What does a banquet server do?
A banquet server is responsible for assisting guests in food catering events. Banquet servers' duties include arranging tables as the client desires, preparing the catering setup, refilling foods and beverages, managing guests' inquiries and possible complaints, keeping the food area clean, and maintaining the highest sanitation standards for the guests' best banquet experience. A banquet server should have excellent communication and time-management skills, especially on serving guests that would require utmost care and safe handling.
Banquet server responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real banquet server resumes:
- Provide professional bartending and hospitality services to optimize customer service experiences for private, corporate, and public events.
- Create PowerPoint food presentations for training purposes.
- Gain skills in customer dining service, hospitality and compassion.
- Analyze BEOs to ensure rooms are prepare each day for schedule events.
- Organize and run every event book through cold calling or past guests.
- Review BEOs in order to ensure proper room setup and A/V requests are meet.
- Stock and closing kitchen and banquet area and making sure food is prepped, run and store correctly.
- Communicate with other departments, including kitchen and maintenance to make sure everything are executed in agreement to the BEO instructions.
- Buffet and room set-up, clean-up, serving beverages, serving patrons in the tasting room, inventory, POS system ,
- Operate a POS register accurately and efficiently.
- Travel to various event locations with necessary bartending utensils.
- Replenish buffets items to ensure consistency and freshen in presentation.
- Motivate co-workers to effectively and strategically perform table food and wine service.
- Recommend and present numerous champagne and wine selections while providing excellent bottle service.
- Collaborate with maintenance and housekeeping to ensure all equipment work as well as maintaining cleanliness of restaurant.
Banquet server skills and personality traits
We calculated that 12% of Banquet Servers are proficient in Wine, Cleanliness, and Food Service. They’re also known for soft skills such as Detail oriented, Communication skills, and Customer-service skills.
We break down the percentage of Banquet Servers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Wine, 12%
Recommended and presented numerous champagne and wine selections while providing excellent bottle service.
- Cleanliness, 10%
Received deliveries, ensured order and invoice accuracy, maintained cleanliness and organization of all areas for safety purposes.
- Food Service, 9%
Maintained quality assurance procedures to ensure superior standards of food service.
- Customer Service, 6%
Delivered legendary customer service to all customers by acting with a customer comes-first attitude and connecting with the customer.
- Professional Appearance, 5%
Maintained a professional appearance and demeanor while upholding a profitable environment for the company.
- Beverage Service, 5%
Provided accurate beverage service for corporate and social events in a timely and professional manner.
"wine," "cleanliness," and "food service" are among the most common skills that banquet servers use at work. You can find even more banquet server responsibilities below, including:
Detail oriented. One of the key soft skills for a banquet server to have is detail oriented. You can see how this relates to what banquet servers do because "waiters and waitresses must record customers’ orders accurately." Additionally, a banquet server resume shows how banquet servers use detail oriented: "learn menu and absorb all event details from beo to provide well-informed and accurate information to guests. "
Communication skills. Many banquet server duties rely on communication skills. "waiters and waitresses must listen to customers, ask questions as needed, and relay information to the kitchen staff so that orders are prepared to the customers’ satisfaction.," so a banquet server will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways banquet server responsibilities rely on communication skills: "direct proper execution of events through clear communication of beo instructions. "
Customer-service skills. This is an important skill for banquet servers to perform their duties. For an example of how banquet server responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "waiters and waitresses are frontline workers for their restaurant." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a banquet server: "handled on the spot drink orders going above and beyond my job requirements to exceed the customers' expectations. ".
Physical strength. For certain banquet server responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "physical strength." The day-to-day duties of a banquet server rely on this skill, as "waiters and waitresses need to be able to lift and carry trays of food or other items." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what banquet servers do: "strengthened communication skills through daily interactions with guests and redefined organizational abilities through constant repetition of cleanliness. "
The three companies that hire the most banquet servers are:
- Great Wolf Resorts273 banquet servers jobs
- Aimbridge Hospitality169 banquet servers jobs
- Marriott International113 banquet servers jobs
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Compare different banquet servers
Banquet server vs. Hostess
Hostesses are responsible for managing guests who come to the restaurant. They greet guests, ensure that the guests have tables ready before letting them into the restaurant floor, guide the guests to their assigned tables, and introduce the guests to the waiter assigned to the table. Hostesses also manage the reservation list, often manning the restaurant's reservation hotline. They also control the entry of guests, answer any query that guests may have, and take note of any special requests. Hostesses ensure that guests have the best possible restaurant experience.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, banquet server responsibilities require skills like "wine," "cleanliness," "food service," and "professional appearance." Meanwhile a typical hostess has skills in areas such as "reservations," "seat guests," "to-go orders," and "telephone calls." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Hostesses tend to make the most money working in the hospitality industry, where they earn an average salary of $26,739. In contrast, banquet servers make the biggest average salary, $28,454, in the professional industry.hostesses tend to reach similar levels of education than banquet servers. In fact, hostesses are 0.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Banquet server vs. Waitress
Waitresses are responsible for ensuring that guests are given proper attention during their visit to the restaurant. They guide guests to their table, provide menu boards, answer any questions the guests may have, take the guests' order, and communicate the order to the kitchen. Once the order is ready, waitresses collect the food from the kitchen and serve it to the guests. They then give guests time to finish their meal. Upon the guests' request, waitresses bring them their bill and wait for them to finish paying up. Once the guests leave, waitresses are responsible for ensuring that the table is ready for the next guests.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that banquet server responsibilities requires skills like "wine," "cleanliness," "professional appearance," and "beverage service." But a waitress might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "customer orders," "waiter," "clean tables," and "sales taxes."
Waitresses may earn a lower salary than banquet servers, but waitresses earn the most pay in the hospitality industry with an average salary of $25,414. On the other hand, banquet servers receive higher pay in the professional industry, where they earn an average salary of $28,454.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Waitresses tend to reach similar levels of education than banquet servers. In fact, they're 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Banquet server vs. Food runner
Food Runners are responsible for assisting waitstaff on serving customers at a restaurant or similar establishment. Among their duties include maintaining cleanliness in particular areas, setting tables, refilling drinks, assisting customers with everything that they need, and coordinating with the workforce in and out of the kitchen. Furthermore, Food Runners need to ensure that all deliveries are accurate according to what is ordered by a customer. It is essential to stay presentable and helpful at all times as the main priority is customer satisfaction.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a banquet server is likely to be skilled in "professional appearance," "beverage service," "banquet functions," and "beo," while a typical food runner is skilled in "culinary," "food handling," "safety standards," and "reset tables."
Food runners earn the highest salary when working in the hospitality industry, where they receive an average salary of $26,747. Comparatively, banquet servers have the highest earning potential in the professional industry, with an average salary of $28,454.Most food runners achieve a similar degree level compared to banquet servers. For example, they're 0.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Banquet server vs. Server and hostess
A server and hostess is an employee who plays the dual role of both a hostess and a server. As implied by this, a server and hostess is in-charge of welcoming guests as they enter the restaurant, ensuring that the guests' tables are ready before leading them to their assigned tables, handing over the menu, and waiting for the guests to finalize their order. Once the guests are ready to order, the server and hostess takes on the server role by bringing the guests' order to the kitchen, waiting for the food to be ready, and bringing the food to the guests' table.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between banquet servers and server and hostesses, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a banquet server might have more use for skills like "wine," "cleanliness," "professional appearance," and "beverage service." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of server and hostesses require skills like "customer orders," "to-go orders," "seat guests," and "computer system. "
In general, server and hostesses earn the most working in the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $26,585. The highest-paying industry for a banquet server is the professional industry.The average resume of server and hostesses showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to banquet servers. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 0.5% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.1%.Types of banquet server
Updated January 8, 2025
