Women Run Luxury Hospitality. So Why Aren't They Running the Companies?

Luxury hospitality is powered by women. They lead sales teams, run iconic properties and are central to the guest experience — often the people advisors know and work with most closely. But when succession planning moves to the very top and boards begin discussing who will take the helm, female representation becomes noticeably scarce.

For Naureen Ahmed, founder of Inspiring Women in Hospitality, the lack of diversity she encountered early in her career was jarring.

“The guest speakers at hotel school were mostly men. There was really only one woman who came to speak,” Ahmed said. “Attending conferences, I noticed it was mostly men on stage and mostly men in the room. It felt like a shock to the system. I would think, ‘Why am I here?’”

And it’s not just anecdotal. According to benchmarking from the American Hotel & Lodging Association, women hold roughly one in four chief-level roles in hospitality: meaningful progress from decades ago — but far from parity.

Why is it that in an industry so reliant on women, the pathway to the very top remains so narrow for that same gender? What determines whether a woman reaches the helm of a global hotel company? And how does equilibrium become the norm rather than the exception?

Carine Bonnejean, managing director of hotels and international at Christie & Co., argues the issue starts long before a CEO conversation is even on the table, pinpointing a critical juncture that typically arrives in a woman’s early-to-mid 30s, when career ambitions collide with starting a family.

“It’s difficult when you have two ambitious careers and children in the middle,” Bonnejean said. “At some point, one person — usually the woman — may need to step back slightly. It is here that companies need to actively support talent and invest in that strong potential.”

That moment often coincides precisely with the acceleration into serious leadership tracks.

Carine Bonnejean, managing director of hotels and international at Christie & Co.
(Carine Bonnejean)

Bonnejean’s observation aligns with broader corporate research. McKinsey’s long-running Women in the Workplace study consistently identifies the so-called “broken rung” — the first step into management — as the point where gender gaps widen most. In its latest data, only 93 women are promoted to manager-level roles for every 100 men. Over time, that imbalance compounds, and the pipeline narrows long before the boardroom is in sight.

The solution, Bonnejean stresses, requires compromise, trust and a give-and-take philosophy.

“Companies that retain female talent understand that there may be moments when you cannot give 100 percent in the same way, but they trust that when circumstances change, you will give back,” she said. “That kind of approach builds enormous loyalty.”

If a woman were to take the helm of a major global hotel group soon, it would be the result of years of deliberate structural investment. Frasers Hospitality CEO Eu Chin Fen is direct on what that looks like in practice.

“High-potential women should be given early opportunities to be rotated into core business functions, and succession planning should be transparent and measured,” Chin Fen said. “Senior leaders need to be accountable and be advocates for high-potential women to take on stretch assignments tied to revenue and investment outcomes.”

Frasers Hospitality CEO Eu Chin Fen
(Eu Chin Fen )

She adds that boards should institutionalize accountability through disclosure, diverse candidate slates and by linking executive compensation to measurable diversity outcomes.

Accor offers a useful case study in what embedded commitment looks like. The group reports achieving 45% women in senior leadership management committee positions by 2025. Its internal women’s network, RiiSE, has more than 20,000 members globally and was designed to address mentorship, unconscious bias and advancement.

The company’s CEO Sébastien Bazin has also noted that the company’s top 50 executives represent 30 different nationalities — and while nationality diversity does not automatically equate to gender balance, Accor’s broader leadership culture appears to back up its stated commitments. The Paris-based group counts some of the most prominent female executives in global travel among its ranks: Martine Gerow as chief financial officer; Gilda Perez-Alvarado, who serves as both chief strategy officer and CEO of Orient Express; Maud Bailly, CEO of Sofitel, MGallery and Emblems; and Agnès Roquefort, chief development officer for Accor’s luxury and lifestyle division.

Other major players have set their own markers. Hilton has publicly tied gender parity goals to leadership compensation. Marriott International has emphasized increasing the representation of women in general manager roles globally. Radisson Hotel Group has set a target of 50% women in leadership roles by 2030.

Chin Fen also points to one of the most persistent structural barriers: the stereotype that women are suited to “micro” or supportive functions while men are better suited to strategic or risk-taking roles. In hospitality, that bias can quietly channel women into HR, front-of-house or administrative tracks while men dominate development, asset management and ownership-facing roles — the very areas that ultimately feed CEO pipelines.

Ahmed, meanwhile, highlights a visibility gap that feeds into the invisible rules of advancement.

“It’s not that hospitality lacks women,” she noted. “Women are in the industry, yet we didn’t have the same visibility or representation.”

And to address that, she argued that mentorship alone falls short.

“Mentorship provides a safe space for guidance and reflection. But it doesn’t necessarily drive career advancement,” Ahmed said. “This is where sponsorship becomes more important. It means having those allies — male or female — who advocate for women, put names forward for opportunities and speak about them in decision-making rooms.”

All three women agree that seeing more women steer the ship is the culmination of succession planning, sponsorship and visibility built over years. The industry doesn’t lack capable women — and it never has.

The real conversation is whether enough companies are redesigning their systems so that those women aren’t left behind on the journey to the corner office. The gap won’t close on its own. But with the right structures — and the right advocates in the right rooms — it doesn’t have to stay this wide for much longer.