Manage lifts at hotel for a period (5)
I believe the answer is:
epoch
'period' is the definition.
(I know that epoch is a type of period)
'manage lifts at hotel' is the wordplay.
'manage' becomes 'cope' (manage can mean to cope or do well).
'lifts' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (I've seen 'lifting' mean this).
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'cope' reversed gives 'epoc'.
'epoc'+'h'='EPOCH'
'for a' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for epoch that I've seen before include "A great age from which dates are reckoned" , "Making this date" , "significant time" , "Geological time period" , "Period, era" .)