How To Become A Reservations Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a reservations manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

If you want more of a front-line role that involves booking rooms and promoting the products and services of a company, you might be the right fit for the position of reservations manager. Such professionals are responsible for promoting different things and have to handle the bookings and sales areas. They also allocate resources and check a room's inventory.

Some reservations managers study accounting and psychology, while many of them have a bachelor's degree in hospitality management or business. Almost one-fifth of the people working in this role has an associate's degree. With knowledge of inventory records, data entry, or customer service, you can get into this position.

Updating the arrival checklist, applying for room blocks, and swiftly responding to emails and phone calls for booking rooms are some other duties of the reservations manager. Normally, working as a reservations manager, you can expect to get an hourly rate of $31. Your yearly earnings will be around $65,000.

ScoreReservations ManagerUS Average

Salary

5.8

Avg. Salary $73,697

Avg. Salary $59,228

Diversity

4.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.64%

Asian 5.29%

Black or African American 10.19%

Hispanic or Latino 19.21%

Unknown 4.73%

White 59.94%

Gender

female 71.39%

male 28.61%

Age - 48

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 - 48

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a reservations manager

Explore reservations manager education requirements

Most common reservations manager degrees

Bachelor's

51.2 %

Associate

20.1 %

High School Diploma

15.6 %

Start to develop specific reservations manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Reservations	52.83%
Data Entry	15.14%
Customer Inquiries	14.94%
Booking	1.88%
Room Inventory	1.17%

Complete relevant reservations manager training and internships

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

Research reservations manager duties and responsibilities

Manage Hotel/F & B/Spa reservation and PBX departments.
Lead salesforce in selling and upselling cruises via inbound and outbound calls as well as internet inquiries.
Manage payroll and scheduling, interview and hire new associates, score calls and coach associates on a daily basis.
Manage productivity from reservations staff by assigning additional tasks depending on call volumes and approve payroll.

Prepare your reservations manager resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable reservations manager resume templates

Build a professional reservations manager 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 reservations manager resume.