Human Intelligence, Sharpened With AI
Job boards, internal recruiter overhead, bad-fit churn, agency premiums. Most multi-unit operators never roll these into a single number. We do, then we cut it. Performance-linked pricing means our fees move with your retention, not against it.
Trusted by hospitality executives
The HHC Intelligence Layer
Most firms use the same tools you already have access to. We don't. Our stack runs on custom-built AI agents that work continuously in the background, so by the time a role opens, we already know who's ready for it.
Agents crawl hospitality news, press releases, and trade coverage daily. When a GM opens a new location ahead of plan or an ops executive gets cited for a turnaround, we know, and we add it to their file before they update their resume.
We monitor LinkedIn, Substack, and industry forums for operators doing real work in public. The executives worth knowing are posting, speaking, and building their point of view. We track the signal, not just the title.
We take your best performers, the GMs and operators who have actually moved the needle, and build a data model around what made them right. Every search starts with that profile, not a job description.
We don't hand you another login. We integrate into your existing workflows: your ATS, your HRIS, your communication stack. The software bends to your operation, not the other way around.
Every search makes the next one faster. Our system learns from outcomes: interview conversion, 90-day performance, retention at 12 months, and continuously tightens the criteria. Humans focus on relationships. The machine handles the rest.
Restaurant operators are being sold AI solutions every week. Most don't work, or only work for teams with dedicated engineers to implement them. We test everything, procure what's proven, and build it into our stack, so the benefit flows to you without the noise.
TCPH Calculator
Most operators report cost per hire as job board spend divided by hires made. That excludes 60 to 80 percent of the real cost, and counts hires who exit inside 12 months. Move the sliders. Real partnership pricing, retainer-pool drawdown, tiered placement fees.
Your Numbers
The Math
What We Do
An extension of your recruiting team. We know your brand's culture cold, source with the best AI tools so your in-house team does not have to do all that vetting, and reach candidates in every market, including the ones you have not opened yet.
Restaurant BOH & FOH: Manager, AGM, GM, Director. Corporate (HR, Marketing, Finance): Senior (5+ yrs) through Director. Fees aligned with candidate retention.
Flat retainer plus success fee on placement. None of the high upfront commitments or complex payment schedules of legacy retained firms. VP through C-Suite, where the wrong hire costs more than the search.
VP, SVP, COO, CMO, CFO, CPO, CEO and Board-level. 12-month performance commitment.
How We Work
Two distinct models: one for embedded day-to-day recruiting, one for senior executive search. Rigor either way.
We invest before we source. Deep briefing with your CEO, board, or leadership team. We build a scorecard and search brief, not a job description.
140+ candidates identified and catalogued. Every major operator, PE-backed brand, and rising talent in the relevant category, mapped before we make a single call.
Proactive, discreet engagement. We reach people who aren't looking. Our hospitality network means warm introductions, not cold messages.
9-dimension scoring framework: only candidates clearing 7/9 advance. We cut the field, so you only meet people who are genuinely right.
140+ down to 15 screened, then 5–7 presented. Comprehensive candidate dossiers with career narrative, compensation data, and cultural alignment notes.
Structured interview frameworks for each round. Debrief facilitation with your panel. We keep the process from drifting, and protect your time.
Compensation benchmarking, offer strategy, counter-offer preparation. 90-day post-placement check-ins. Fees aligned with retention, we're accountable to the outcome.
Results
83% of our placements are still with their company 12 months out. That's not a coincidence, it's the result of a process built around fit, not speed.
Retained Executive Search · Vibe Restaurants
Irfaan Lalani, CEO · Vibe Restaurants
Irfaan needed a senior operator to give him room to think about the next chapter. HHC ran a full retained search: 140+ candidates mapped, six weeks to a short list of four. We placed Michael as VP of Operations, the right person at the right entry point.
Embedded Search · bartaco (L Catterton)
Anthony Valletta · bartaco
bartaco needed a senior operator who could hold the culture while accelerating growth under PE ownership, a combination that doesn't show up on a job board. HHC sourced nationally, narrowed a deep field, and presented a short slate built around bartaco's specific DNA.
Embedded Search · Brooklyn Bowl
Sameen Ahmad, VP Marketing & Development
Brooklyn Bowl needed a Sales Director who could hit the ground running in one of the country's most competitive hospitality markets. Speed mattered, but so did fit with a brand that takes culture seriously.
Executive Search · bartaco (L Catterton)
Lisa Mosby · bartaco
bartaco needed a People leader who could scale culture through rapid unit growth, but the typical hospitality HR pool wasn't the answer. HHC looked outside the industry entirely, identifying Lisa at Dick's Sporting Goods. She wasn't looking. bartaco was skeptical, big company, different world, remote setup.
"
I work with HHC every chance I get and they have continually brought top-tier candidates to the table. Most recently, Mandeep helped me find our Sales Director in Las Vegas who has surpassed all of our goals and forecasts, she's also a great team member who the staff adores.
Sameen Ahmad · VP Marketing & Development · Brooklyn Bowl
Pricing
No percentage of headcount. No perpetuity fees. Your monthly retainer accrues as credit against your next placement fee, so slow months bank value instead of going to waste.
Every month, your $5,500 retainer accrues as a credit balance (cap: $11,000 / 2 months). When a hire closes, that credit offsets your placement fee. Slow month? It banks. Active month? It's already working for you. No per-headcount tax on your own employees, ever.
About HHC Search
HHC Search was founded with a single thesis: the best hospitality candidates are not on job boards, and the best operators deserve better than a resume push. After two decades and 200+ placements across restaurants, hotel groups, and food & beverage brands, that thesis has held.
We operate as a boutique, intentionally. We hire for quality, not volume, and augment every engagement with meaningful investment in technology and AI sourcing. When you work with HHC, you get a consultant held to the highest standards, not a junior associate managing eight clients at once.
Our 10,000+ candidate network spans every geography and function. We know who's performing, who's looking, and who's coachable. That intelligence doesn't live in a database, it lives in vetting and relationships built over two decades of hospitality recruiting.
Schedule a Conversation →We work exclusively with PE-backed and growth-stage hospitality brands. 30-minute conversation, no pitch deck required. We'll tell you if we're the right fit.
200+ placements · 83% 12-mo retention · Fees aligned with candidate retention
We don't post jobs. We place people. If you're a hospitality operator, GM, or executive, thriving or quietly looking, we want to know you before the right role opens.
Confidential · Your current employer is never contacted · 10,000+ network, every major market
Get Started
30-minute conversation. No pitch deck required (but we have one). We'll tell you if HHC is the right fit, and what we'd do differently than whoever you've used before.
[email protected] · hhcsearch.com