Certified Hotel Administrator

Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA) is the highest certification from the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute.

To be eligible, individuals must fall into one of the following categories:
 * 1) General Manager, owner/operator in a lodging hospitality company, or corporate executive at a lodging hospitality company responsible for the operation of two or more properties. A corporate executive is defined as "individual, employed by a firm responsible for the operation of two or more properties, who serves as a regional or corporate director of operations, or has ultimate corporate responsibility for rooms, marketing, accounting and finance, food and beverage, human resources, or engineering."
 * 2) Assistant General Manager or Director of Operations/Rooms Division (after successfully completing the Certified Rooms Division Executive certification)

According to the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute, the CHA exam consists of 200 multiple-choice questions that must be answered within a four-hour time period. All test questions are designed to test the candidate's mastery of various competencies derived from six key areas of knowledge in combination with on-the-job hospitality work experience. The key areas of testing are:


 * 1) Financial management
 * 2) Sales and marketing
 * 3) Leadership management
 * 4) Human resources management
 * 5) Rooms management
 * 6) Food and beverage management

College credits
CHA's can earn undergraduate or graduate credit for their certification when they enroll in certain programs of study from two private for-profit institutions: the American Public University and the University of Phoenix. The American Council on Education (ACE) determined the CHA certification is worth six semester credits at an upper-division baccalaureate degree level and three semester credits at a graduate degree levels.