How To Become A Hospitality Associate: What It Is and Career Path

What is a hospitality associate and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Steve Hood

A hospitality associate is a customer service professional who works to ensure that guests, clients, and customers in a hotel, restaurant, or hospital setting receive quality and friendly service. A hospitality associate is often the first person to greet a patron or a customer, and provides such services as booking rooms, activities, answering customer queries, and offering assistance as needed to staff and clients.

Hospitality associates also plan services, researching optimal hospitality practices, coordinate with vendors, customers, and upper management, and communicate with clients to assist them with their needs to guarantee the efficiency of services and client satisfaction.

Some hospitality associates may have a bachelor's degree, while others may have training and certification in the hospitality field. However, what is most important to employers is that an associate possesses strong communication, interpersonal, organizational, and troubleshooting skills. These individuals should also be adept at working with the public and other team members. A hospitality associate can make up to $34,000 annually, but the job field is expected to decline slightly by 2% in the next 10 years.

What general advice would you give to a hospitality associate?

Steve Hood

Director of Industry Services, ICHRIE

Hospitality and tourism graduates of 2020 are faced with a similar challenge as hotels in the current COVID situation. Many are having to think outside the box and reinvent themselves. It may mean looking at different chains, different locations, and different roles, but there are still opportunities.

ScoreHospitality AssociateUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $33,909

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.9

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.75%

Asian 6.20%

Black or African American 11.67%

Hispanic or Latino 19.56%

Unknown 5.46%

White 56.36%

Gender

female 68.83%

male 31.17%

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

5.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a hospitality associate

Explore hospitality associate education requirements

Most common hospitality associate degrees

Bachelor's

38.3 %

High School Diploma

26.5 %

Associate

19.6 %

Start to develop specific hospitality associate skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	31.15%
Patient Care	9.33%
Customer Service	6.72%
HIPAA	6.08%
Food Service	4.88%

Complete relevant hospitality associate training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New hospitality associates 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 hospitality associate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real hospitality associate resumes.

Research hospitality associate duties and responsibilities

Manage POS system while opening up drawer and entering data within system to remain compliant with owner's expectations.
Explain room service program to patients while utilizing effective written/oral communication skills.
Research all deny Medicaid cases.
Handle purchases using POS system that includes operating cash register and accounting of daily sales.

Prepare your hospitality associate resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your hospitality associate 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 hospitality associate resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable hospitality associate resume templates

Build a professional hospitality associate 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 hospitality associate resume.