Top 12 Hostess Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's competitive hospitality landscape, a sharp, well-edited resume that spotlights core hostess skills can tilt hiring decisions your way. The essentials below zero in on practical abilities that shape first impressions, keep the floor humming, and turn a busy night into a smooth one.

Hostess Skills

1. OpenTable
2. ResyOS
3. Customer Service
4. Multitasking
5. POS Systems
6. Reservation Management
7. Tableau
8. Conflict Resolution
9. Bilingual Communication
10. Time Management
11. Microsoft Excel
12. Team Collaboration

1. OpenTable

OpenTable is a reservation and guest management platform that lets you manage bookings, waitlists, and seating flow while tracking notes and preferences so guests feel known, not numbered.

Why It's Important

It condenses the chaos: real-time table status, organized guest profiles, smoother pacing. Less guesswork, more accuracy, happier guests.

How to Improve OpenTable Skills

Get faster and more precise with habits that stick:

1. Deep-dive training: Practice core flows—add/edit reservations, quote accurate wait times, merge parties, tag VIPs, log preferences.

2. Seat map mastery: Learn every view. Use statuses religiously (sat, bussing, clean) to keep turns tight and fair.

3. Smart notes: Standardize guest notes and occasion tags; keep them crisp and useful for future visits.

4. Alert discipline: Set and honor alerts for large parties, accessibility needs, and pacing rules.

5. Post-shift review: Scan the shift summary. Spot bottlenecks, over-quotes, or under-quotes and adjust tomorrow’s plan.

How to Display OpenTable Skills on Your Resume

2. ResyOS

ResyOS is a reservation, table, and guest-management system used to control pacing, organize the floor, and deliver consistent experiences across busy services.

Why It's Important

It tightens operations—clean waitlists, accurate pacing controls, quick table turns—so hosts can seat strategically, not frantically.

How to Improve ResyOS Skills

1. Customize the floor: Align table tags, sections, and pacing with your layout and service style.

2. Use guest history: Read notes before seating; add clear, short follow-ups after. Personalization starts here.

3. Own the waitlist: Quote honestly, update often, and communicate changes immediately to the team.

4. Shortcut fluency: Practice common actions until they’re muscle memory—speed matters when the door swings nonstop.

How to Display ResyOS Skills on Your Resume

3. Customer Service

For a hostess, customer service is the art of greeting, informing, and guiding. It’s managing expectations, reading the room, and making guests feel in good hands from hello to goodbye.

Why It's Important

First impressions ripple. Warmth at the door boosts satisfaction, loyalty, and the entire dining experience.

How to Improve Customer Service Skills

1. Personalize: Use names when possible, acknowledge occasions, note preferences.

2. Set expectations: Quote accurate waits and pacing. Give options, not shrugs.

3. Own the fix: When something goes sideways, take responsibility, offer solutions, close the loop.

4. Active listening: Let guests finish, restate the request, then resolve quickly.

5. Consistency: Same warmth at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Small touches stack up.

How to Display Customer Service Skills on Your Resume

4. Multitasking

Multitasking means juggling door traffic, phones, reservations, and floor updates without dropping the ball—or the smile.

Why It's Important

Because a busy host stand never stops. Quick pivots keep lines short, tables turning, and guests calm.

How to Improve Multitasking Skills

1. Prioritize: Urgent and guest-facing first. Everything else slots in after.

2. Batch tasks: Return calls in bursts, update multiple tables at once, seat by section.

3. Clean workspace: Clear stand, clear head. Label pens, lists, chargers. It matters.

4. Standard scripts: For waits, holds, and policies—fast, clear, consistent wording saves time.

5. Limit interruptions: Headset or one clear comms channel. Fewer cross-talks, fewer errors.

How to Display Multitasking Skills on Your Resume

5. POS Systems

A POS system, from a hostess perspective, centralizes table status, guest data, and sometimes deposits, events, or takeout handoffs. It’s your live snapshot of the floor.

Why It's Important

Accurate table states and synchronized data reduce wait times, prevent double-seats, and keep communication tight between front and back of house.

How to Improve POS Systems Skills

1. Learn the layout: Map tables, sections, and statuses until updates are instant and precise.

2. Integrate with reservations: If your venue connects POS with OpenTable or Resy, use that link to keep pacing and seating aligned.

3. Mobile options: Use handhelds when available to update statuses on the fly.

4. Customer profiles: Add notes respectfully and consistently. Small details power great service.

5. Training and support: Take vendor trainings; practice off-peak. New features land often—stay current.

How to Display POS Systems Skills on Your Resume

6. Reservation Management

Reservation management organizes bookings, tables, and guest preferences to balance pace, reduce waits, and make every seat count.

Why It's Important

It keeps the door fair and the floor flowing. Fewer bottlenecks, better turns, happier guests.

How to Improve Reservation Management Skills

1. Use real-time tools: Work within systems like OpenTable or Resy and keep statuses live, not “I’ll fix it later.”

2. Accurate quoting: Track typical turn times by party size and section; adjust quotes as the night shifts.

3. Clear notes: Allergies, accessibility, highchairs, occasions—log and confirm.

4. Demand forecasting: Review historical peaks and pre-shifts to plan staffing and pacing.

5. Feedback loop: After service, identify overbooked patterns or choke points and refine rules.

How to Display Reservation Management Skills on Your Resume

7. Tableau

Tableau is a data visualization tool that turns raw numbers into readable charts and dashboards—useful for tracking covers, turns, no-shows, and pacing trends.

Why It's Important

When you can see patterns—busy hours, party sizes, seating gaps—you make sharper scheduling and flow decisions.

How to Improve Tableau Skills

1. Nail the basics: Filters, groups, calculated fields, and simple charts.

2. Build small dashboards: Weekly covers by day, average turn times, show-up vs. no-show rates.

3. Use real data: Pull reservation exports and experiment. Keep visuals clean and actionable.

4. Iterate: Share with managers, gather feedback, refine. Make insights obvious at a glance.

How to Display Tableau Skills on Your Resume

8. Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is the calm craft of hearing concerns, defusing tension, and landing on fair fixes without fanning flames.

Why It's Important

One mishandled moment can sour an evening. A steady response restores trust and protects the room’s mood.

How to Improve Conflict Resolution Skills

1. Listen first: Let guests speak without interruption. Reflect back what you heard.

2. Empathize: Validate feelings, even when the policy stands.

3. Offer options: Clear, immediate solutions beat long explanations.

4. Stay neutral: Keep language factual and calm. No blame, no edge.

5. Close the loop: Check back after the fix. Make sure the solution landed.

How to Display Conflict Resolution Skills on Your Resume

9. Bilingual Communication

Bilingual communication means welcoming guests in more than one language and smoothing service for people who might otherwise feel left out.

Why It's Important

It expands comfort. It reduces misunderstandings. It shows care for every guest who walks in.

How to Improve Bilingual Communication Skills

1. Daily practice: Short, frequent conversations build fluency faster than marathons.

2. Service vocabulary: Focus on greetings, quoting times, seating terms, policies, and common guest questions.

3. Cultural cues: Learn etiquette norms and polite forms of address—respect travels farther than slang.

4. Feedback: Ask fluent teammates to correct phrasing. Keep a quick-reference mini glossary at the stand.

How to Display Bilingual Communication Skills on Your Resume

10. Time Management

Time management is the quiet backbone of the door: ordering tasks, pacing seats, and coordinating with servers and kitchen so timing feels seamless.

Why It's Important

Good timing trims waits, keeps turns fair, and protects the guest experience during the rush.

How to Improve Time Management Skills

1. Plan the hour: Pre-shift, note large parties, reservations, and peak windows. Decide a default pacing plan.

2. Eisenhower thinking: Do urgent-and-important first. Schedule important-but-not-urgent for lulls.

3. Organize the stand: Tidy tools, labeled sections, clear lists. Clutter steals minutes.

4. Communicate fast: Quick updates to servers and managers. One message, many problems solved.

5. Recharge: Short mental resets between waves keep judgment sharp and tone warm.

How to Display Time Management Skills on Your Resume

11. Microsoft Excel

Excel is a spreadsheet workhorse for organizing reservations, guest lists, events, and simple reports that inform scheduling and floor flow.

Why It's Important

Clean data speeds decisions. Trends pop. Planning becomes easier and less reactive.

How to Improve Microsoft Excel Skills

1. Core functions: SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN/MAX, and basic date/time math.

2. Lists that behave: Data validation, drop-downs, and conditional formatting to prevent messy inputs.

3. Templates: Build simple trackers for reservations, large parties, occasions, and no-shows.

4. Charts: Quick line or column charts for weekly covers, peak hours, or turn times.

5. Light automation: Record basic macros for repetitive formatting or report assembly if your venue allows.

How to Display Microsoft Excel Skills on Your Resume

12. Team Collaboration

Team collaboration is the rhythm between host stand, servers, bar, and kitchen—information moving quickly, calmly, accurately.

Why It's Important

Coordination prevents double-seats, missed holds, and service pileups. Guests feel the harmony even if they never see it.

How to Improve Team Collaboration Skills

1. Shared goals: Agree on pacing, VIP priorities, and turn targets before service starts.

2. Simple comms: One clear channel for updates. Short messages, no clutter.

3. Regular check-ins: Quick touchpoints during peaks to rebalance sections or adjust quotes.

4. Feedback culture: After shift, debrief what worked and what dragged. Make one change tomorrow.

5. Cross-train: Learn what servers and expo juggle; they learn your constraints. Empathy reduces friction.

How to Display Team Collaboration Skills on Your Resume