As Front Office Director of this 185 room property, I am charged with the Responsibility of maintaining quality control and brand consistency.
- Directly responsible for the hiring and Onboarding of all front office talent.
- Directly responsible for the training of all front office talent in IHG standards ensuring Brand consistency.
- Assist the Sales Department with room, meeting space, and banquet Hall showings. Draw up contracts for the Director of sales to approve.
- Reputation Manager for Holiday Inn Fort Lee, responding to all guest reviews and Guest Relations issues.
- In house Revenue Supervisor, alongside RMH (IHG Revenue Manager for Hire) for the immediate supervision of rates based on the movements of the competitive set’s rate fluctuations and other variables making adjustments accordingly. Attend the weekly revenue meeting with RMH to discuss current versus (YOY) booking pace, analyzing current and historical data variables affecting occupancy and making the adjustments as needed.
- Conduct mandatory monthly Staff meetings to review the scores, guest feedback, review strong points, identify and correct areas of weakness.
Assistant Director of Front Services
NEW YORK’S HOTEL PENNSYLVANIA
01.2011 - 01.2011
- Company Overview: (Permanently closed)
- Assist the Director of Front services maintain the quality and guest satisfaction in this 1,700 room union property.
- Shared responsibility for payroll duties in Time Saver.
- Group rooms coordinator.
- Assist Front Office Director with rooms control. Extremely important when dealing with an oversold/sellout situation for a 1,700 room hotel.
- Resolve staffing issues as they arise.
- Resolve all guest issues including billing and guest room type booking.
- Guest credit check done per shift.
- Reconcile all discrepant and due-out rooms with the Housekeeping manager in a timely manner.
- Take disciplinary action as necessary.
- Relieve switchboard operator for lunch.
Front Office Manager
HILTON HOTEL AT JFK
01.2010 - 01.2011
- Company Overview: (Permanently closed)
- Assist the General Manager in maintaining the quality and guest satisfaction this former Holiday Inn is known for.
- Handle all training with associates to ensure the hotel and brand standards are adhere to.
- Communicate with Housekeeping manager for guest special requests.
- Morning briefing with Night Audit.
- Complete weekly supply inventories to ensure adequate supplies.
- Complete rate discrepancy report and make needed changes.
- Ensure credit check is being down per shift.
Director of Front Office Operations
DOUBLETREE HOTEL AT J.F.K. AIRPORT
01.2007 - 01.2009
- Company Overview: (Radisson at JFK)
- As Front Office director of this 400 room union property, I was directly responsible for the upkeep of brand and Property standards placing emphasis on “SALT” (Satisfaction and Loyal Tracking) scores, Hilton's unit of measure for guest satisfaction within a brand and the Hilton family of hotels.
- Directly responsible for hiring, training, and the evaluation of all front office personnel including reservations Department.
- Scheduling and payroll for front office.
- Direct supervisor of transportation and bell staff, under Union local 6, scheduling and payroll.
- Maintained a structured environment through the strict adherence of hotel policies, standards and procedures set forth designed to serve and protect our guests, employees and DoubleTree as an entity.
- Designed DoubleTree J.F.K.'s hotel Directory of services and facilities.
- 5 minute “huddle” before every shift, pre-shift meetings are paramount, the dissemination of information is crucial to the day to day operations of front office and that all associates are fully aware of the day’s events, I. E. VIP arrivals and the alike.
- Attended daily department head meetings to discuss the days overall challenges, also, to coordinate, disseminate, and confirm another department's issues, concerns and needs from front office.
- Managed Hilton's Guest Assistance, contacted guests and discussed guest issues/concerns with the DoubleTree at J.F.K. Resolved all guest issues within the allotted time frame of 48 hours.
- Handled all disciplinary action levied against an associate. From coach and counseling to the recommendation of termination of an associate's employment with the Doubletree. All in accordance with union rules.
- Weekly conference call with revenue manager (Revenue Mgr. Outsourced) with Director of Sales, Reservations Manager and General Manager.
Assistant Front Office Manager
RADISSON MARTINIQUE ON B’WAY
01.2006 - 01.2007
- Company Overview: (Closed)
- As an Assistant Manager of this 532 room union property, I am charged with keeping the “Radisson standard” being focused on Quality Assurance is a key factor in maintaining guest satisfaction and brand loyalty, not withstanding, rate/revenue control is top priority.
- Review points of concern i.e. guest issues resolution and recovery, blocking V.I.P. groups.
- Assist Front Office Manager with scheduling and payroll.
- Train new managers and desk associates on the Property Management System, As well as, front office Standard Operating Procedures and Radisson’s “Yes I Can” standards.
- Ensuring lines of communication are open, keeping front office staff informed is essential. (i.e. Radisson packages being offered, group arrivals for bell staff etc.)
- Created managers’ and desk agent checklists to reflect changes to out-dated material.
Assistant Front Office Manager
HELMSLEY PARK LANE HOTEL
01.2003 - 01.2005
- Company Overview: (Now The Park Lane Hotel)
- Assisted the Rooms Division Manager in maintaining front office operations and standards to ensure quality control for our guests who stay at our high profile luxury property.
- Prepared schedules for the front office associates two weeks in advance.
- Responsible for preparing weekly payroll through ADP Time Saver.
- Relieved Night Manager in performing such duties as supervising overnight houseman, engineering and room service, amicably solving guest related issues, running room and tax and departmental reports, strived for maximum occupancy and rate integrity.
- Reviewed room revenue adjustments with Rooms Director to aid in determining what issues needed to be addressed.
Assistant Manager
WELLINGTON HOTEL
01.2001 - 01.2003
- Company Overview: (Closed)
- Assist the Resident Manager in maintaining the daily operations of a Union, 600 room International tourist hotel.
- Run forecasts for 90day period
- Check for departing groups and set up billing house accounts and coordinate with bell- captain for arriving groups, calculate porterage for bellman.
- Payroll(Manually) and scheduling
- Maintained room inventory in Pegasus solutions (NetRez.com) a Utell company, as well as updating Wellington Hotel’s Web site.
- Calculated A.D.R. and REV PAR in comparison with last year’s figures Resident Mgr.
- Supervised all departments in the absence of General Manager and Resident Manager.
Night Manager/Auditor
ROYALTON HOTEL (Ian Schrager Hotels)
01.1999 - 01.2001
- Maintained overnight operations of this high-end, high profile, boutique hotel with emphasis on the audit.
- Maintained Inventory and Purchase Orders for front Office.
- Greeted all High profile guests and escorted them to their rooms as necessary.
- Supervised the overnight staffing, houseman and engineers.
- Balanced the credit cards, ran room and tax and all departmental report
Education
Academic Diploma - undefined
JACKSONVILLE HIGH SCHOOL
Jacksonville, North Carolina01.1989
Information Systems Management
YORK COLLEGE
Jamaica, New York01.1992
Skills
- MS Word, MS Excel MS Powerpoint
- General Office equipment: Fax/Email, copiers, front office printers
- Lexmark610dn
Certification
- SIGNATURE: Transient Sales and Service Training 2006 (Certified)
- FREEMAN GROUP: Foundations Workshop “Train the Trainer” 2006(Certified)
- HOLIDAY INN: Stay Real Promises Kept 2012 (Certified)
- IHG REWARDS CLUB: Loyalty Champion GOLD 2014(Certified)
- IHG REVENUE MANAGEMENT ESSENTIALS CERTIFICATION (pending 2.5day Instructor led workshop for certification)
- IHG REVENUE SUMMIT 2015
- HILTON CERTIFICATIONS: OnQ, CRM, HHONORS, MY WAY
Timeline
Assistant Manager
SPRINGHILL SUITES BY MARRIOTT
01.2024 - 01.2025
Task Force Front Office Operations Manager
PHM HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
01.2019 - 01.2020
General Manager
BEST WESTERN HOTEL
01.2017 - 01.2018
Director of Front Office Operations
HOLIDAY INN FORT LEE
01.2011 - 01.2019
Assistant Director of Front Services
NEW YORK’S HOTEL PENNSYLVANIA
01.2011 - 01.2011
Front Office Manager
HILTON HOTEL AT JFK
01.2010 - 01.2011
Director of Front Office Operations
DOUBLETREE HOTEL AT J.F.K. AIRPORT
01.2007 - 01.2009
Assistant Front Office Manager
RADISSON MARTINIQUE ON B’WAY
01.2006 - 01.2007
Assistant Front Office Manager
HELMSLEY PARK LANE HOTEL
01.2003 - 01.2005
Assistant Manager
WELLINGTON HOTEL
01.2001 - 01.2003
Night Manager/Auditor
ROYALTON HOTEL (Ian Schrager Hotels)
01.1999 - 01.2001
Academic Diploma - undefined
JACKSONVILLE HIGH SCHOOL
Information Systems Management
YORK COLLEGE