Hospitality Resume Skills - 2024 Guide with Best Practice Examples

Wondering what the most in-demand hospitality skills for your resume are?

At Enhancv we’ve prepared for you some ideas on creating the perfect chef’s kiss resume, so you can land your dream job.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• What the top hospitality skills for your resume are
• Where to list your hospitality skills
• How to tailor your hospitality resume to catch recruiters’ eyes
• Best practices for 2022 from industry experts

Top hospitality skills for your resume

Your hospitality skills show recruiters what a valuable asset you would be to their organization.

They highlight that you have the experience working in teams; that you are flexible; and can survive in a dynamic environment.

But there are so many more benefits, your hospitality skills would pinpoint as part of your resume.

Most popular hospitality hard skills for your resume in 2022

The hospitality industry is set on making its recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus offers new career opportunities for both seasoned experts and novices.

Wondering how to make your resume stand out in the pile of applications?

Include your hospitality hard skills, as they go to show that you’ve taken the time to further invest in your technical skills and yourself.

Find out below what the 6 most popular hard skills are for the industry.

If you need more experts insights, we have 26+ tips and advice for 2022 on how to write the perfect resume.

Client communications

We’re referring to the technological aspect of the communications that includes:

• logging client requests into various systems
• maintaining databases
• writing clear and concise emails
• answering calls at reception

It’s a set of technical skills that well-experienced hospitality professionals may not pay too much attention to, but the reality is that they are an important aspect of the job.

Including them would show recruiters that the on-the-job training won’t take too much time, as you’ve previously dealt with such systems.

Include your client communications skills in the experience section of your resume:

Handled and logged over 30 phone calls per day to increase the customer satisfaction rate by 25%

Not sure how else you can include the technical aspect of your client communications on your resume? Check out our successful guest relations manager examples.

Hospitality management software

If you’ve dealt with various hotel management software to manage bookings or track KPIs, this is one of the must-have skills to your resume.

It shows recruiters you can streamline processes, have an understanding of operations - and for the more junior roles, that you can maintain a database correctly.

Popular software include: eZee Front desk, Hotelogix, Maestro PMS, etc.

This hard skill can go at the very top of your resume: Hotel Manager with 10+ years of experience in the same establishment, highly apt at using Hotelogix to discover opportunities to improve revenue

Create your job-winning resume today with our hospitality resume guide.

Budget management

Showcasing this hard skill within your resume is a fantastic opportunity to illustrate that within your role you have gained the trust of your seniors.

Finance and budget management is a big responsibility - from managing expenses with QuickBooks to ensuring the best decisions are made for positive ROI.

Include your budgeting experience in the experience section:

Budgeted all expenses in next 6 months to help management predict costs and seize opportunities to increase overall revenue by 7%.

Want to show more of your cash flow management and finance skills on your resume? Read our budgeting guide for more ideas.

Event management

Organizing events on a professional level is one of those skills that is impressive, as you’ve probably dealt with caterers, venues, guest lists, music, etc.

Not to get into the trivial aspects of it all, but…

Event management is a skill that not only shows your ability to multitask and communicate, but rather an eagle eye’s view in situations that can change at any moment.

Just don’t forget to list the software you use to organize and manage the events (e.g. Eventbrite, Whova, Conftool, etc.)

Here’s how your skill can make a great addition to the summary of your resume:

Hospitality professional with 3+ years of experience in improving customer relations by 25% and organizing events for 500+ guests via Eventbrite

Find out how your event management experience can be part of various other sections of your resume.

Contract management

You may not be required to know all business contracts by heart, but within more serious roles, you’d be required to deal with various suppliers.

Contract management outlines your ability to:

• track contracts’ expiration date
• re-sign necessary contracts
• know where there’s an opportunity to renegotiate with providers

It requires not only a bit of background, but devising a unique, systematic approach - that can be in Excel, Outlook, etc.

As part of your experience section, your contact management skills can:

Renegotiated terms within current contractors to improve annual ROI by 12%

Contract management is an important skill for restaurant managers - learn more how to include it in your resume with our guide.

Compliance knowledge

Understanding industry-specific laws can sure come in handy for more senior positions within hospitality.

Especially, if you have to ensure that venue/ kitchen hygiene and health and safety protocols are always up to standard.

Take the following resume experience example: Trained all 60 kitchen staff members in health and safety procedures in food preparation

More food for thought from our kitchen manager resume guide on how to create your job-winning resume in 2022.

Top soft skills for jobs in Hospitality industry

As we all know, hospitality is an industry that’s very much people-facing, and recruiters within the field would always look for a specific set of soft skills.

Our recommendation for you is to try to describe them via the results you’ve achieved: whether that’s customer feedback or performance scores.

Check out below what the most popular soft skills are for hospitality.

Work ethic

Strong work ethic within hospitality goes to show that you believe in the purpose of the venue - to make a remarkable customer experience possible.

Recruiters are on the lookout for that purpose driven professional that are both reliable and proactive; and willing to go the extra mile.

Your strong work ethic can be demonstrated within customer retention, feedback, and the venue’s NPS scores.

Find out more about how to demonstrate your impeccable work ethic on your hospitality resume.

Attention to detail

Every detail matters within hospitality - from the look and feel of the venue to the language you use when interacting with customers.

This soft skill is a make it or break it sort of deal for those professionals who want to succeed.

Showcase that you’re detail-oriented within your resume by focusing on its formatting to including examples of this soft skill in your experience.

Think about situations where your observations of a particular situation have driven a positive result.

Baristas always pay attention to even the slightest details: from customers’ names to preferences. Find out how to include these details in your resume with our guide.

Different environments

Your previous experience in hospitality can be a huge benefit for your potential employers.

This goes to show that you’re adaptive and have the basic know-how of the “land”. You’re able to work under pressure and complete multiple tasks at the same time.

Your experience is the best trademark of your adaptability, so don’t forget to include all relevant jobs you’ve had in the industry.

Highlight your ability to multi-task on your resume with our best tips and tricks.

Patience

The customer is always right. Or so goes the #1 mantra in hospitality.

Keeping this in mind, it takes a particularly patient professional to deal with customer expectations, needs, and demands.

This is an important soft skill to emphasize on your resume within the customer-driven impact you’ve created in your previous roles.

There are various other ways you can showcase your patience skills on your resume - find some ideas of how in our official guide.

teamwork

Working in hospitality is like being part of one big family - your ability to communicate and collaborate with various team members is crucial for success.

Customers always come back to excellent hospitality experiences, and, as we all know, these are mainly created by all people working within the venue.

Think about integrating your interpersonal skills as part of your professional experience by looking at:

• How big were the teams you were a part of
• What was your role within the team
• What were the results you were able to achieve - together

Check out our hostess resume examples to further highlight your teamwork skills.

Mindset

A few paragraphs ago, we did mention that a certain adaptability is required in hospitality.

What is more, professionals should demonstrate a willingness and ability to think strategically about resolving problems.

This could be in all areas, from more mundane customer problems to overall operations-management decisions that affect the business.

Your strategic mindset and problem-solving approach could be an integral part of your resume, with a focus on outcomes.

Check out some of the most popular strategy power phrases to include on your resume.

How to list hospitality skills on resume

Make sure the skills you list are relevant to the position

Before you decide on which hospitality skills to include in your resume, make sure you read through the job description once more.

This would help you map out - and more importantly - prioritize the particular skills you’d need to include within your resume.

Find our guide on how to further make your resume stand out in 2022.

Provide concrete examples with numbers

Numbers always provide a certain social proof as to the results you’ve achieved within your role.

They could be a reflection upon the positive feedback you’ve received from customers, or the number of times people have recommended the venue you work at.

So, think of a way these positive outcomes and results could be intertwined into your professional experience.

Be specific

If you want to make a good impression on recruiters, make sure your hospitality skills are specific.

You shouldn’t just list them within the skills' section of your resume, but rather fall into details about them.

But don’t go overboard, focus on the achievements and impact they’ve had on you as a professional.

Where to include hospitality skills on your resume

In the header section of your resume

Your hospitality skills can go at the very top of your resume; within your header’s title.

In that way, you’ll ensure you pass the Applicant tracking System (ATS) and that recruiters get an initial sense of your experience.

Perfecting your resume’s header is an art form, but we have you covered with some real-life examples.

Communicating your hospitality skills in the summary section

The summary section of your resume is another fantastic opportunity to further highlight your hospitality skill set.

Just make sure to select the skills most relevant to the job advert and focus on outcomes.

Showcasing your Hospitality resume skills in your experience bullet points

Your hospitality skills can always be highlighted within your experience section of your resume.

Remember to include as many stats and numbers as possible to demonstrate outcomes.

How to match your skills to the job position

This one is obvious - but recruiters always tend to include the main requirements within the job description.

Make an even better impression on them by taking the time to study interesting facts about the venue you’re applying for.

If you’re even more familiar with some of the company’s proudest achievements, this would serve as a conversation piece and would help recruiters imagine you within the team.

Related resume examples that you can use your Hospitality resume skills on

For some of the best hospitality professionals resume examples:

• Top Hospitality Resume Examples
• Waiter
• Restaurant Manager
• Hostess
• Receptionist
• Waitress
• Food Service
• Housekeeper
• Busser
• Front Office Manager
• F&B Manager
• Assistant Restaurant Manager
• Fast Food Industry

Key takeaways

• There are various hard and soft skills you can include on your hospitality resume to make a good impression on recruiters
• Your hospitality skills could be an integral part of different sections of your resume
• Always describe the results you’ve achieved using the particular hospitality skill
• Pinpoint the precise skill requirements from the job advert