Named to Forbes 2021 list of America’s Best Recruiting Firms.
Find your next executive for boutique or multi-unit hotels, casinos, country clubs, resorts, vacation clubs and BnBs with our trusted hospitality executive search firm.
Discover the best candidates for any restaurant, from fast casual to fine dining, sports venues to healthcare senior living. Our restaurant and hospitality management recruitment team can help.
Where some may believe a work / life balance is impossible,
Gecko Hospitality makes it possible.
Joan Koelbel has been a pleasure to work with and will be an asset to any company looking to find that perfect candidate for their company. Joan’s recent services in placing Don Baruch as our Vice President of Franchise Relations has been invaluable.
Joan took the effort to understand our needs, refining our job description, narrowing down the potential candidates, providing competitive analysis for similar positions and ultimately helping us choose and secure the best person for the job. Joan’s communications are prompt, thorough and always professional.
I would recommend Joan to help you find the right candidate for any position. Her perspective and people skills provide understanding of your needs as the best reason to utilize her skills.Joan, I look forward to working with you again on all our search needs!
Thanks for your dedication and response…I had a great experience with your company and I will recommend you to anyone in the search!
Aaron Engholm
I was fortunate to be connected with Megan and Chris in my latest search for a General Manager at The Inns at St. Albans. We are a family-owned Inn operation that was needing a professional approach and additional staff to help us get to the next level. We were referred by a world-renowned luxury resort to the team at Gecko Hospitality. From the start I felt comfortable in a process that was new to me. Chris and Megan took the time to travel to our site in Missouri and to spend a few days touring our properties and listening to our needs and vision. Chris and Megan screened many applicants and pared down the field to 19 successful applicants. I would have never been able to attract that kind of talent on my own. Final round interviews were conducted with 9 candidates and again Chris joined every interview and counseled us after each appointment. I had never been through such an experience and as a small family-owned operator, I would not have known how to narrow the field. A site visit involving two days of meetings was set and again, I was relieved when Chris offered to attend and assist with the final interview. His guidance and opinion helped us make a great decision. His follow-through continued with designing the offer and incentive compensation package. We stay in touch still as he and Megan check in on the progress of our business often. I feel like I learned so much through the process and highly recommend the team to anyone hoping to grow their operations.
Datra Herzog
Owner | The Inns at St. Albans
I had the pleasure of working with Chris Shatto and Gecko Hospitality and had a great experience from beginning to end. The process went smoothly and the communication was direct and thorough. This team found exactly what I was looking for and would highly recommend their services for myself and for my hotel. Thank you Chris and Gecko Hospitality!
Cheers,
Schuyler
November 16, 2017
To Whom It May Concern:
In early 2017 I introduced “Vault 634”, a new venture under my umbrella of companies that would transform a historic bank building in the heart of Allentown, Pennsylvania into the region’s premier wedding and event venue. We decided to harness the property’s irreplaceable gilded age architecture and invest another $4.5 million to equip the property with nothing short of the very best in modern-day conveniences. With such a substantial investment into the tangible building, we wanted to ensure we staffed the operation with the highest caliber people on the market and were quickly referred to Gecko Hospitality by numerous colleagues.
Working with Gecko Hospitality was a refreshing experience. Within a few short days of signing the contract, we were promptly receiving vetted quality candidates. Marty and his team were quick to make suggestions and provide reports which allowed us to focus on laying the groundwork for our up-and-coming venue. Each of the individuals we decided to interview ended up being better than the last, and after a very brief screening period, we were able to narrow down our selection to two candidates.
Gecko, once again, took charge to make our lives as easy as possible. Within a few short days, they had coordinated reference reports and set up our second round of interviews. Within a week and a half, we had an executed employment letter and our new Director of Operations on staff.
Gecko Hospitality was efficient and thorough. Given we had such a positive experience with Marty and his team we could not think of using another service to recruit in the future.
Sincerely,
Zachary J. Jaindl
Chief Operations Officer
Great Experience, working with Marty Tarabar. He is a true professional.
Mitch Merrill, Sioux City Country Club
I wanted to thank you and your company for the tremendous guidance we received on our recent hiring of a Food and Beverage Manager for Westwood Golf Club. Karl Ludeke was outstanding in guiding us through the process and made my job very easy. He culled through the candidates only aligning us with the candidates he felt would be a good fit for our operation from a skills perspective. Then it was all about finding the right cultural fit.
I believe we have found the right person and it is in large thanks to Karl Ludeke and your organization.
Ricky Lyons
General Manager
Dear Gecko Hospitality,
I am writing to confirm our experience of working with Gecko Hospitality and team in the recent search and placement of an Executive Chef for Arbor Acres United Methodist Retirement
Conununity, Inc. I obtained your contact information from a former Arbor Acres Board of Director member who is also a successful restaurant owner/operator in Winston Salem. We frankly were not making progress in our search until I spoke with you.
After discussing our position and compensation range, you provided me with several very strong candidates. As you recall, we decided to take our time and find the right candidate. I am happy to report that on Monday of this week, our new Executive Chef started his employment. He has been interacting with both residents and staff this week and he is exactly who we had hoped to recruit. I very much appreciate the way you approached our search and the frequent conversations we had. You took great effort to understand who we were looking for and what we were attempting to accomplish. We truly could not be more pleased with the way you managed the entire process.Sincerely,
Kenneth Boyles
Vice President/Chief Operating Officer
Arbor Acres United Methodist Retirement Community
We would like to recommend Gecko Hospitality! We were opening our G58 fine dining restaurant and needed a resource to attract top management talent. We contacted Gecko Hospitality and they shared a tremendous amount of information. They gave us references on resources to help with formalizing the interview process and making valuable recommendations. We received quality candidates very quickly! We worked through the process of interviews and in a few weeks we identified our Senior Service Manager. We are very pleased with the professionalism of the Gecko Hospitality team.
We approached Gecko Hospitality more than a year ago with some very specific hiring needs. Joan and her staff listened to our requirements and has been able to send us some highly qualified candidates. I appreciate the thorough job of vetting the candidates to make sure we only see individuals that meet our hiring needs. Everyone that I have dealt with at Gecko Hospitality has been professional and extremely helpful. We are very satisfied with the relationship and job performance of Gecko Hospitality.
Thank You,
Drew T.
We enjoy using Gecko Hospitality’s recruiting services. As we grow and add more brands to our portfolio it is always good to reach out to Gecko Hospitality and gather viable management candidates. They do a great job providing us with talented management on an on-going basis but also helped when we opened our new casual fine restaurant “The Cellar.”
We would like to recommend Gecko Hospitality as a excellent recruiting partner. We approached the Gecko office with the task of finding an Operating Partner to develop our new Poke Bar concept. We discussed the details with the Gecko recruiter. Their depth of knowledge in operations and the market helped in making valuable suggestions. We were very pleased that in a period of 4 weeks that we identified a candidate, extended an offer and secured the opening! We plan on calling Gecko Hospitality as we open more locations! Thank you!
I would like to take the time to send in some acknowledgement for Rob Wallace. I personally had the honor to work with Mr. Wallace while seeking out my next opportunity. Rob went above and beyond for me. Not the cliche “politically correct” above and beyond. But, truly Rob took his time to assist me. For that I will be forever grateful. As a token of my gratitude I wanted to take time to acknowledge Rob publicly. Rob was nothing short of outstanding, great personality, wonderful hospitality & very punctual.
Thank you Rob Wallace.
We were searching for a kitchen manager candidate and the normal job sites weren’t doing the trick. We were spending hundreds of dollars a week and couldn’t find any candidates worthy of interviewing. That’s when we decided to reach out to Gecko Hospitality. Joan from Gecko immediately made us feel comfortable. She was knowledgeable about the industry and knew the right candidates to call. Gecko’s prescreening interview saved us a ton of time, too. Joan was able to find us the right candidate, very quickly and we made the hire. The process was stress-free. I am very confident we made the right decision. We will use Gecko Hospitality again and recommend them to anyone looking for staffing solutions.
Pairing up with Gecko to fulfill our staffing has been extremely advantageous, not only for our management team but also for the high caliber candidates that we have been presented with. The professionalism in which they work combined with amazing responsiveness created a strong foundation and business partnership.
I wanted to follow up to let you know how much we appreciate you connecting us with our new hire. We understand this is your job but we can’t tell you what a fantastically perfect fit he is for our GM role. We have had a very difficult past 4-5 years with various GMs that were not the right fit and were honestly very detrimental to our business. I know we paid for your service, but I need to extend an extra-special thank you to you for helping us with this most important hire. We are excited and optimistic about our future and this is the single key contributor to that!
If we have future needs for other roles, we wouldn’t hesitate to reach out and will recommend you to anyone looking to fill a hospitality position.
Throughout my long-tenured career, I have known many recruiting companies and numerous recruiters.
That said, I can honestly tell you that you preside over the best Hospitality Recruiting Company in the country.
Rest assured, whenever my current company or others in my network need talent, or when industry professionals are looking for a job, I will reach out to Gecko Hospitality.
I have had the absolute pleasure in working with Gecko Hospitality this past year, we work directly with Karen Kern on most of our open positions and she has been phenomenal! What I appreciate most about Karen is she takes time to listen to exactly what we are looking for in a candidate, from their experience and demeanor. I can always count on her to be in communication with me and answer any questions I have during the process. Karen is a very knowledgeable about overall hotel operations and understands recruiting experienced people into these roles at our hotels.
Marty, Karen, and team have been a true asset to our recruitment process and we look forward to continuing to work with them for years to come.
Karen Kern is one of the best in her industry. She is very thorough in candidate selection, follow’s up and follows through. She takes her time and has always giving me the best of the best in candidates. In fact, her candidates are still with the company today. Her knowledge, understanding and experience are a true asset to her company and mine. Her approach and overall demeanor is always very excited, open and precise. I look forward to working with Karen for many years to come.
Marty
You are a great “people picker” and talent developer! Tara is terrific and reps you well.
I am on to the next phase of interviews!
Tara’s ‘tude’ is contagious and she motivates me, but keeps me grounded.
Thank you!
It’s been great working with Gecko Hospitality. They made sure to thoroughly educate themselves on our company culture before seeking out candidates for us, and since, their communication and follow-up has been impeccable from candidate introduction to selection process scheduling. They’ve matched us with some great candidates that wouldn’t have discovered us through our own ads, and many are succeeding in their current roles. We look forward to our continuing partnership with Gecko Hospitality.
Gecko Hospitality has been a huge asset to us in our hiring needs. Our company has been experiencing a huge influx of growth, and Gecko Hospitality is always quick to provide new candidates, and are always there for us for anything we need. The candidates they send are professional, qualified, and are exactly who we are looking for. We look forward to our continued partnership with Gecko and to receiving more of their referred talents.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Gecko Hospitality on several job searches as well as a candidate. Gecko demonstrated the highest degree of integrity, kindness, skill, insight, and perseverance. The Gecko Team is friendly and professional keeps the interest of its clients at heart. I highly recommend Gecko if you are looking for top quality talent or seeking career development.
I wanted to write a quick thank you for all of your hard work in presenting us with magnificent candidates. As you know, Gecko Hospitality is a new partner with Hard Rock but we are already seeing great results in the candidates you are providing us.
Your communication and screening of candidates to match our needs are working.
Keep up all of the great work.
Since 2014 I have had the pleasure of working with Gecko Hospitality. At the time our collaboration began, Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop maintained 4 existing establishments in the Los Angeles and Orange County Markets. With expansive growth on the horizon, Greenleaf partnered with Gecko to recruit key candidates to build our restaurant leadership team. Over the years, Gecko has placed General Managers, Managers, and Chefs within the Greenleaf Organization, helping to support our growth to 9 locations. Each time we were presented with talented candidates who matched our specific criteria and needs. Gecko’s personalized services seek to know and understand your business to ensure that all candidates presented will be a true fit within the organization. Please accept this letter and my personal and professional endorsement of Gecko Hospitality and the services they provide.
I just wanted to say thanks to you and your staff for your strong level of commitment and your willingness to work with Bakers Square in resolving our management openings.
For the past three years you have provided our Company with management candidates who are experienced in the restaurant industry and who display a high level of professionalism.
My regional managers have commented on the quality of your management referrals and they have collectivity chosen Gecko as their agency of choice for identifying and hiring the best management candidates.
Again, thanks for your help and I look forward to many more years of working together.
Gecko Hospitality has worked with us at Yard House for 5 years. In that time we have used them in all of our markets. Gecko has shown great ability in understanding the type of candidate we look for and their candidates are always prepared for our process. They have also shown great flexibility and determination in finding “diamonds in the rough”. Its their performance on that level that gives us confidence in using Gecko wherever we may need Managers.
I want to thank you for all of your assistance this year with attracting high quality talent for our unique concept. I especially appreciate your recruiting efforts in tough markets. You are first on my list to call regarding new openings.
Gecko Hospitality is one of the very few agencies I work with to place managers at GameWorks. Your firm is a true asset.
You and your team have very high standards and integrity.
I look forward to working with you and your team in the future.
Victoria is an excellent recruiter to hire when in need of restaurant managers. I recently asked Victoria for help in a very tough to hire region and she provided me with great candidates, one of whom we recently hired. What I appreciated most about working with Victoria was she took time to select candidates that met our requirements for the position we were looking to fill. She is also an excellent communicator and always kept me aware of the candidate’s she was submitting for consideration.
I highly recommend Victoria for any restaurant concept that is looking for additional recruiting support. She is trustworthy and very reliable and a pleasure to work with.
Kevin Kalstad was prompt and professional. Our new General Manager is a perfect fit. We look forward to enlisting the help of Gecko Hospitality as we continue to grow. Cheers, Kevin!
