Hospitality (Hotel Front Desk) Resume Example

‘Hospitality’ covers a broad range of job titles, all of which are a form of customer service related to hosting, catering to, and entertaining guests. The resume above covers a person who worked as a front desk clerk and hotel bellhop.

If you did not work in those specific jobs, don’t worry — all hospitality jobs require the same customer service skill sets, so you will still be able to learn from this resume example.

Ultimately, the ability to deal with customers in a proactive and professional manner is a skill every hospitality business seeks in its employees.Therefore, a hospitality resume that emphasizes these key abilities can definitely help you find a long lasting career.

This is a fantastic sample resume — one that would capture the attention of any hiring manager. We’ll break it down, and help you understand how to write your own in a similar fashion.

1. Three Key Skills for Hospitality Workers

• Training: There are many hospitality jobs that don’t require a degree or special certifications. However, there are some that do — and even if it’s not required, getting them can help you earn a higher hourly wage and make you a more competitive job candidate. Please see the hospitality certifications on this page from the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI). Displaying your relevant certifications at the top of your resume is the fastest way to keep a hiring manager interested.

• Personality: Hospitality is all about the old adage, “Service with a Smile.” Hospitality establishments are looking for outgoing, personable, and friendly people who can keep guests comfortable, entertained, and relaxed. Are you skilled at conflict resolution, an inevitable aspect of dealing with guests and customers? This is yet another skill that you can get training in and display prominently on your resume.

• Technical: Whether you’re operating Point of Sale (POS) Terminals, captaining a tour boat, driving a horse and buggy carriage, handling credit cards and cash at the front desk, or working a security system, hospitality jobs require some specialized technical ability of some sort. Displaying your technical experience on your resume is a fast way to demonstrate to the hiring manager that you will require less training and therefore will be a stronger candidate.

Bearing these three general hospitality & customer service skill sets in mind, let’s dive into the specifics of this resume sample to see how this candidate wrote a fantastic resume.

2. Begin with the Career Objective

The Career Objective is where you will “hook” the hospitality hiring manager’s attention by giving them everything they want and need to know about your experience right away. Here’s the objective from the above example, with the critical parts bolded and numbered:

Experienced hospitality worker (4+ years)¹ with a BA in Hospitality Management². Proven ability to run a hotel front desk, keep customers satisfied, and resolve conflicts. Responsible, knowledgeable, and technically savvy³, the perfect candidate your Hotel Front Desk Manager⁴ job.

Why is this objective successful? With reference to the numbers:

1. He mentions the number of years of experience in the field
2. He presents his relevant college degree
3. He lists the traits that make him a strong candidate
4. He tells the hiring manager which position he’s interested in

Follow those guidelines to make a strong introduction to your resume.

3. Prove Yourself in the Professional Experience Section

All of the claims you made in the Career Objective should be proven with your bullet points. Aim to describe your work experience with numbers and achievements, rather than bland duties.

Here’s how this candidate did it — with attention to the bolding.

• Greet and register guests in a 200+ room hotel using a Point of Sale (POS) Terminal, memorizing faces and names to ensure personalized service throughout guest stays

By describing the size of the hotel numerically, a hiring manager gets a much better idea about the scope of the candidate’s responsibility.

• Maintained a 95% customer satisfaction rating over two years, a covering categories such as friendliness, efficiency, helpfulness, and knowledgeability

If your performance is being tracked in any way, find out the numbers and include them on your resume (only if they are good, of course.) Customer satisfaction surveys are extremely common in the hospitality industry, use them to your advantage. Maintaining a 95% rating is an excellent boon for any hospitality resume.

• Trained two new front desk clerks in using POS Terminals, room inspection, providing guest services, and confirming online room reservation services

If you have ever trained any employees, mention it, and specify what you trained them to do. We highlighted “trained” in red because it’s a powerful resume building keyword to include on a resume — it means you have management skills, in depth knowledge, and that other people trusted you with important tasks.

Why Else Are These Good Examples?

The applicant already had solid hospitality experience due to his previous jobs as a bellhop and a front desk clerk. These are great examples because he quantified (added numbers to) the bullet points.

Think about your own professional experience in terms of where you can showcase your talents and abilities, and grab the attention of the hiring manager.

A Brief Look at How to Quantify Your Resume

Here’s an example of a poorly written bullet point — can you see why?

Does it seem complete? We don’t think so. A better one would be written like this:

The bottom description gives the hiring manager a much clearer picture of the scope of your abilities, and also emphasizes your attention to detail.

Is Your Professional Experience Formatted Correctly?

Be sure to read our guide on the three resume formats to know whether to use a:

1. functional template
2. chronological template, or
3. combination template

The way you present your experience will impact your chances of landing an interview.

4. Target Your Additional Skills

Including skills like communication skills, organization skills, software/technical knowledge and language skills are all abilities that can be used in a hospitality position. Stressing teamwork and organizational skills are key for creating an attractive hospitality resume, as most positions require working closely in teams and with other associates to complete tasks and manage customers.

5. Action Verbs for a Hospitality Resume

There’s more where that came from. Come visit our longest list of action verbs in the universe!

Ultimately, a resume with a hospitality focus will look much like the sample above, focusing on customer interactions and coworker communication skills.

Hopefully this guide has been helpful for you. We also encourage you to use our renowned automatic resume builder here, which will write and format your resume for you automatically.

Best of luck on your job search!