How To Become A Dining Room Host: What It Is and Career Path

What is a dining room host and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a dining room host. For example, did you know that they make an average of $14.75 an hour? That's $30,681 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 372,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreDining Room HostUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $30,681

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.2

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.15%

Asian 7.17%

Black or African American 9.91%

Hispanic or Latino 14.88%

Unknown 5.57%

White 61.31%

Gender

female 41.08%

male 58.92%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

6.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.1

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

10.0

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a dining room host

Explore dining room host education requirements

Most common dining room host degrees

Bachelor's

50.2 %

High School Diploma

22.9 %

Associate

18.8 %

Start to develop specific dining room host skills

Skills	Percentages
Reservations	29.92%
Cleanliness	10.96%
Wine	10.66%
Guest Satisfaction	7.46%
Seat Guests	6.10%

Complete relevant dining room host training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New dining room hosts learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a dining room host based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real dining room host resumes.

Research dining room host duties and responsibilities

Manage customer reservations and table seating arrangements.
Assist guests in booking reservations and manage guest history data using OpenTable reservation system.
Operate POS system to input customer orders and print checks
Work over the phone with guests create dining reservations, party events, and fulfill customer needs.

Prepare your dining room host resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your dining room host resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a dining room host resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable dining room host resume templates

Build a professional dining room host resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your dining room host resume.