14 examples of hospitality skills

Whether you're a budding hotelier, a culinary artist, or an event planner, your hospitality skills can pave the way to a rewarding career. Exactly which skills you need to get a job in hospitality depends on the role you’ve got your sights on, though they all tend to centre on providing great service to customers.

Across the industry, the skills needed for hospitality are essential to creating memorable experiences for guests. The ability to anticipate guest needs, work in diverse teams, solve conflict, work in fast-paced environments and approach challenging situations can help you in any role and even open up opportunities for leadership roles.

Whether you’re starting out in the job market or looking to get a promotion, here are 14 hospitality skills that can give your career a boost.

14 essential skills in hospitality

Working in hospitality requires a diverse set of skills that range from interpersonal skills like clear communication to technical knowhow, like CRM software. Refining these skills is an important step for career development within most areas of hospitality. The following hospitality examples provide an overview of different hospitality skills and attributes that can help you thrive in the industry.

1. Multitasking

Multitasking involves handling many responsibilities at the same time. It can mean focusing on one task while keeping an eye on others, or switching between tasks without losing efficiency. Good multitasking skills are essential to juggle various simultaneous duties, like checking in guests, overseeing the front desk, and resolving a conflict with a guest on the phone – a situation that might arise if you’re a front-desk manager at a hotel. Here’s how to improve your multitasking skills:

• Plan ahead: where you can, create a schedule or a to-do list to help organise and manage your workload.
• Prioritise: determine which tasks are most urgent and important.
• Delegate: give tasks that are not urgent to others in the team.
• Combine related tasks: group similar tasks together to improve efficiency.
• Manage distractions: minimise disruptions in your work environment.
• Take breaks: regular breaks can improve focus and help you minimise errors.
• Review progress: regularly assess your tasks and adjust priorities as needed.

2. Teamwork

Working in hospitality requires a collaborative effort with your teammates in order to deliver seamless service. Great teamwork happens when everyone cooperates smoothly, and when each member plays to their strengths. Because teamwork is so integral to hospitality, being a good team player makes you a valuable asset to any company, whether providing high-quality customer service, managing hotel operations, or organising an event. Here’s how to improve your teamwork skills:

• Take part in team-building exercises: engage in activities that build trust among team members.
• Practise active listening and clear communication: communication is one of the most important elements in teamwork. Give your full attention during conversations, and make sure others in your team are always on the same page.
• Seek mentorship and feedback: use constructive criticism to identify areas for improvement.
• Clarify role: ensure you know your role and the roles of your teammates, to avoid confusion and ensure you work efficiently as a whole.
• Time management: be mindful of doing things in a timely manner, as your work affects the rest of your team’s.
• Mediate conflict: address any problems in the team as soon as they arise, and try to resolve disagreements before they escalate.

3. Working well under pressure

In the fast-paced environments of hospitality, the ability to stay calm under pressure is important. It allows you to handle customer demands or peak-hour rushes without letting stress get in the way. Acting in a calm manner can also prevent small issues from turning into larger problems. Here are some ways to improve your ability to stay calm under pressure:

• Mindfulness practice: regular meditation and breathwork can improve your ability to stay present and calm under pressure​​.
• Journalling: writing down your thoughts at the end of a stressful day can provide clarity and lower your baseline stress levels​.
• Healthy lifestyle choices: try to get adequate sleep every night, and make an effort to eat a balanced diet and get regular exercise, to improve your ability to handle stress​​.
• Open communication: clearly communicating with others during busy or tense moments can help defuse stressful situations.
• Focusing on present tasks: concentrate on one thing at a time. Practise concentrating on the one task that you’re doing, rather than multitasking.

4. Attention to detail

Attention to detail involves noticing and managing all the small elements that make up a task or project. Whether it’s keeping a hotel room meticulously clean, perfecting the presentation of a meal, or remembering guest preferences and anticipating their needs, paying attention to little details makes a big difference in the guest experience.

This core skill is great to have in any role, but is especially important in areas like guest services, housekeeping, table waiting, inventory, finance and hotel/restaurant auditing. Here are some tips for improving your attention-to-detail skills:

• Don’t rush jobs: rushing through something is the fastest way to miss errors or overlook important details.
• Maintain a routine: establish a daily routine that includes time for reviewing and checking tasks.
• Prioritise quality: review your work to ensure it’s done correctly. Feel pride in doing your job to a high standard.
• Limit distractions: minimise distractions by putting your phone on silent or wearing noise-cancelling headphones.
• Take regular breaks: maintain focus by taking time out, then fully refocus your attention when working.

5. Empathy

Empathy in hospitality involves understanding and sharing the feelings of others. It's about putting yourself in the guests’ situations to see things from their perspective, and it’s essential to good customer service. This skill can also help create emotional connections with guests, which often converts to return business and high ratings, which are crucial in hospitality.

Empathetic hospitality professionals can build strong relationships with guests, leading to high satisfaction and loyalty. There are a few ways to develop your empathy skills, including:

• Good listening skills: listen to guests, acknowledge their emotions, and show genuine interest in their concerns.
• Acknowledge non-verbal communication: be aware of your body language and other non-verbal cues.
• Practise personalised service: make a point of understanding guests’ and customers’ needs and tailor your service.
• Resolve complaints: handle complaints in favour of the guest, addressing the issue and acknowledge guest’s feelings.
• Mindfulness: self-reflection and loving-kindness meditation can help you develop more empathy.

6. Cultural awareness

Cultural awareness involves learning about different traditions and cultures, and showing empathy for people from other cultural backgrounds. In hospitality, it means being aware of cultural norms in the context of customer service, which can vary wildly from country to country. You’re also likely to have employees of other cultures in your workplace.

Cultural awareness is essential in the hospitality industry, especially if you have aspirations of working overseas or moving into a leadership position. Staff who understand and respect different cultural norms are able to provide a more personalised service to guests, unlocking opportunities across a global industry. Here’s how to improve your cultural awareness skills:

• Training and research: if you work in hospitality, it’s likely you have access to customer-service training that covers different cultural expectations. Be aware of what people from other races like and dislike so as to make sure you don't accidentally offend your customers or coworkers.
• Active listening and questioning techniques: in a customer-service role, practise active listening by concentrating, understanding and responding to what people are saying. Ask clarifying questions if you need to.
• Non-verbal communication cues: be mindful that non-verbal cues like body language and gestures can vary across cultures.
• Building trust across cultures: show genuine interest in guests’ cultures. This includes showing respect for their practices and beliefs.
• Managing conflicts: learn approaches for handling misunderstandings and conflicts sensitively.

7. Problem solving and initiative

Problem solving and initiative in hospitality means you identify issues and seek solutions without waiting for direction. Being proactive and able to solve problems improves the quality of service and builds a good reputation for the brand you represent. Here are some ways to improve your problem-solving skills:

• Develop a problem-solving mindset: see problems as opportunities to show your initiative, and approach challenges with a can-do attitude.
• Critical thinking and creativity: use critical thinking to question assumptions and recognise biases. Use creative thinking to explore problems from various angles.
• Collaboration skills: work with others to share perspectives and find solutions.
• Learning from past experiences: reflect on both successes and failures to improve approaches for future problem-solving.

8. Conflict management

In the hospitality industry, conflicts can directly affect business. Disgruntled customers can affect ratings and brand reputation, so it’s important these are resolved quickly. It’s so important that large hotel and restaurant brands often have procedures and budgets in place for keeping customers happy.

Conflict between staff members can affect the quality of customer service, so they’re also important to resolve quickly. Managing these comes down to handling different perspectives and finding a solution that is acceptable to both parties. Skillfully managed conflicts prevent issues from escalating.

Your ability to manage conflict shows you can handle challenging situations, maintain a positive guest experience, and contribute to a healthy workplace. Here are some tips to improve your conflict management skills:

• Understand the conflict: take time to understand the cause of the conflict and talk to all parties involved.
• Communication: ensure clear communication when resolving the conflict. You should also pay attention to nonverbal cues as they play a significant role in conflict situations.
• Active listening: practise active listening to understand the person’s perspective.
• Anticipate and prepare: be aware of situations where potential customer conflicts might arise and prepare how to address them. Clear and consistent communication about policy changes, for instance, can prevent misunderstandings.
• Recognise when to escalate: some conflicts may need intervention from higher management. Recognising these situations and acting accordingly is an important part of conflict management.

9. Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EQ) refers to the ability to recognise, understand and manage your own emotions, and helps you influence the emotions of others. It helps you anticipate and understand others’ needs or desires, often before they’re expressed.

Hospitality professionals with high EQ are often better equipped to create memorable guest experiences. Here are some tips to improve your own EQ skills:

• Self-awareness: assess your feelings and moods to become more self-aware.
• Seek feedback: ask for feedback from peers, management and friends to gain insights into your emotional strengths and weaknesses.
• Empathy: practise putting yourself in others' shoes to understand their feelings and perspectives.
• Develop interpersonal skills: improve your communication and active listening skills. These can help when it comes to understanding and responding to the needs and emotions of others.
• Manage stress: learn stress management techniques to maintain composure in challenging situations.

10. Industry knowledge

Industry knowledge is not really a skill, but it is essential to develop in hospitality. It refers to an in-depth understanding of how hospitality businesses work, trends that shape the industry and forces that influence consumer behaviour. Good things to know include things like travel and hospitality trends, technological developments, and the operational aspects of various types of establishments, such as hotels, restaurants and event venues. Technical skills you need in hospitality depend on the role.

Here’s how to improve your industry knowledge:

• Network: engage with other professionals in the industry through networking events, professional associations or online forums.
• Mentorship: seek mentorship from experienced professionals to provide practical advice and share their experiences.
• Research and training: consider a course in hospitality management or in travel or restaurant operations
• Attend conferences: there are scores of global annual conferences in hospitality
• Subscribe: sign up for newsletters and B2B publications to stay up to date with trends
• Customer feedback: pay attention to customer feedback and reviews. They can offer insights into guest expectations and experiences, helping you to better understand what drives customer satisfaction.

11. Communication

Good communication is fundamental in hospitality for a variety of reasons. It ensures customer or guests' needs are met and helps in resolving queries and complaints efficiently. It’s also important for working together in a team and making sure everyone is on the same page.

Good communicators often excel at being team leaders and are more likely to be considered for managerial roles. Here are some ways to improve your communication skills:

• Practise active listening: focus completely on the speaker, understand their message and respond thoughtfully.
• Clear messages: learn to convey your messages clearly and concisely to avoid misunderstandings.
• Body language: be aware of your non-verbal cues like facial expressions, gestures and posture, as they impact how your message is received.
• Empathy: practise empathy by trying to understand the situation from the other person's perspective.

12. Resilience

Resilience is the ability to withstand and adapt to challenges and changes. In the hospitality industry, this means tackling customer demands or unexpected events and changes with a positive attitude.

Resilient hospitality professionals are better equipped to handle difficult situations, leading to greater trust and respect from both employers and customers. Here’s how to build resilience:

• Embrace change: cultivate a mindset that views change as an opportunity for growth rather than a setback.
• Learn from challenges: analyse past challenges and look at approaches for future resilience.
• Stay informed: keep up-to-date with industry trends and shifts to prepare for future changes.
• Focus on wellness: personal well-being is important. Practising self-care and stress management can boost your resilience.

13. Professionalism

In any job it’s important to maintain a professional demeanour, and in the hospitality industry it’s even more essential. Demonstrating professionalism makes you a reliable team member and sets you up for leadership roles.

Professional behaviour gives you the abilities to handle customer interactions in a way that leaves a positive impression, increasing guest satisfaction and loyalty. It’s a vital skill to have if you’re interested in career growth and management opportunities. Here are some tips for improving your professionalism:

• Develop your communication skills: consider training or self-guided learning to improve both verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
• Lead by example: encourage a culture of professionalism by setting an example for others. This involves showing respect, punctuality and commitment to quality.
• Continuous self-improvement: seek opportunities for personal and professional development. This can be through workshops, courses, or seeking feedback for growth.

14. Adaptability

Adaptability refers to the ability to adjust to new circumstances, work environments or tasks. In hospitality you need this skill to handle a wide range of dynamic situations: changing customer preferences, upgrades in technology, shifting market trends, new management and more.

Adaptable employees take changes in their stride and contribute to a happy and productive workplace. Here’s how to improve your adaptability:

• Embrace change: cultivate a positive attitude towards change. View it as an opportunity for personal and professional development.
• Stay curious: maintain an open mind and curiosity about new ideas.
• Develop problem-solving skills: improve your ability to find creative solutions to challenges, creating a solution-oriented mindset.
• Self-regulate: learning to manage emotions in uncertain situations is important.
• Accept and learn from mistakes: reflect on experiences, particularly mistakes, as they can be valuable learning opportunities.

The hospitality industry requires high levels of empathy, adaptability and professionalism. By nurturing and refining these and other skills, hospitality can offer a rewarding and exciting career. Master these skills and you can unlock a world of opportunity across all levels of the hospitality industry.

FAQs

1. What skills are important for hospitality?

Essential skills for hospitality include:

• communication,
• customer service,
• multitasking,
• teamwork,
• attention to detail,
• empathy,
• adaptability,
• problem-solving, and
• cultural awareness.

2. Is hospitality a good skill on a resumé?

Yes, hospitality is a valuable skill on a resumé. It includes a range of skills like customer service, communication and teamwork, which are highly regarded in various industries. Demonstrating hospitality skills can show potential employers that you have strong interpersonal skills.

3. What makes a good hospitality worker?

A good hospitality worker possesses strong communication and customer service skills. They also show empathy, cultural awareness and are good at multitasking and problem solving. They maintain professionalism, are adaptable and have a keen attention to detail, ensuring everyone receives a high-quality service experience.

4. Is hospitality a life skill?

Yes, hospitality can be considered a life skill. It involves elements like clear communication, empathy, adaptability and a service-oriented mindset that are valuable in everyday interactions and various life scenarios, not just within the hospitality industry. These skills enhance personal and professional relationships, making them beneficial life skills.