Hostess Resume Examples (w/ Tips for Hostess with No Experience)

hostess resume example
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Aside from cash, customers are the lifeblood of a business. To increase customer loyalty, businesses will usually try to improve their customer service to enhance the customer experience. Service-oriented establishments, especially restaurants, typically employ a hostess (or a host) to achieve this goal.

Hosts and hostesses manage the public part of a restaurant by welcoming customers, taking reservations, assigning tables, supervising wait staff, and ensuring that customers are satisfied.

Although restaurants usually employ hostesses, they can be found in other industries as well. What do an air hostess resume, a party hostess resume, and an event hostess resume have in common?

They should all emphasize the same thing – customer service, as their main goal is to increase overall customer satisfaction. It is important to note the differences to ensure that you craft the correct hostess resume.

How to Write a Great Hostess Resume?

Being the bridge between you and the recruiter, your hostess resume should paint you in the best light.

Tip 1: Adopt an ATS-friendly Resume Format

An applicant tracking software (ATS) works by scanning and ranking the applicants' resumes. They are beneficial to recruiters as they reduce the number of resumes they will have to look over.

However, the same can’t be said for applicants.

To pass this filter, you want to make sure that your hostess resume has a simple format, as ATS tends to filter out resume templates that contain too many visuals.

Tip 2: Refer to Online Hostess Resume Templates and Hostess Resume Examples

Need a guide when crafting your resume? You can refer to online templates or examples to help you. However, because there are different types of host/hostess jobs, you want to make sure that you are referring to hostess resumes that are related to your desired industry.

For example, if you are crafting a restaurant hostess resume, you can use a fine dining hostess resume as a reference but not an event hostess resume because of the differences in the responsibilities and duties.

Tip 3: Tailor Your Hostess Resume for the Job Position and Use Keywords

As tedious as it may sound, when you apply to different companies, it's best to modify the description in your hostess resume or your hostess resume objective to match the posted job ad. You should also use keywords you find in the job ad to increase your chances of being filtered in by an ATS.

Besides your hostess resume description and hostess resume objective, you might also want to tailor your hostess resume skills to include the relevant ones only and your past hostess responsibilities and duties in your resume if you had any experience working as a hostess.

Tip 4: Quantify Results on Your Hostess Resumes

In a resume, numbers speak volumes.

Putting numbers to your achievements or your past hostess job duties on your resume would make them more apparent and more convincing to recruiters, which can increase your credibility in their eyes.

So, let's say you're faster than half of your co-workers in assigning seats to customers; you can put it as "seated guests 50% faster than average in our restaurant".

Tip 5: Certifications Can Boost Your Hostess Resume Standing

Hostess jobs, like most service-oriented jobs, are very experienced-focused because of how hands-on the job is. However, if you have any relevant certifications (e.g., hospitality-related certifications or alcohol-related certifications), it can boost your value as an applicant.

What is a Good Hostess Resume Objective?

Your hostess resume objective should answer the question, "What is my career objective as a hostess?".

Your hostess resume objective should be placed on top of your resume; it allows recruiters to quickly understand who you are as a candidate.

To achieve maximum visibility to prospective employers, your hostess resume objective should highlight your relevant achievements and experiences, be kept concise, and be worded positively and professionally.

Hostess resume objective examples:

  • Energetic and friendly hostess with 3+ years of experience in the fine dining industry. Looking to leverage my leadership skills for the lead hostess position in XYZ Restaurant.
  • Efficient and outgoing waitress with 4+ years of experience. Seeking to fill in the position of hostess in ABC Dining.
  • Seeking to fill in the entry-level hostess position in XYZ Diner to implement my customer-service skills.

How to Write a Professional Hostess Resume Summary?

A hostess resume summary, as the name implies, is a summary of your hostess resume. It's usually 1-2 sentences long, and it should be able to outline your hostess background, experience, and your most valuable and relevant skills.

A professional hostess summary can increase the likelihood of the recruiter noticing you and going through your entire application to see what you have to offer. When creating your resume summary, keep in mind its structure and conciseness. Like your hostess resume objective, you want to highlight relevant experience and achievements to increase your credibility in the recruiters' eyes.

Hostess resume summary examples:

  • Outgoing and friendly hostess who scored 100% on menu knowledge and customer service tests and was voted as employee of the month for 5 consecutive months.
  • Reliable and professional lead hostess who can seat guests 25% faster than average and have an in-depth knowledge of wine and spirits.
  • Enthusiastic hospitality management graduate with proven interpersonal skills. Eager to apply my skills as a hostess in XYZ Restaurant.

What Are Some Great Skills for a Hostess Resume?

Your hostess resume skills section can arguably make or break your resume. An experienced lead hostess resume or a fine dining hostess resume and a hostess resume with no experience can benefit greatly in their own ways if this section is formatted properly and if they include specific skills.

How would the formatting be done?

📌 There are 4 ways you can approach this, they are:

  • Simple bullet lists are easy to craft; recruiters can see the desired skills quickly. However, its simplistic format can prevent you from showing the recruiters how you've implemented your skills to hostess-related tasks.
  • Expanded bullet lists are more impactful than a simple bullet list as you can show recruiters how you've applied your hostess resume skills. On the other hand, because of how lengthier than a simple bullet list, it limits the number of skills you can include in your resume; remember, you don't want your resume to exceed 2 pages!
  • Integrating skills with work experience can explain your competency as a hostess very well because of its positioning with the experience section. Great, right? Not exactly. This format requires you to possess extensive experience for it to work; thus, it might not be suitable for a hostess resume with no experience. 
  • A categorized skill section is great because a hostess requires a broad range of (hard and soft) skills that may be difficult to list down; this format helps with the organization of skills. However, similar to the integrated work experience format, it's not very suitable for a hostess resume with no experience.

What is the best format for your hostess resume skills section?

The answer ultimately differs from one candidate to another. Remember to carefully evaluate your skills and background.

Keep the skills description short, relevant (to the job description), and include both hard skills and soft skills.

Hostess resume skills example:

  • Soft Skills
    
    • Time Management
    • Multitasking
    • Customer Service
    • Teamwork
    • Flexible
  • Hard Skills
    
    • Menu Knowledge
    • Resolving Complaints
    • Seating Customers
    • Staff Streamlining
    • Extensive Knowledge on Wine and Spirits

How to Write a Hostess Resume with No Experience?

🧷 Advice 1: Choose the Right Format for a Hostess Resume with No Experience

The resume format is an aspect that tends to be overlooked by job hunters. A professional hostess resume can be formatted in 3 different ways: chronological, functional, and hybrid/combination.

It's important to note that there is no objectively best format; its suitability and functionality will depend on various factors such as your background, experience, etc.

🧷 Advice 2: Write a Hostess Career Objective

If you're worried that your resume will fall short because of your lack of experience, you shouldn't be!

You can utilize the impact a hostess resume objective (i.e., your career objective as a hostess) can bring by redirecting the focus of your resume to your passion and goal as a hostess. 

🧷 Advice 3: Highlight Your Education

Although most hostess jobs require you to have a minimum of a high school diploma or its equivalent, if you have a bachelor's degree or any postsecondary education degree (especially in hospitality management), including it in your hostess resume can increase your value as a candidate.

🧷 Advice 4: Include Your Portfolio/Side Project/Personal Website

Achievements from service-oriented tasks and jobs can be difficult to highlight and showcase. This is where your portfolio, a side project, or personal website that can verify your hostess resume skills come in handy.

Including these in your resume can increase your skills or experiences' credibility, and of course, increasing your value as an applicant.

🧷 Advice 5: Write a Sincere Hostess Cover Letter

A hostess cover letter will be the first document of your application that the recruiter will look over. A good cover letter for a hostess position should be within one-page long and should introduce your relevant work history, skills, and your sincere enthusiasm and passion for the job.

Similar to your resume, you would want to tailor your hostess cover letters to incorporate keywords, specific duties, responsibilities, skills, etc.

Hostess Resume Sample

Bessie Lapointe

Personable and Efficient Hostess with 4+ Years of Experience in Fine Dining Restaurants

Mobile: +1-218-494-2479
Email: [email protected]
Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/bessielapointe

Summary

Friendly, organized, and efficient hostess highly skilled in planning service workflows while keeping guests comfortable and satisfied. Seeking to leverage my customer service and interpersonal skills for the head hostess position in Sühring.

Work Experience

Hostess | L'Assiette
March 2016 - Nov 2021

  • Maintained a clean and organized waiting and dining area.
  • Managed telephone and in-person inquiries and reservation bookings.
  • Strove for efficient customer service; commended by manager and VIP guests for the ability to resolve problems swiftly in a friendly manner.
  • Trained a team of 15 waiters/waitresses and new hosts/hostesses on service policies.

Waitress | La Griglia
Jan. 2015 - Feb. 2016

  • Obtained a score of 100% on menu knowledge and customer service.
  • Recommended wines, spirits, and other alcoholic beverages and generated a 20% higher beverage order rate than the restaurant average.
  • Voted Employee of the Month for 4 times consecutively.

Skills

  • In-depth Knowledge of Wine and Alcohol Beverages
  • Staff Streamlining
  • Resolving Complaints
  • Stocking
  • Menu Knowledge
  • Time Management
  • Customer Service
  • High Energy
  • Flexible
  • Multitasking

Education

  • San Diego State University
    2011 - 2015
    B.S in Hospitality & Tourism Management with Emphasis in Restaurant Management
  • GPA: 3.86/4.0

--- Originally written by Patricia Rosita ---

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