Hostess Resume Example & Job Description (+ Template)

Your hostess resume must be more than just your best photo. Because being a hostess is way more than just smiling.

Prove you’re customer-oriented and can handle even the busiest restaurant times. How?

By writing a resume that shows you have the right skills—and understand how they relate to what this role involves. 

And you won’t have to Google ‘hostess jobs near me’ ever again.

In this guide:

• Hostess resume examples to land you that job in no time.
• How to make the perfect restaurant hostess job description for resumes.
• How to write a host resume that gets interviews.
• Why listing the right hostess resume skills and duties is the key to landing this job.

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These resume guides and examples may be helpful in creating your resume as a hostess:

• Bar Manager Resume Examples
• Event Coordinator Resume Examples
• Cosmetology Resume Examples
• Customer Service Resume Examples
• Hospitality Resume Examples
• Restaurant Resume Examples

Haven't found what you're looking for? Check all our Professional Resume Examples.

Hostess Resume Example You Can Copy and Use

Now here’s how to write a hostess resume like this:

1. Choose the Best Format for a Hostess Resume

Would you trust someone who can’t organize their resume with organizing 50 reservations a night?

Neither would the waitstaff manager.

A restaurant hostess resume has to reflect your attention to detail from top to bottom.

To make a great first impression, follow the recommended resume formatting rules below:

Hostess Resume Format

• Use the common reverse-chronological format. It brings the most recent, relevant things to the top, and makes your hostess resume easy to read.
• Choose elegant resume fonts like Calibri, Georgia, or Verdana in a 10–12 size. Most people are used to those typefaces and can read them quickly.
• Keep things clean by using 1-inch margins for your resume.
• Limit your resume lengthto one page.
• Structure your resume sectionsthe following way:Contact Information, Summary, Experience, Education, Skills, and “Additional.”
• Save your resume as a PDF. This way your document formatting will always stay in tact.

Expert Tip: Bureau of Labour Statistics data shows that out of all 417 thousand hosts and hostesses, 368 thousand work in the restaurant business. Focus your job search accordingly.

2. Write an Effective Hostess Resume Objective Or Summary

Now that your hostess resume looks professional at first glance, make it feel inviting.

Otherwise the hiring manager won’t care to read it.

Here’s how to grab their attention:

At the top of your hosting resume, just below the contact information, include a resume profile. 

It’s a short-and-sweet paragraph that outlines your career and shows why you’re perfect for this job.

If you don’t have much relevant experience, opt to write a hostess resume objective. 

It is a more aspirational paragraph that describes your relevant, translatable skills and your ambition to achieve.

If you are already used to juggling 50 reservations with one hand, and correcting things after the new waiter with the other, write a hostess resume summary.

 It summarises your career, listing ther best achievements on your resume and most relevant qualifications.

Let’s see what it looks like in practice.

Hostess Resume Summary Examples

The bad example wastes space by singling out the two separate positions in the same industry. When jobs are similar and part of the same career path, feel free to summarize them when listing your years experience. 

Also skip listing the basic responsibilities of a server, because they don’t bring anything special or new to the table.

Hostess Resume Objective Examples

See the good example? The candidate doesn’t have a wealth of experience, but she still manages to set out the key hostess skills that promise to deliver value.

The bad example? Filled with empty adjectives that anyone can use. 

Avoid that on your resume for hostess jobs. Think of how you can make your experiences and characteristics relevant. 

If you don’t have much of related experience, highlight your accomplishments from other jobs—or as a student.

Hostesses must talk to clients all day. Show the hiring manager you have things to talk about. Even if you’re only starting out.

Expert Hint: To save you rewriting, write your hostess resume profile at the very end, once you have thought about and written out all your relevant experience and hostess skills. 

3. Follow Up with an Appetizing Restaurant Hostess Job Description

Meeting, greeting, seating.

Boring.

That’s how most candidates write their hostess descriptions for resumes.. 

And they don’t get the job.

Here’s how to make you resume work experience section meaningful:

Restaurant Hostess Job Description for a Resume Step by Step

• List your work experience in reverse-chronological order (most recent first)
• Add between 3 and 5 bullet points under each job you’ve had.
• Now, reverse engineer the job posting you are applying for andrite down the key responsibilities and skills that they are looking for.
• Think of the way you have shown in the past that you can handle those.
• In each bullet point under your past jobs, describe quantifiable achievements that correspond to the key responsibilities and skills from the job ad.
• Use resume action verbs and avoid passiveness: You were not responsible for greeting and seating customers. You greeted and seated 200+ customers a night.

This all is called targeting your resume. And it works miracles.

Let’s say the job posting describes the following responsibilities: seating, greeting, managing tables and reservations, and general dining area preparation tasks.

Take a look at these two examples:

Restaurant Hostess Job Description for a Resume—Examples

It’s clear to see who will get that interview invite.

And what if you’re writing a resume with no experience for hostess jobs? 

Think about your achievements and transferable skills that you can use in fulfilling the typical duties of a hostess.

Here’s what to do:

• What are the hostess duties? Spin your non-hosting jobs—highlight customer service and customer contact experience you had.
• Highlight any volunteer experience on your resume or list other activities that required interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Expand your education section to include more achievements.

Whether or not you have the work experience, it will help to make a quick list of the skills for a resume that are relevant to the position.

Hostess Resume Skills Examples

Hard Skills:

• Greeting & Seating Guests
• Reservation Management
• Dining Room Monitoring and Management
• Stock and Supply Management
• Cash Management
• Menu Knowledge
• POS
• Basic Computer Skills
• Basic Math

Soft Skills:

• Interpersonal Skills
• Time Management
• Communication
• Customer Service
• Training Others
• Teamwork
• Dispute Resolution

Depending on the space you have left on your host resume, you can opt for a quick list such as above, or you can take a few of these and expand them, incorporating your relevant achievements.

But remember—

Don’t just cram your resume skills section with whatever’s expected of you. Only list the hostess skills you actually have. (Yes, that’s my roundabout way of saying “don’t lie on a resume!”)

Now time for something easy— 

Listing your education on a resume for hostess jobs.

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4. Work on a Captivating Education Section in Your Hostess Resume

“But a hostess job description never asked for a Master’s degree.”

Yeah but it doesn’t mean you can’t use it to your advantage.

Consider this:

One of the responsibilities of a hostess is to converse with customers. 

A customer must feel that she is being served by a knowledgeable, intelligent person.

And the more upscale the restaurant or event, the more important your education is.

But don’t go overboard. In your resume education section, limit yourself to the highest degree of education you have.

Include:

• Your degree
• School name
• Graduation date
• GPA—if it’s high enough (generally around 3.5 or above)
• Optionally, club memberships and extracurricular activities if they’re relevant to the hostess job

See these examples:

Hostess Resume Examples—Education

What makes the good example so good? The GPA shows this person is a hard worker. Also, the debating society shows that they can hold a conversation on the level.

The bad example adds no value to the resume—it shows what and where you study, but not how or why. 

5. Upsell Your Hostess Resume With Other Sections

You’re nearly there.

You’ve got the basics down.

Now it’s time to turn it up to 11.

Including extra resume sections can help to boost your chances of landing that hostess job.

Here are our suggestions:

Hostess Resume Additional Section Examples

• Languages
• Courses, Certifications
• Volunteering
• Relevant Interests

Or— 

A strategic combination of the above in the form of Additional Information:

Hostess Resume Examples—Additional Information Section

These are all things that will help you secure that hostess station for yourself.

Expert Hint: Learning how to write a cover letter and attaching it to your hostess resume will seriously boost your chances of getting the job. A cover letter is the place where you can really sell yourself and provide more details about your background and motivation.

Double your impact with a matching resume and cover letter combo. Use our cover letter generator and make your application documents pop out.

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Key Points

Keep these key points in mind to make sure your hostess resume gets that interview:

• Use the hostess resume example up top as your template and follow the recommended resume formatting rules. 
• Write about your achievements, not tasks in your hostess resume profile, restaurant hostess job descriptions, and education section. 
• List your hostess skills. Reverse engineer the job posting to know exactly what they are looking for, and be able to match that 100%. 
• Write a dazzling hostess cover letter. Let your personality beam through those three paragraphs and boost your chances of getting hired. 

Do you think we have got it all covered? Do you have any specific questions about your hostess resume? Did we help you get a hostess job? Leave a comment! We want to hear from you.