The Windham Foundation is seeking an accomplished and highly engaged hospitality executive to serve as General Manager of the Grafton Inn, one of Southern Vermont’s most distinctive historic inns. This is an exceptional opportunity for a proven leader who understands that extraordinary hospitality is created through a combination of exceptional people, operational discipline, financial stewardship, memorable food and beverage experiences, and an unwavering commitment to the guest.

Located in the picturesque Vermont village of Grafton, this historic independent inn has welcomed generations of travelers and remains an important part of the surrounding community. The property combines quintessential New England character with elevated hospitality, individually appointed accommodation, award-winning dining, weddings and special events, corporate retreats, and year-round recreational experiences.

Food and beverages, weddings, and special events are significant components of both the guest experience and overall financial performance of the property. The General Manager must bring substantial high-level food and beverage leadership experience and a sophisticated understanding of culinary operations, restaurants and bars, banquets, catering, weddings, and special events. This individual should understand how outstanding F&B programming can elevate the entire property while simultaneously driving revenue, profitability, guest satisfaction, and market positioning.

Equally important, this leader must possess superior rooms and lodging acumen. The General Manager will ensure an exceptional experience across reservations, front office, housekeeping, accommodations, guest services, revenue management, and every touchpoint throughout the guest journey. The successful candidate will understand how rooms, food and beverage, events, sales, revenue management, and marketing work together to create a cohesive hospitality experience and a financially successful operation.

The property is owned by The Windham Foundation, a nonprofit foundation deeply committed to rural community vitality, historic preservation, and place-based philanthropy in Grafton, Vermont. This creates a unique opportunity for a hospitality executive to lead a successful business while also serving as the steward of an important historic asset and contributing to a broader community-focused mission. The General Manager will report directly to The Windham Foundation’s Executive Director and will work closely with organizational leadership and its governing board while balancing the property's heritage with the need to evolve its operations, programming, and guest experience for future generations.

This is not a position for a leader who manages exclusively from an office. We are seeking a highly visible, hands-on executive who enjoys developing people, engaging with guests, understanding the numbers, walking the operation, supporting the team during critical service periods, and creating an environment where exceptional hospitality and strong business performance go hand in hand.

The Leadership Profile

We are seeking far more than an experienced operator. We are looking for an exceptional hospitality leader with presence.

The successful General Manager will be highly visible, approachable, resilient, energetic, and comfortable moving seamlessly from a financial or strategic discussion with ownership to a leadership meeting, wedding execution, busy dinner service, or conversation with a guest.

This individual must be strategic enough to envision where the property needs to go while remaining operationally engaged enough to understand what is happening throughout the business every day.

The right leader will possess a genuine passion for people and hospitality, exceptional emotional intelligence, strong business instincts, an ownership mentality, and the ability to inspire others around a shared vision. This person will hold themselves and others accountable without sacrificing empathy, collaboration, or respect.

Above all, this individual will understand that this is more than a hotel General Manager position. It is an opportunity to lead a historic Vermont hospitality institution, develop an exceptional team, elevate an already distinctive guest experience, drive sustainable financial performance, and help preserve an important property for generations to come.

Key Responsibilities

Executive Leadership & Strategic Direction

• Provide overall executive leadership with responsibility for the strategic, operational, financial, and cultural performance of the property.
• Translate long-term strategic objectives into clear annual operating plans, departmental goals, and measurable results.
• Work closely with ownership and governing leadership to advance strategic priorities while remaining aligned with the organization's broader mission and values.
• Balance the preservation of the property's historic character with thoughtful innovation in programming, amenities, service delivery, technology, and the overall guest experience.
• Maintain a strong understanding of hospitality trends, regional economic conditions, competitive positioning, consumer behavior, and evolving guest expectations.
• Serve as a visible ambassador for the property within the local community and broader Vermont hospitality and tourism industry.

Food & Beverage Leadership

• Provide executive oversight of all food and beverage operations, including restaurants, bars, culinary operations, private dining, banquets, catering, weddings, and special events.
• Partner closely with culinary and F&B leadership to maintain an exceptional dining experience while driving strong operational and financial performance.
• Ensure excellence in food quality, beverage programming, service standards, menu development, labor management, purchasing, inventory controls, cost of goods, and profitability.
• Maintain a highly visible presence within F&B operations and foster collaboration among culinary, service, lodging, sales, and events teams.
• Understand the complexities of simultaneously serving overnight guests, local diners, wedding guests, groups, and special events.
• Continually identify opportunities to increase F&B revenue, improve margins, enhance the guest experience, and strengthen the property's reputation as a dining destination.

Rooms, Lodging & Guest Experience

• Provide executive oversight of all rooms operations, including front office, reservations, housekeeping, guest services, and lodging standards.
• Ensure accommodations consistently meet exceptional standards for cleanliness, presentation, maintenance, comfort, and service.
• Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, channel strategy, rate positioning, packages, length-of-stay opportunities, and seasonal demand.
• Partner with Rooms and Revenue leadership to maximize room revenue while maintaining the integrity and positioning of the property.
• Establish and maintain service standards that create a warm, genuine, highly personalized guest experience.
• Regularly evaluate guest feedback, online reviews, service recovery opportunities, and operating trends to continuously improve the guest experience.
• Ensure seamless communication and coordination among rooms, housekeeping, F&B, sales, events, and property operations.

Weddings, Events & Group Business

• Provide executive oversight of significant weddings, special events, retreats, meetings, and group business operation.
• Partner with Sales, Events, Culinary, F&B, and Rooms leadership to deliver exceptional events from initial booking through guest departure.
• Understand the economic and operational requirements of destination weddings, including room blocks, food and beverage minimums, catering, staffing, vendor coordination, event spaces, and property buyouts.
• Ensure events achieve both exceptional guest satisfaction and appropriate financial returns.
• Identify opportunities to grow weddings, corporate retreats, social events, and other group business during peak and need periods.

Financial Leadership & Business Performance

• Assume ownership of the property's financial performance and develop a culture in which department leaders understand both hospitality excellence and business results.
• Lead annual budgeting, forecasting, financial planning, expense management, labor management, and capital planning.
• Analyze financial statements, departmental P&Ls, forecasts, operating metrics, revenue trends, and variances and translate the data into actionable strategies.
• Maintain strong controls around labor, purchasing, inventory, food and beverage costs, operating expenses, and capital expenditures.
• Develop business cases and ROI analyses for capital investments, renovations, equipment, technology, programming, and other strategic initiatives.
• Hold department leaders accountable for their budgets and financial performance.
• Identify opportunities to grow revenue, improve margins, increase productivity, and strengthen the long-term financial sustainability of the operation.

Sales, Marketing & Revenue Strategy

• Partner with Sales, Events, Revenue, and Marketing leadership to maximize occupancy, ADR, group business, weddings, events, dining revenue, and total property revenue.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the property's competitive positioning and primary demand generators.
• Provide executive oversight of revenue management strategy, including pricing, packages, promotions, inventory, and seasonal strategies.
• Identify opportunities to increase demand during shoulder and off-peak periods while maximizing revenue during periods of high demand.
• Support strategic partnerships, community relationships, tourism initiatives, and business development opportunities.
• Promote a total revenue philosophy that recognizes the interconnected value of lodging, dining, events, and recreational experiences.

People, Culture & Leadership Development

• Build, lead, inspire, and develop an exceptional hospitality leadership team.
• Establish clear expectations, measurable goals, accountability, and consistent communication across all departments.
• Maintain a highly visible leadership presence throughout the property and lead by example.
• Recruit, retain, mentor, and develop talented hospitality professionals while creating meaningful opportunities for career growth.
• Foster an environment where employees feel respected, supported, empowered, and accountable.
• Create strong collaboration between departments and eliminate operational silos.
• Establish succession planning and leadership development practices that strengthen the long-term organization.
• Build a culture where genuine relationships between employees and guests become a meaningful competitive advantage.

Historic Property & Asset Stewardship

• Serve as a thoughtful steward of a historic property whose identity and character are fundamental to the guest experience.
• Partner with ownership on capital planning, renovations, repairs, preventative maintenance, and long-term asset preservation.
• Balance historic preservation with the evolving expectations of today's hospitality guest.
• Ensure accommodations, restaurants, public spaces, grounds, and event venues are consistently maintained at an exceptional level.
• Approach capital decisions with a long-term ownership mentality and an understanding of both guest impact and return on investment.

Ownership & Community Partnership

• Maintain a collaborative and transparent relationship with ownership and governing leadership.
• Communicate regularly regarding financial performance, operational priorities, challenges, capital needs, staffing, and strategic opportunities.
• Ensure business decisions remain consistent with the organization's broader mission and long-term objectives.
• Recognize the property's important role within its community and maintain positive relationships with local businesses, vendors, tourism partners, residents, and other stakeholders.

Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum of 5 years of progressive General Manager experience within an independent, boutique, or lifestyle hotel is strongly preferred.
• Minimum of 5 years of progressive, high-level food and beverage management experience within quality hotels, resorts, private clubs, restaurants, or comparable hospitality environment is strongly preferred.
• The successful candidate will be an accomplished hospitality executive with the operational depth, financial sophistication, emotional intelligence, and leadership presence required to guide a complex independent destination property.
• Significant senior leadership experience with responsibility for complex hospitality operations and multiple departments.
• Superior rooms and lodging acumen, including a strong understanding of front office, reservations, housekeeping, guest services, revenue management, occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, and rooms profitability.
• Demonstrated expertise overseeing sophisticated food and beverage operations encompassing restaurants, bars, culinary, banquets, catering, weddings, and/or special events.
• Exceptional financial acumen with demonstrated experience managing budgets, forecasts, P&Ls, labor, cost controls, capital expenditures, and overall operating performance.
• Proven ability to interpret financial and operational data and translate it into meaningful business strategies and measurable results.
• Experience successfully overseeing weddings, events, group business, and other high-touch hospitality experiences strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, develop, mentor, motivate, and retain high-performing teams.
• Extraordinary leadership abilities with a management style built around visibility, accountability, collaboration, communication, and trust.
• Strong business judgment with the ability to balance guest satisfaction, employee experience, historic preservation, and financial performance.
• Experience within an independent, luxury, boutique, historic, resort, or lifestyle hospitality environment strongly preferred.
• Exceptional written, verbal, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
• Genuine appreciation for hospitality, community, historic preservation, and the character of Vermont.
• Bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, Business Administration, or a related discipline preferred; equivalent senior-level hospitality experience will be considered.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary of $115K - $130K DOE + Bonus
• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance coverage (78% employer paid)
• Life Insurance
• 401K
• Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, Workers’ Compensation
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Relocation
• Temporary Housing may be available

To be considered for this position, please send all inquiries and resumes directly to Evan Kaplan at Gecko Hospitality: evan@geckohospitality.com.

Please do not contact the Grafton Inn or The Windham Foundation directly regarding this position. All candidate inquiries and applications should be directed through Gecko Hospitality.