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The general manager (GM) is the key position in a hotel, but the changing structure of the industry has altered the scope of the GM's decision-making autonomy. In many hotels, the GM is an employee of a hotel operating firm and is effectively an agent of the operator or owner (and sometimes both parties). These principals have authority over several aspects of hotel operation, although the GM also has responsibility. A study of the GM's role and authority in 115 upscale European hotels finds a mixed picture in decision autonomy, depending on the individual's experience and education, as well as whether the hotel is independent or chain managed. Overall, independent GMs have greater autonomy in their properties than chain GMs, and highly experienced managers are often given greater autonomy by independent owners, while operating companies give greater autonomy to GMs who offer a combination of education and experience. With regard to individual functional areas, chain GMs have relatively greater authority in human resources, marketing, and strategy but limited autonomy in finance and operations.

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Hotel owners and managers are increasingly outsourcing their spas to specialist firms that oversee the spa's operations and personnel. In such spas they assume the role of boundary spanners as they are responsible for overseeing the operational relationship between the hotel and spa companies. In this role, they are responsible for trying to satisfy the hotel and spa companies' often contradictory expectations while also often adhering to two sets of operating guidelines. As a result, they may experience different levels of role conflict and role ambiguity than spa managers who oversee spas managed by the hotel. The results of a questionnaire completed by 166 hotel spa managers from spas managed by hotels and those managed by third parties found greater levels of these role stressors in managers of outsourced hotel spas. Based on these findings, research suggestions and managerial implications are discussed.

Strategy tools are a common element of tourism and hotel management courses, journal articles and textbooks. In this paper we explore why practitioners do not find tools useful and hence reject their use as a strategy practice. Drawing on a cross-case analysis of qualitative data from three hotel companies, key findings suggest that strategy tools may restrict the deployment of experience-based knowledge, strategy practices are legitimised by top managers' perceptions and the lack of strategizing activities inhibits the potential for tool use. The industry context, including the unique ownership-management structure and institutionalised practices, also significantly influences the use and perceived value of tools. Practitioners are recommended to reconsider the ability of strategy tools to facilitate debate and act as boundary spanning objects and tourism researchers are encouraged to further study how practitioners use and value tools in order to create new ones based on practice rather than only on theory.