General Manager Recruitment — Regional Estate

A regional hospitality estate needed stronger leadership across accommodation, events, and F&B — leading to a GM hire aligned with long-term growth.

Rob Wilkes

Melbourne

General Manager Recruitment — Regional Estate

The brief

A regional Victoria hospitality estate needed stronger leadership across accommodation, events, and F&B, with ownership seeking a General Manager whose vision aligned with long-term growth rather than simply managing what was already there.

What the role actually needed

General Manager recruitment at this level isn't just about operational experience. It's about finding someone who understands the complexity of a multi-revenue regional hospitality estate, where accommodation, events, and F&B each have their own rhythms, and can hold standards across all three without losing sight of the bigger picture. For venues outside Melbourne's CBD, that also means finding candidates who are genuinely drawn to regional hospitality, not treating it as a stepping stone.

How we approached it

When ownership first came to us, the role was framed as a Venue Manager. Through our initial briefing conversations it became clear the scope of responsibility across accommodation, events, and F&B stretched well beyond what a VM appointment would have delivered. We reframed the search at General Manager level before a single candidate was approached. From there, our process focused on candidates with direct experience in comparable regional Victoria hospitality operations, people who could demonstrate how they'd driven performance rather than simply maintained it.

The outcome

The appointed General Manager brought proven experience across similar regional hospitality estates and a clear approach to developing the leadership layer beneath them. The focus from day one was long-term alignment, building the kind of operational consistency that regional venues need to compete with Melbourne's dining and accommodation market on reputation alone.