10 Hospitality Resume Tips for Hotel Management Professionals

If you are on a serious job hunt in the hospitality industry, let’s get you going with a few advice on writing a killer hospitality resume.

Let’s be honest; writing an effective hotel management resume hasn’t always been a walk in the park.

The same goes for any other position in the hospitality industry.

Let’s make thing slightly easier for the hardworking hospitality industry professionals by present some tips to write a killer resume for the hospitality industry.

Even people from other industries will find this post useful as these tips will help walk you through your own resume.

So read on for tips on how to write an effective hospitality resume.

Tips for writing effective resume for hotel and hospitality professionals

So, before we get on with the tips to write an effective resume, it is important to get a zest of the whole resume-building process.

The first question that springs up is what is a resume and how long should it be?

An ideal resume for hoteliers with less than 5 years of experience should be 1 page long.

The ideal resume length for hotel managers and other senior positions in the hotel industry is 2 pages.

Simply put, a resume is a curtailed CV, a self-promotional document that paints you in a good light. Curriculum Vitae or CV is the lengthier version but even a CV should not be more than 2-3 pages long.

Needless to say, the central purpose of your hospitality resume is to help you land an interview with your dream hotel.

The good news is that the hospitality industry is rife with inspiring individuals. Here is a comprehensive list of practical tips for writing a resume for hotel and hospitality professionals.

Read on to whip up a hospitality resume that will knock your interviewer’s socks off.

There are other useful posts on this website on the Big Five Personality Traits of Hoteliers and on Self Assessment to help in getting the basics right for preparing an effective resume for hotel management professionals.

Let’s get going to understand why a resume can make or break our prospects of getting a job in the hotel industry.

In future, the hiring volume is set to increase while the recruitment team will continue shrinking.

1: Start Off with a Brief but Concise Objective

Error-free writing, grammatically correct, clean, crisp writing will make the right impression on you.

Here’s a Hospitality Resume guide on what to include.

It is all about highlighting your top hospitality skills on paper.

These skills include but are not limited to:

Awesome Language and Communication skills
Cultural Awareness
Emotional Intelligence
Ability to Multitask
Tech Savviness

and various other hospitality skills and soft skills relevant to the hospitality and tourism industry.

But start with a clear objective.

You need to ensure that anything that can help you get a job should be there. Short, concise and in professional language based on the industry’s norms.

Oh yeah, that short paragraph can make a big difference between landing the job of your dreams and riding the unemployment bandwagon like millions of people out there.

Your job objective, ideally, should be presented in a choice of fewer than 25 words. Trust us; anything beyond that is just but a blurb or “fluff.”

And, the last thing you want is for your potential employer to question your credibility or objectives. Check out more resume objective samples here.

Again, stick with a brief but succinct objective. It is advisable to check the best resume templates of 2022 for creating a stellar resume. There are multiple websites like ours with free CV builders that include but are not limited to Zety, Reed, Indeed and more.

Feel free to experiment with multiple templates in our free resume builder from the top menu.

2: What about Functional vs. Chronological Format?

Resume screening tools backed by technology and artificial intelligence are going to play a bigger part in the screening of CVs.

So, if your resume is not perfectly curated, you might get rejected by the software itself.

It is thus extremely important to get the resume made right. For the humans as well as robots (or automated bots).

One question that bugs many hotel manager position applicants (and possibly other positions) is whether to use a chronological format or a functional one.

In the hospitality industry, when writing a resume, it boils down to whether you are changing gears or staying in the same field.

So, if you are seeking to move from one hotel to another, it’s advisable to use a skill-oriented format to present your transferable skills. Otherwise, you will have to use a chronological format if you are transferring from another field.

In your experience section try to include a career summary.

A Career Summary is your overview. It grabs eyeballs immediately and thus invests time to use excerpts from your career and education history. A summary should not be more than a sentence.

3: Explain Gaps in Work Experience

This is one of the crucial resume tips for the hotel industry.

It is an important one if you want to be transparent to give the best first impression.

We would refer to this point as the game changer in your strategy for writing an effective resume.

This is an aspect of a resume that’s vital but often neglected.

Don’t leave out unexplained gaps in employment history.

It’s a surefire kiss of death to your prospects of garnering a hotel manager’s job.

If you received any hospitality industry certificate in the meantime, use the same to cover up some of your gaps. A sabbatical or a course helps in explaining any gaps.

So, explain them as gracefully as possible. Were you sick or on maternity leave? Don’t shy away from making it clear-cut; you will be glad you did.

The article by Wisestep explains several tips to counter the issues of Employment gaps. Use them briefly in your resume and more importantly during your interview.

4: Are You a Job-hopper?

Let’s face it; everyone has been on a spell of job-hopping. The bad news is that such an image will taint your chances of getting a job.

How to nip it in the bud?

Bundle up several similar positions into one “chunk.” Cut this part of the story short and concentrate on the positions where you did well.

While you can’t hide your job-hopping spree, you can always succinctly explain the reason.

5: Use the Problem-Action-Results Approach to Impress the interviewer at the Hotel

Writing-killer-resume-tips-for-hotel-management-professionals

Image by Resume Samples 209

This again is a key to writing effective resumes.

Treat it as one of the resume tips that would give you an edge over the competition straight away.

So, in order to get a clear lead against your competitors, please make sure you integrate this approach into your resume-building plan.

PAR approach to effective resume writing has been tested with outstanding results.

PAR or Problem Action Result has been one of the most effective ways to get the eyeballs of employers shining immediately.

So, start off with an issue that existed in your past job, and then describe what you did to tide things over. In the end, zero in on the beneficial results. Here’s a good example to drive the point home:

“Transformed an inefficient, disorganised hotel into a smooth-running operation by overhauling management approach and introducing staff training; this boosted hotel’s bottom line, increased sales by 35%, reduced staff turnover by 20% and improved staff morale.”

Check for more hospitality-related interview questions and try to see if your resume can answer a couple of these concisely.

It makes a great impression as the employers know few of your answers already but they better be impressive and well constructed.

6. Work History – the Scope Question

Your Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Resume helps you get through the initial channel.

So, all current and potential hotel managers must take care of these hotel resume writing tips while they curate an effective hospitality industry resume.

Hospitality Companies are increasingly using software for screening resumes and thus it is extremely important to make sure your CV for the hotel industry outwits your competition looking for the same job.

Your resume displays your learning and if it is customised according to the hospitality industry, it helps in making an immediate impact.

So, make sure you clearly mention your accomplishments by explaining your work history concisely.

Wondering how far back should you go when writing an effective hospitality industry resume?

While this boils down to your significant achievements, it’s good to go way back but not too far. In principle, anything between 10 and 15 years will do just fine.

It is said in most industries that anything over 10 years is your past life.

Until and unless you were the star of your generation skip things which are over 10 years old in your work history.

7: Worked for One Hotel for a Long Time?

To make things pan out well on your resume, list each position you held in that hotel separately.

If you moved up the ranks over time, make it apparent.

Also, make sure you don’t go over the line. It’s a resume after all not an autobiography.

I know most people like to include interests and hobbies in their resumes, but when applying for a hotel manager position, they are a big No-No.

So, ditch them for something like “Accolades.” On the whole, if a hobby isn’t relevant to a management position in the hospitality industry, it’s not worth a place on your hotel management resume.

Is your hobby related to becoming a keynote speaker, related to health and well-being, some marketing skills, technology or something else that relates to some value addition for your employer; include that for sure.

Top hobbies related to the hospitality industry are:

Adventure sports
Yoga and Mindfulness
Cooking
Debates and Keynote speaking
Community work / Charity work
Travelling to explore multiple cultures
Exploring new technology
Reading and writing

and so on.

9: Hospitality Resume Writing 101 – Include Charity and Volunteer Work

While hobbies and interests will not add value to your resume, volunteer and charity work will certainly work in your favour.

So, include at least two instances you used to work for the greater good of the community.

And why does it look good? It makes you come out as a person who is willing to help.

The hospitality industry is all about teamwork and you gain some brownie points by indirectly mentioning your positive attributes of being compassionate and helpful.

10: References

In the hotel industry, networking is the name of the game.

That means your list of references should include bigwigs in the industry.

It will paint you in a good light.

Summing up the effective resume tips for the hospitality industry

Look at a few sample resumes once you get started.

There are a lot of free as well as paid options.

Service providers like Canva provide both free trial and paid professional resume building and writing services like Writingmetier, Craftresume and various others. There are free resume sample websites as well like Resume.com, and Resume Genius. You can even avail the services of professionals to create a perfect resume.

The worldwide Web is full of resources that provide both free as well as paid resume-building services.

So, if you are one of those willing ones to make a mark at the outset, you will not fall short of options.

There are a few more things you must follow to ensure you have done a great job in writing an effective resume.

Resumes are the first information employers have about you. Use them wisely to portray a clear impression of yourself.

Here are some of the cruise hospitality resume tips for ensuring that you reach the interview stage.

Once you have made your awesome hotel resume, just run through this quick checklist.

Use bullets to call attention to important points
Use no more than two fonts
Be concise as employers take no more than 45 seconds to screen a CV or resume.
Focus on what you did on the job, NOT what your job was
List your accomplishments clearly mentioning the dates
Don’t copy and paste. Give it your personal touch
Include and highlight specific achievements that present a comprehensive picture of your marketability
Do mention some difficult situations you have handled and leadership skills you have demonstrated in previous jobs

Use services like Grammarly to ensure that you don’t make any grammatical errors or typos.

You are all set with a Killer resume now. Also, read about the Different Types of Job Interviews to get ready for the next stage.

Conclusion

In the hotel industry, a resume offers a snapshot of your professional experience, training, and career ambition.

As you might expect, there are several qualified and competent candidates out there, making your job-seeking process a little daunting, if not downright challenging.

So, these hotel management resume tips would help you get ahead of the pack early in the race to your next hospitality job.

So, there’s no doubt that you have to do a bang-up job on your resume to stand out from a sea of other potential hotel managers and hospitality professionals.

Hope you liked these hospitality resume tips and hope you found the given resources about resumes of hotel management professionals useful.

Before we bid adieu we leave you with a few points you must remember always when thinking about a perfect hospitality industry CV.