Ask for dates, the position and actual management responsibilities, with an identifiable source. If a property changed owners or brands, explain the relationship using available records. A reference should describe what its author can confirm, not merely assert eligibility.
Keep the work history tied to real employers
List the employer and property names separately where they differ. This helps a reviewer connect payroll or reference records with the property described. Explain gaps honestly and avoid counting overlapping periods as separate full years without review.
Ask for the payroll record before asking for the reference letter. Payroll and employment-verification records are held by the entity that actually paid the applicant, and they fix the dates a letter written from memory will blur; the letter then has one job, which is to describe responsibilities payroll cannot show. Where a property changed hands during the employment, the successor may hold nothing from before the transfer — establish that early, because a gap found a week before travel cannot be filled by a new letter from a party that never held the records.
While waiting on documents a former employer is slow to produce, write the chronology from the pieces already in hand and mark each uncertain date as uncertain rather than rounding it. An estimate presented as a fact is the item that damages the rest of the account.