Master of Management in Hospitality (MMH) Curriculum
Boston University’s Master of Management in Hospitality (MMH) program is designed for those wanting to elevate their career in hospitality management. Whether you are a hospitality professional who already has industry experience or a recent college graduate looking to enter the field, our robust curriculum will equip you with the business management and leadership skills to excel in your career.
The MMH is an accelerated program that full-time students can finish in as little as one year. However, the program also offers a flexible curriculum for working professionals who want to earn a degree while maintaining full-time employment. Part-time students may take one or two evening classes per semester and finish the degree in two years.
The rigorous MMH curriculum aims to cultivate industry leaders who can integrate business management, marketing, and financial skills with their knowledge in hospitality. By the end of the program, students obtain:
Fundamental business principles and management knowledge to analyze and solve complex business problems in the hospitality setting.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills to explain complex business concepts.
Human resource management knowledge to hire and manage talent.
Essential leadership skills to build a healthy organizational culture.
Hands-on internship experience in the hospitality industry to prepare for the job market.
MMH Curriculum Components
The curriculum consists of three parts—required courses (16 credit hours), elective courses (16 credit hours), and a 300-hour summer internship. Typically, students enroll in the required hospitality courses in the Fall semester, before taking the concentration-specific and other elective courses in the spring. Then students wrap up their study with a summer internship. Students who have relevant work experience in hospitality may request to waive the internship requirement.
Credit Requirement Summary
Requirement
Credits
Required Courses
16 cr.
Elective Courses
16 cr.
Internship
0 cr.
Total Credits
32 cr.
With the program director’s permission, students may earn credits by completing independent study projects.
MMH Required Courses
The required courses are designed to give students a comprehensive understanding of hospitality management from business operations and financial management to marketing and leadership skills. Through these core courses, students can build a solid foundation before pursuing advanced skills in their specialized concentrations.
Students new to hospitality will take HF701 Hospitality Operations, students with a hospitality background will take HF702 Innovation & Disruption.
HF701 Hospitality Operations (4 cr.)
This course investigates the distinctive operational characteristics, operational mechanics, technology, and management practices of hotels and restaurants. Through this course, students gain advanced technical knowledge to analyze and improve the operational capabilities of a hospitality organization. The first half of the course focuses on theoretical principles and operational tactics of lodging operations. Students explore the managerial aspects of hotel reservations, the front office, housekeeping, engineering, and security. The second half of the course focuses on principal operating problems in the restaurant industry, addressing topics such as concept development, pricing strategies, and restaurant revenue management, menu performance analysis, cost control, labor management, and customer service processes.
HF702 Innovation & Disruption (4 cr.)
Using case studies, media coverage, and other content, this course examines some of the most dramatic changes encountered by the hospitality industry, from the onset and impact of Uber and Airbnb to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Facing these challenges, hospitality leaders need to know how to be the disruptors in the industry, as well as learn how to survive and capitalize when the industry is disrupted. Innovation is key in both cases in order to keep experience solutions relevant. Each week the class discusses different challenges that businesses have faced and approaches that entrepreneurs have taken to manage them. Students explore both proactive changes to address disruptions through early detection and reactive changes to lead in times of crisis.
All students will take:
HF711 Hospitality Financial Management (4 cr.)
Financial and accounting skills are fundamental competencies for practitioners of business. A central aspect of accounting is the composition of financial statements that depict the underlying economic reality of the firm being operated. This course is intended to introduce fundamental elements that are used to compose these financial reports. Specifically, the course content includes an examination and quantitative analysis of the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows from both a conceptual and pragmatic perspective. Through this course, students learn how these statements are both composed and relate to business planning, control, and decision making in hospitality enterprises.
HF762 Hospitality Branding and Marketing (4 cr.)
This course offers innovative and practical approaches for addressing strategic marketing challenges to improve revenue, profit, and customer loyalty. Using case studies from hotels, restaurants, and hospitality firms worldwide, and referencing cutting-edge research, students learn the latest applications of strategic thinking and analysis to marketing challenges facing the hospitality industry. This course also helps students master digital marketing on a strategic and tactical level. Students can explore the design and implementation of marketing programs and activities to build, measure, and manage brand equity for a sustainable competitive advantage. Ultimately, students acquire strategic-marketing concepts and principles to apply the ideas, concepts, and principles to innovative and profitable strategies.
This course focuses on leadership and management for the hospitality industry. Using a leadership continuum as a framework, it explores several different levels of leadership, from a traditional leadership role as the head of a major corporation, team leadership, to the personal aspect of self-leadership. The course introduces key aspects of human resources functions such as employment law, employee recruitment & selection, compensation and benefits, labor relations, diversity, and managing hospitality human resources in a global environment. Students learn how to create an organizational culture and manage changes effectively through human resource strategies.
MMH Elective Courses
After finishing the required courses, students may select a specialized concentrations and will complete four additional elective courses (16 credits) to enhance their knowledge and skills in the chosen concentration. Students not pursuing a concentration may take any four of the following courses.
HF702 Innovation & Disruption (4 cr.)
Using case studies, media coverage, and other content, this course examines some of the most dramatic changes encountered by the hospitality industry, from the onset and impact of Uber and Airbnb to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Facing these challenges, hospitality leaders need to know how to be the disruptors in the industry, as well as learn how to survive and capitalize when the industry is disrupted. Innovation is key in both cases in order to keep experience solutions relevant. Each week the class discusses different challenges that businesses have faced and approaches that entrepreneurs have taken to manage them. Students explore both proactive changes to address disruptions through early detection and reactive changes to lead in times of crisis.
HF707 Hospitality Entrepreneurship (4 cr.)
This course is intended to be a capstone experience for students seeking to understand hospitality entrepreneurship and innovation as a professional system. In this course, students leverage their knowledge and skills they learned in previous courses to work on real-life projects. Students work in teams to build a concise Pro Forma Business Plan for a start-up non-profit or profit-driven hospitality enterprise. At the end of the term, the teams present their business plan to a panel of successful hospitality entrepreneurs.
QST SI 839: Design Thinking and Innovation (3 cr.)
This class examines how managers and leaders can create the conditions for innovation at the individual, team, and organizational levels, and how those conditions differ for start-up and mature organizations. The course explores the questions of what innovations to pursue, when those innovations will bring value, and how design contributes to innovation. Students examine the practices and processes of executing innovation strategies in organizations. Students also learn how to balance the challenges of managing and leading innovation with the need to produce concrete outcomes within an organization. The class ends with final group projects where students find solutions to rescue innovations in trouble with turnaround teams.
HF717 Real Estate Finance and Feasibility (4 cr.)
Students who aspire to have a career involving the ownership, development, and/or financing of lodging assets will find this class particularly useful. This course provides detailed instructions in the hotel market and feasibility research process, including hands-on preparation of a feasibility analysis for proposed hotel development. The course addresses principles of finance and explores hotel asset acquisition and sales process. Students gain an understanding of the marketing process, spotting basic issues in an LOI, Purchase and Sale Agreement. They also learn about the due diligence process, as well as some of the basic logistical issues involved in an actual hotel transaction closing. Students explore the description and analysis of investment return scenarios, market cycles, risk/reward analysis, appraisal, and valuation techniques.
HF631 Workplace Experiences in Hospitality (4 cr.)
In this course, students will learn about the importance of having clearly stated values that serve as pillars against which organizations are held accountable regarding their implementation of various policies, practices, and procedures that can impact worker well-being and other performance-related outcomes of interest to the hospitality industry such as customer service behaviors and customer satisfaction. This course teaches students how, through the measurement of employee perceptions, organizations can take a data-driven approach to create better alignment between their stated values and workers’ perceptions of what their organizations value. Additionally, this course covers how organizations in the hospitality industry can extend a service-focused mindset to serving the needs of their employees through the enactment of various policies and initiatives.
HF619 Hotel Development and Deal Making (4 cr.)
This course covers the basics of real estate development including site acquisition, required approvals, zoning, and financial strategies. As it pertains to hotel assets, the course helps students navigate the intricacies of negotiating franchise agreements and management contracts that are necessary for any development deal. Students learn how to make sound real estate investment and finance decisions using real estate investment strategies and modern financial analysis. For example, students learn to use an extended version of the after-tax cash flow and other valuation models to make real estate investment decisions.
HF621 Advanced Food & Beverage Management (4 cr.)
Future restaurant leaders must possess many qualities and deal with challenging and complex business situations. This case-study-based elective course allows students to apply the principles of leadership, analysis, and planning to issues in business operations. Students critically analyze financing plans for new concept development, examine new ways of assessing restaurant success, and discuss market entry strategies. They learn how to use qualitative and quantitative tools to analyze restaurant performance.
HF760 Strategic Marketing (4 cr.)
This advanced course focuses on hospitality marketing strategies for hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, or other related events and experiences. The class aims to refine students’ skills in market research, targeted marketing, digital marketing, and business presentation. Students build upon and integrate basic marketing principles into complex marketing strategies designed to capture market share by working on real projects with industry professionals.
HF667 Fundamental of Digital Content Development (4 cr.)
This course provides students with the skills to create messaging, storylines, and infographics for print, online, audio, and video content marketing. Students gain hands-on experience in using common digital and creative tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and InDesign. As a result, students become proficient in using these creative tools to design effective digital marketing content.
HF768 Digital Marketing Strategies (4 cr.)
This is an advanced course in hospitality marketing focused on the variety of digital marketing tools currently available for hotels and restaurants. With more than 50% of people researching travel online, it’s essential for students to master digital marketing tools to enhance marketing effectiveness. This course introduces the most common digital marketing strategies such as social media marketing via Facebook Ads, Search Engine Marketing via Google Ads, and Search Engine Optimization. Students build their skills in geo-targeting market segments and creating user-friendly websites. Finally, students review the most revenue-generating internet marketing techniques, booking mechanisms, and distribution channels.
This course focuses on how a hotel can produce the highest amount of profitable revenue given its fixed capacity and variable demand. Class discussions center on the fundamental principles and concepts of hospitality revenue management including pricing and discounting strategies, overbooking practices, segmentation, competitive analysis, demand, revenue forecasting, and performance analysis. The course also explores Total Revenue Management strategies such as space optimization and cruise revenue management to expand revenue management streams outside of the hotel rooms.
HF777 Meeting Planning and Special Events Management (4 cr.)
This course provides an introduction to the principles of special event management and event execution tactics that can ensure return on investment. It focuses on the planning, development, management, and implementation of festivals, entertainment events, corporate events, and other events. Students learn about bid preparation, forecasting project revenues, estimating budgetary goals, contract negotiations, event-marketing strategies, event technology, public and corporation sponsorships, and fundraising techniques. In addition to the operational and logistical needs of various types of events, students also study insurance and risk management.
HF778 Hospitality Analytics (4 cr.)
This course provides students with fundamental knowledge of business analytics and information visualization. It also offers extensive opportunities for developing hands-on skills for applying hospitality business analytics to managerial decision-making. Students gain a solid understanding of fundamental mathematical and statistical concepts, as well as statistical modeling techniques to solve operational, financial, and marketing issues that hospitality organizations face today. Students also learn how to leverage Microsoft Excel to build out data-driven insights and craft storytelling visualization.
HF679 Financial Reporting and Analysis (4 cr.)
Financial analysis is the process of examining a company’s performance in the context of its industry and economic environment in order to arrive at a decision or recommendation. Focusing on financial statement analysis and interpretation, this course teaches students how to evaluate a company’s performance to improve risk assessment and decision making. Through coursework, students understand a company’s future risk performance by analyzing financial statements.
HF790 Independent Study Projects (1-4 cr.)
With permission from the Program Director, students may choose a business or research project that they are passionate about as their independent study project.
Independent study projects may be used to satisfy the requirement of elective courses.
HF750 The Business of Seniors Housing (4 cr.)
This course includes an understanding of portfolio management, asset management, financial modeling and efficiencies, and resident care. It also encourages students to investigate innovative care opportunities. Through the coursework, students learn how to balance revenues and expenses for their bottom line, conduct day-to-day operations, and create a culture for the best experience for staff and residents, while remaining profitable.
HF752 Monitoring the Resident Journey Experience (4 cr.)
This class explores the topic of seniors housing and care for America’s growing middle-income senior cohort, a group that may have different preferences and demands from more traditional seniors housing offerings. Students learn the best practices for customer experience and transfer those guest services skills from the hospitality sector into the senior living and care sector.
HF754 Senior Living Operations (4 cr.)
Providing an overview of the senior living sector and the process of aging, the course focuses on operations with detailed analysis of the day-to-day, expense controls and management styles, revenue enhancement techniques, staffing protocols, marketing strategies, and safety procedures. Students learn the fundamentals of all senior care services available at senior living properties.
The program also includes a field trip to a nearby senior living facility where students can get first-hand knowledge of senior living operations.
HF781 Future of Restaurant Business (4 cr.)
This course focuses on (re)concepting across the various verticals of food service businesses and explains how such concepts tie into operational models and financial returns, thus dictating all aspects of the business and customer experience. Students learn how financial analysis, marketing and market research, site selection, and operational assumptions all tie together to create a business. The course also discusses how real estate can determine the fate of food businesses, and how sustainability, sanitation, and environmental concerns are elements of the operation, the financials, and the customer experience
MMH Internship Requirement
BU’s School of Hospitality Administration takes an experiential learning approach and encourages students to dive headfirst into the real world. Therefore, the MMH program requires students to finish an internship to gain hands-on experience in the hospitality industry. This requirement is waived for part-time students.
HF740 Graduate Internship in Hospitality Management (0 cr.)
The Graduate Internship allows students to gain industry experience. This zero-credit internship involves 300 hours of relevant hospitality work experience and is required for full-time graduate students. Practical learning opportunities are available through our various hospitality partnerships, including hotels, restaurants, and other placements. Most students’ internships are paid jobs in the industry.
