Moon River Ranch
Moon River Ranch is 550 acres on a horseshoe bend of the Brazos River, with more than six miles of protected river frontage and a three-mile stretch of white sand beach. We run a 20-bedroom main lodge that sleeps 50, plus a dozen cabins, cottages and riverfront wagons, for about 150 guests on property. We have an on-site restaurant, a general store, and an event center that seats 210 and holds 284. We also run a wildlife conservation safari of more than 500 head, including free roaming zebra, wildebeest and oryx.
Guests come here to ride, fish, shoot skeet, run the ATV and bike trails, take the safari, get married and bring their companies out for the week. Our job is to make all that work without the guest ever seeing the effort.
We are looking for a Guest Ranch Operations Manager to run this ranch day to day.
The hotel operation: rooms, bookings and guest rooms
You run the lodging operation as a hotel, because that is what it is. Every bed on the place is yours: the 20 bedrooms in the main lodge, the cabins, the cottages and the riverfront wagons. Roughly 33 units and 150 beds across the property.
Bookings and the reservation system. You own the booking calendar, rates and availability, group blocks and holds, deposits and cancellations, and the room assignments that make a full house work. You run the property management system and keep the data clean enough to trust.
Front desk and the arrival experience. Check in and check out, guest registration, billing and folios, and the standard every guest is greeted to.
Occupancy and revenue. You manage occupancy deliberately rather than reactively. You know what is on the books this week and next, where the gaps are, which groups are holding space, and what that means for staffing and ordering. You report occupancy, pace, average rate and revenue to the Managing Partner.
Housekeeping and the room product. Turnover standards, linen and amenity inventory, deep clean schedules, preventative maintenance on the units, and the condition of every room before a guest walks in. You inspect, and you strip a room yourself when it needs stripping.
Rooms and events together. When there is a 200-guest wedding on Saturday and a corporate group arriving Sunday, you sequence the turnover so both land properly.
The departments, day to day
You are the person the department heads and crews answer on a normal working day, and the person who makes the pieces line up: lodging, housekeeping, guest services, the restaurant and general store, events, the activity crew, and maintenance and grounds. When the kitchen, the event team and the wranglers all need the same morning to go a certain way, you are the one who makes that happen.
Food and beverage
You work alongside the kitchen and restaurant team on the guest dining experience: menu development, food costing, inventory and vendor coordination, and the service standards the dining room runs on. You are accountable for the dining program holding up, and for the restaurant and the general store working with the rhythm of the house rather than against it.
The property
You walk it every day. Rooms, cabins, common areas, grounds. You find what is wrong before a guest does and you get it fixed. You manage the vendors and contractors coming in and out for housekeeping, maintenance and guest amenities, and the upkeep of the buildings and equipment.
The people
You hire, train and schedule across the guest facing departments. You run the daily briefing, so everybody knows who is arriving, who is leaving and what is happening. You hold the standard through the season rather than letting it drift, and you build and mentor a team that delivers a high touch guest experience without being told to.
Guest safety across the activities
Safari tours, trail rides, the ATV and bike trails, skeet, archery and the water. You are not running the horses or the range yourself, but you are accountable for guests being looked after and accounted for.
What we are looking for
- Five years or more of hospitality leadership, with demonstrated responsibility for rooms, guest service operations or food and beverage. Running a guest ranch, lodge, resort, retreat, camp or hunting operation, or running the lodging and operations inside one, is what we are really after. If you have held a working property together where there were activities and livestock going on around the guests, that is exactly the experience we want.
- Direct ownership of rooms: reservations, front desk and housekeeping reporting to you at the same time.
- Experience overseeing restaurants, retreat dining programs or guest dining operations is a plus.
- Experience in boutique resorts, lodges, ranch resorts, retreat destinations or experiential hospitality. Strongly preferred.
- Experience in outdoor recreation, ranch environments, retreats or hunting lodge operations is a plus.
- Somebody who is on the property, not behind a desk. This is a hands-on job and who can hire and hold a standard with seasonal staff.
- Comfortable around horses, firearms, water and ATVs, and serious about guest safety around all four.
- Steady when it goes wrong. Full lodge, wedding in the event center, a guest hurt on the trail. You sort it out and the guests never feel it.
- Bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, business administration, culinary arts or a related field is preferred but not required. What you have run is what matters.
Other requirements
- Flexibility to work evenings, weekends and holidays through retreats, events and peak guest periods, because that is when guests are here.
- Present and engaged during key guest experiences, retreats and special events.
What success looks like in the first 6 to 12 months
- The rooms and booking operation are run deliberately and visibly: the calendar, occupancy, rate, turnover standards and room product are all under control and reported to the Managing Partner.
- Leadership and operational alignment are established across lodging, housekeeping, guest services, culinary, events, the activity crew and grounds.
- Consistent service standards and operating procedures are in place across rooms, dining, retreats and guest experiences.
- The on-site restaurant and the general store are running to the standard the rest of the property is held to.
- Signature ranch experiences have been developed and delivered
- Corporate retreats, group bookings and special events run smoothly, with guest satisfaction holding through the busiest weeks.
- A hospitality team has been built and mentored that consistently delivers the high touch experience this place is known for.
Onsite accommodation
Onsite accommodation can be considered for the right person.
TO APPLY:
Forward cover letter & resume to our email address.
Email
[email protected]
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