Best Online Hospitality Management Programs of 2024

A hospitality management degree can equip you with the business, leadership, and industry-specific skills you need to excel in this rapidly growing field. As a hospitality leader, you can manage teams of people who serve guests from diverse cultural and geographical backgrounds. Specifically, you can find employment as a lodging manager, event planner, or food service manager.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the hospitality industry accounted for 7.6% of global GDP in 2022, and the sector is recovering fast from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hospitality wages can rise well above average. As of April 2024, Payscale reports that people with a hotel management degree earn an average of $69,000 annually. Securing an MBA in hospitality management can set you up to earn even higher wages.

The guide below offers a glimpse into the study and practice of hospitality management, including our data-derived ranking of the best bachelor’s degree programs in the subject.

If you’re interested in working with people and combining business, math, and science with creativity and creature comforts, you might be a good fit for a career in hospitality management. While many people begin their careers in this field with an entry-level job, getting your bachelor’s in hospitality management can give you a leg up and allow you to apply for higher-level or corporate-side roles directly after graduation.

When you study hospitality management online, you’ll be able to learn from anywhere, allowing you to study while you hold a job or internship to get valuable real-world experience. Some programs offer flexible class times to suit your schedule, and you can save on relocation costs if you attend a school online.

A bachelor’s in hospitality management can be expensive. The average bachelor’s degree at a public college or university was $12,394 annually as of 2020-2021, per the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Students studying at a private institution paid an average of $26,621 yearly. The good news is scholarships and grants can help cover some of these costs.

While most full-time bachelor’s programs in hospitality management last four years, the timeline can vary. Whether you’re coming in with transfer credits and whether you choose to study full or part time can significantly impact the length of your program.

When you submit your application to an online hospitality management program, you’ll likely also need to have:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), your pay and job outlook in hospitality management depends on your specific position — wages and growth vary widely between roles. Some hospitality-related field, like event planning, are growing faster than the average occupation. The BLS projects jobs for event planners will increase by 8% in the next decade. Some positions can earn well above the average wage; HR managers, for example, earned an average of $136,350 per year in 2023.

One thing all hospitality roles have in common is that they call for a mix of hard skills like finance and accounting and soft skills, such as the ability to work well with customers and coworkers.