When you first enter a restaurant or other dining facility, you'll most likely be greeted by a hostess. As a hostess, you get the pleasure of telling "hangry" people that they have to wait 2 hours for their table to be ready. Sounds fun, right?
Well, actually being a hostess can be enjoyable. It's kind of like playing Tetris. You have to be able to figure out where to seat customers. Sometimes you may also have to answer phone calls regarding questions about the menu or to take reservations (because who has time for a 2-hour wait?).
Hostesses work odd hours, some work early mornings and others work late evenings. Uou definitely shouldn't be surprised about working a weekend shift. I mean people still eat on the weekends; probably moreso than they do during the week.
Hostess Overview
Hostess Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a hostess. For example, did you know that they make an average of $11.17 an hour? That's $23,235 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 14% and produce 775,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Hostess Do
There are certain skills that many hostesses have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed physical strength, communication skills and customer-service skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a hostess, we found that a lot of resumes listed 8.5% of hostesses included bus tables, while 7.7% of resumes included seat guests, and 6.3% of resumes included customer service. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the hostess job title. But what industry to start with? Most hostesses actually find jobs in the hospitality and retail industries.
How To Become a Hostess
If you're interested in becoming a hostess, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 27.6% of hostesses have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.2% of hostesses have master's degrees. Even though some hostesses have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a hostess. When we researched the most common majors for a hostess, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on hostess resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a hostess. In fact, many hostess jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many hostesses also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or server.
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Hostess Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a hostess can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as office assistant, progress to a title such as executive assistant and then eventually end up with the title general manager.
Hostess Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Hostess
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Cannon Chinese Kitchen Server & Host Server & Host | Cannon Chinese Kitchen Cannon Chinese Kitchen | 06/29/2021 06/29/2021 | $18,26106/29/2021 $18,261 |
The Henry Server, Host, Bartender, Busser, Barista Server, Host, Bartender, Busser, Barista | The Henry The Henry | 06/29/2021 06/29/2021 | $39,65306/29/2021 $39,653 |
Private Host, Private Server Host, Private Server | Private Private | 06/29/2021 06/29/2021 | $24,00006/29/2021 $24,000 |
Lady Nomada Server, Bartender, Host Server, Bartender, Host | Lady Nomada Lady Nomada | 06/28/2021 06/28/2021 | $43,82706/28/2021 $43,827 |
IHOP Milford Ihop Milford Server & Host Ihop Milford Server & Host | IHOP Milford IHOP Milford | 06/27/2021 06/27/2021 | $19,56606/27/2021 $19,566 |
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Hostess Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Hostess. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
10 Best Resume Templates In 2021
Learn How To Write a Hostess Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Hostess resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
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Top Skills For a Hostess
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 8.5% of hostesses listed bus tables on their resume, but soft skills such as physical strength and communication skills are important as well.
- Bus Tables, 8.5%
- Seat Guests, 7.7%
- Customer Service, 6.3%
- To-Go Orders, 6.2%
- Guest Service, 5.7%
- Other Skills, 65.6% See All Hostess Skills
Best States For a Hostess
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a hostess. The best states for people in this position are Oregon, California, Hawaii, and Rhode Island. Hostesses make the most in Oregon with an average salary of $27,529. Whereas in California and Hawaii, they would average $27,325 and $26,989, respectively. While hostesses would only make an average of $26,959 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Nevada
$26,643
Avg. Salary
2. Arizona
$26,098
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$26,809
Avg. Salary
How Do Hostess Rate Their Jobs?
3.0
3.0
i feel i need to experience more of my skills in other departments in the hospitality industry • November 2019What do you like the most about working as Hostess?
meeting and greeting people from different parts of the world which improves my communication skills Show MoreTop Hostess Employers
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