Compensation Type

Highgate Hotels

Highgate is a leading real estate investment and hospitality management company widely recognized as an innovator in the industry. Highgate is the dominant player in major U.S. gateway cities including New York, Boston, Miami, San Francisco and Honolulu, with a growing Caribbean and Latin America footprint. The hospitality forward company provides expert guidance through all stages of the property cycle, from planning and development through recapitalization or disposition. Highgate has a proven record of developing its diverse portfolio of bespoke lifestyle hotel brands, legacy brands, and independent hotels and resorts with contemporary programming and digital acumen. The company utilizes industry-leading revenue management tools that efficiently identify and predict evolving market dynamics to drive outperformance and maximize asset value. With an executive team consisting of some of the most experienced hotel management leaders, the company is a trusted partner for top ownership groups and major hotel brands. Highgate maintains corporate offices in New York, Chicago, Dallas, London, Miami, and Seattle. www.highgate.com.

Location

Crowne Plaza Manhattan Times Square is perfectly located in the heart of Times Square excitement, situated directly on Broadway between 48th and 49th Streets. This iconic, ultra-modern, full-service hotel is surrounded by Broadway theaters and close to world-famous shopping and sightseeing. The hotel has 795 modern, newly renovated guestrooms.

Overview

We are looking for an Accountant (with strong experience in Real Estate Accounting) to join our expanding team in Times Square! You’ll be responsible for keeping our financial records organized, including tracking accounts payable and receivable, and ensuring that each account is reconciled correctly and timely. This is an opportunity to bring stability to our growing office and accountability to our commercial real estate for this complex business model. Our ideal candidate takes pride in their detailed bookkeeping work and a thorough understanding of leasing contracts. This position is responsible for all accounting responsibilities related to various disciplines within the accounting department, which would include: Accounting Controlling, Hotel Accounting, & Internal/External audits.

Responsibilities

• Review and understate a multitude of contractual lease agreements for the ownership group and management company.
• Monitor hotel revenues and expenses and ensure the accurate recording in accordance with Highgate Hotel’s established guidelines. Investigate and critique variances to budget or to prior year and offer practical improvement methodologies to management.
• Establish a professional relationship with all tenants in the assigned asset
• Follow up with tenants for accounts payable. Review, approval, and processing of accounts payable and disbursements. Keep in touch as needed for collections and ensure bills are paid in a timely manner.
• Ensure that all balance sheet accounts, including bank reconciliations are reconciled on a timely basis.
• Continually focus on training and development programs for the Accounting associates to cultivate the “brightest” and “best” talent within the industry.
• Timely processing of Account Receivable items such as group billing, AR accounts and chargeback responses.
• Respond to tenant’s inquiries related to billing.
• Preparation of monthly reconciliations for property cash accounts and other GL reconciliations for hotel properties and other entities (i.e., monthly rent, CAM & utility expenses) updated and recorded in a manner that aligns with the contractual agreements and transparent to the tenant for audit.
• Assistance in the establishment, documentation and maintenance of Standard Accounting Policies and Procedures and internal controls for our accounting operations
• Successful completion of internal and external financial audits, including delivering information requested by auditors on a timely basis
• Preparation of any special reports, statements, etc., as requested
• Assists in accounting, financial reporting and controllership functions for assigned hotels and/or entities
• Timely preparation and issuance of complete and accurate monthly and annual hotel financial statements
• Creation of monthly variance analyses
• Other special projects and responsibilities, as assigned

Conduct and/or attend and contribute to periodic meetings to maintain favorable working relationships among employees and promote maximum morale, productivity, and efficiency

Qualifications

• High school diploma required, a bachelor’s degree in accounting or related field is highly value
• Experience in accounting, real estate accounting, or property accounting preferre
• Experience in real estate industry preferre
• High proficiency in contractual lease agreements
• Solid written and verbal communication skills are a must
• Knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• Strong Excel skills and experience with accounting software, such as Oracle
• Prior experience with general ledger maintenance and reconciliation required
• Prior property accounting/real estate commercial accountant experience preferred
• Prior supervisory experience required
• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting preferred
• Strong PC skills including Excel and Word
• Proficient with Oracle accounting systems preferred
• Strong organizational, analytical, verbal, and written communication skills with the ability to prioritize and work independently with minimal supervision
• Ability to work overtime as necessary to complete assigned tasks
• A strong desire to develop into a future finance and accounting leader within a dynamic organization

Annual salary of 75K – 90K