Hotel CFO Recruiting: Finance Leadership That Moves NOI
- Jeff Schmidt
- Oct 26, 2025
- 4 min read
Anchor hotel CFO recruiting to owner outcomes: cash discipline, capex gates, forecast accuracy, and audit-ready controls.
Hire for operators who translate data into action, not spreadsheet theater.
Use a scorecard tied to NOI/GOP improvement, cash cadence, and board-level reporting.
Align compensation with asset complexity, debt covenants, and portfolio scope.
Run a 21-day sprint with real P&Ls, cash forecasts, and covenant scenarios.
Resource: frameworks, interview scorecards, and checklists live in our hotel hiring guide.
Why owners miss on finance leadership (and how to avoid it)
Hotels don’t just need accountants; they need operators with a finance spine. Misses happen when searches prioritize tool proficiency over owner outcomes: cash stability, controllable cost discipline, clean audits, and board-ready narratives. Effective hotel CFO recruiting starts by naming the next two quarters’ targets—e.g., +150–250 bps flow-through, weekly cash certainty, capex triage with ROI gates, covenant headroom—and weighting the scorecard accordingly.
Hotel CFO Recruiting: Scorecards and First 90 Days
The mandate
Cash & covenants. 13-week cash forecast, treasury rhythm, and debt compliance with headroom.
Capex discipline. Stage gates, ROI math, and post-mortems that actually happen.
Audit-ready operations. Predictable closes, reconciliations, and internal controls that survive turnover.
Owner reporting. One-page story from variance to countermeasure to outcome.
Partner to GM/Rev/DOSM. Finance that enables throughput and rate integrity—not that blocks it.
First 90 days (at a glance)
Days 1–30: Cash map, covenant check, close cadence, chart of accounts cleanup.
Days 31–60: Capex gates installed; labor/COGS dashboards; forecast variance below ±3%.
Days 61–90: Board-ready narrative, monthly owner deck, audit prep, and KPI rhythm baked into ops.
Interview architecture that surfaces operators (not spectators)
Work sample #1: Cash & covenants. Provide a simplified 13-week model with seasonality and vendor terms; candidate stabilizes cash and protects headroom.
Work sample #2: Capex gate. Present three capex asks; they stage-gate with ROI, payback, and impact on guest scores and labor.
Work sample #3: Month-end truth. Show a messy close; they design reconciliations, cut-off, and a faster close without control loss.
Owner session. Candidate builds a one-page owner narrative from P&L deltas to specific countermeasures.
What great looks like: Hotel CFO/Controller scorecard
Cash certainty: Weekly cash cadence; vendor terms optimized; surprises eliminated.
Forecast accuracy: P&L and cash within ±3%; clear early-warning triggers.
Capex ROI: Stage gates with hurdle rates; post-mortems; “nice-to-haves” paused.
Audit readiness: Clean reconciliations, predictable closes, and controllership discipline.
Owner narrative: Board-ready monthly decks tied to outcomes, not vanity charts.
Cross-functional impact: Finance unlocks throughput (Rooms HK productivity), protects ADR discipline (Rev), and fuels event margin (F&B).
Team quality: Retains A-players; uplevels B’s; clear role charters in Accounting/Payroll/AP.
Systems: PMS/POS/GL data integrity; no spreadsheet sprawl for critical numbers.
Compensation benchmarks (directional; tune to scope and portfolio)
Role & asset scope | Base salary | Bonus target | Typical total cash | Notes |
Controller – single full-service | $110k–$150k | 15%–25% | $127k–$188k | Tracks close cadence, controls, owner decks. (Controller, not CFO, is most common at single assets.) |
Area/Regional Controller (2–5 hotels) | $135k–$185k | 20%–30% | $162k–$240k+ | Multi-asset reconciliations, audits, cash rhythm. |
Hotel CFO – single complex asset (resort/conference) | $160k–$210k | 20%–35% | $192k–$284k+ | Cash/covenants + major capex; sits above property controllers. |
Portfolio CFO (6–20 hotels) | $200k–$300k | 25%–40% | $250k–$420k+ | Debt, investor relations, FP&A; equity/LTIP can lift total further. |
Plan design tip: tie upside to forecast accuracy, cash certainty, capex ROI, and NOI/GOP improvement, not “close by day X” alone.
Three mini case studies
Conference hotel turnaround. New Controller rebuilt the close cadence and vendor terms; cash forecast variance dropped to ±2.4%; flow-through +160 bps within two quarters.
Resort with large renovation. CFO installed capex gates and vendor milestone controls; on-time/on-budget delivery; guest scores rose while cash headroom improved.
Urban portfolio (6 assets). Portfolio CFO consolidated reporting and metasearch ROI reads with Rev; RevPAR index +3.2 pts, OTA share −9%, GOP +190 bps YoY.
Practical tools you can deploy this week
13-week cash model with vendor term playbook and covenant triggers.
Capex gate template (initiation → approval → post-mortem).
Month-end checklist with reconciliation owners and SLAs.
Owner deck one-pager mapping metric deltas to countermeasures.
Grab plug-and-play templates in the hotel hiring guide.
How We Run the Search (21-Day Sprint)
Day 1–3: Calibration — Owner outcomes, asset/portfolio scope, comp bands, and work samples.
Day 4–10: Sourcing — Branded/independent finance networks; early backchannels with prior owners/auditors.
Day 11–15: Shortlists — 5–7 screened, 3 finalists with scorecards, references, compensation expectations.
Day 16–21: Decision — Working sessions on your real cash/capex decks; offer with 90-day plan.
CTA (top): Start a search — we’ll send 3 vetted CFO/Controller candidates in 5–10 business days.
Common failure modes (and fixes)
Spreadsheet theater. Fix: require work samples that alter cash, not just format it.
Capex drift. Fix: stage gates + post-mortems; pause “nice-to-haves.”
Slow close, messy controls. Fix: checklist ownership, reconciliations, and cut-off discipline.
Finance as roadblock. Fix: embed finance in Rooms/Rev/F&B cadences with shared KPIs.
Comp & Scorecard quick reference (printable)
KPIs: cash forecast variance, days payable outstanding with vendor health, forecast accuracy, covenant headroom, capex ROI, audit findings.
Behaviors: operator mindset, plain-English storytelling, discipline under pressure, ethical backbone.
Evidence: documented improvements to cash, flow-through, audit outcomes, and covenant safety.
Ready to hire a hotel CFO or Controller? Start a search today. Expect 3 vetted candidates in 5–10 business days with scorecards, references, and a 90-day plan.
