How to Write a Hospitality CV: Examples & Templates [2024]

Making coffee, waiting tables, tending bar, generally dealing with guests and customers—these get old fast if your working conditions aren’t the best. And the best hotels, resorts, bars, and restaurants always have more applicants than vacancies. You need to beat out a lot of other applicants to get there.

That's where your hospitality CV comes to the play. It needs to prove that you are a good fit for boutique hotels as well as breakfast bars. This article will show you how to write a hospitality CV that's better than others, with UK-specific hospitality CV examples and templates you can use. You'll also find out what skills to put on your CV for hospitality and get expert tips to make it even better.

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Need a different CV example than a hospitality CV? Check these samples:

• Barista CV
• Bartender CV
• Care Assistant CV
• Catering Assistant CV
• Chef CV
• Cleaner CV
• Customer Service CV
• Gardener CV
• Hairdresser CV
• Kitchen Porter CV
• Labourer CV
• Part-Time Job CV
• Receptionist CV
• Waiter / Waitress CV
• Yachting CV

Haven't found what you're looking for? Check all our CV samples.

Hospitality CV example

You've just seen an expert hospitality CV example and now you know what to include in your CV. Let's move to writing your own CV for hospitality.

What to include in a hospitality CV?

Writing a CV for hospitality job will require you to focus on these key areas:

• Your educational background starting from your GCSEs
• Professional experience related to hospitality field
• Soft and hard skills that are vital in hospitality
• Volunteering for organizations, venues, and at events
• Training, certifications, and awards related to hospitality.

Additionally, you might want to include languages you're proficient in, especially if you're applying for roles that involve interacting with diverse clients.

Now, let's see how a CV should look like in practice. Here’s a step-by-step formula to make your hospitality CV:

1. Start your hospitality CV off right with a personal statement

Working in hospitality, you know a thing or two about making a good first impression. Your personal statement is how you make a good first impression with your hospitality CV.

It does three things:

• Introduces you as a hospitality worker
• Shows what you have to offer through a concrete example
• Describes how your goals line up nicely with your potential new employer’s.

Given that you’ll be writing a new one for each new job application (yes, seriously), it’s good to have something of a cheat sheet to work from.

Simply answer the following questions in a total of 3–4 sentences and 50–150 words and voilà, you have a personal statement.

• What kind of hospitality worker are you and what’s your experience?
• In what particular branches of the industry have you been working?
• What’s your most impressive/relevant achievement?
• (Optional) What’s your most unique achievement?
• What are you hoping to be able to achieve in this job? (For your employer, not yourself).

Many businesses use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to process and sort job applications. For this and other reasons, it’s good practice to always include the name of the position for which you’re applying as well as the company name in your personal statement. Try to mirror main keywords, too.

Altough you start your CV with a personal statement, it is best written last of all. You’ll be able to do a much better job once you have your job descriptions and skills ready (that's why it's also called a CV summary). So keep it in the back of your mind for now and come back to it later.

Hospitality CV examples: personal statement

A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.

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2. Organise your hospitality CV work experience section

So much of what goes into hospitality work is learnt by doing—make sure your work experience CV section is as simple to digest for recruiters as it can be. Stick to a chronological format, meaning that you list your job descriptions from most to least recent. This is what hiring managers and ATSs expect.

Use the following template to create a subheading for each job description in your hospitality CV:

[Job Title]

[Company Name, Location]

[Dates of Employment]

Add up to six bullet points under each subheading. Do not list your duties and responsibilities. Instead, focus on achievements. CV achievements involve concrete, measurable results. Use accomplishment statements to structure your bullet points and quantify each point.

If you don’t have any experience yet, then focus on any apprenticeships, placement work, and volunteer work you’ve done.

You can also move this section down after the education section of your hospitality CV. If you’re struggling to cobble together any experience at all, then consider writing a student CV instead.

Hospitality CV examples: job description

3. Include an education section in your CV for hospitality

Hands-on experience might trump a lot of theoretical knowledge in the hospitality game, but that doesn’t mean your education isn’t important. Set your education section out so that it’s fast and simple for recruiters to scan through. They’ll often be looking for GCSEs in Maths and English as a minimum.

When listing university degrees, include the type, class, and name of your degree, the years you attended (with an expected graduation date if you’re still studying), and the name of the institution and its location.

Use this template:

[Degree Class] [Degree Type] [Degree Name]

[University Name] (Years Attended)

When detailing your high school education list all of your A-levels by name, the years during which you studied them, the name of the school and its location. For GCSEs simply state how many you completed, the years over which you completed them, the name of the school and its location.

Remember to mention Mathematics and English when stating how many GCSEs you’ve completed. If you lack work experience, you may want to add bullet points here to highlight your achievements, extracurricular activities or areas of excellence while studying.

Hospitality CV examples: education

4. Showcase your hospitality skills in your CV

The skills you pick up doing hospitality work are incredibly transferable, especially within the hospitality industry. Being able to list your skills in a clear and concrete way will really help you move around within the industry and beyond.

To make your life easier in the future, set your hospitality CV and job advert aside for a second and open a new document. List all the hospitality skills you’ve picked up over the years. IT skills, communication skills, soft and hard skills. Keep going until you run out of ideas. Now comes the critical part.

Add a sentence to each skill that describes exactly how you’ve demonstrated that particular skill. Be as specific as you can.

Any hard or soft skill that you can’t do this for drops off the list. What you’re left with is a master list of skills for this and future CVs. Add to it over time and make tailoring CVs a breeze.

Tailoring means choosing the right set of skills for a given application.

For example, go back to your job advert and copy across 5–10 skills, being sure to at least cover what’s mentioned in the advert. Substitute synonyms (e.g. ‘team player’ → ‘teamwork’) where necessary to match the keywords in the advert.

Hospitality CV examples: skills

5. Sprinkle some extra sections onto your hospitality CV

There’s a lot that makes you great at your job that doesn’t fit under headings like education, experience or skills.

Add extra sections to your hospitality CV to include these things and get an edge over your competition. You could include languages, awards, additional achievements, hobiess and interests or certifications.

Certifications play a significant role in hospitality. Sometimes you need to have them before starting a job but more often you’ll go through some training once on the job (like the Food Hygiene Certificate below). Health and Safety is another big area in hospitality, well worth looking into.

Hospitality CV examples: additional sections

6. Send a cover letter along your hospitality CV

Writing a cover letter isn’t as taxing as it may seem and besides, it’s an absolute must.

People may tell you that many employers don’t even read cover letters. This might be true in some circumstances, but do you really want to be caught out without one? Or with a poorly written one?

Do your hospitality CV justice and send it as part of a complete application—one that includes a cover letter. Just make sure your CV template matches the cover letter template.

The only time you shouldn’t send a cover letter is if you’ve been explicitly instructed not to. A good hospitality cover letter will follow a standard British business cover letter format and include:

• A properly laid-out header
• An appropriate salutation
• A strong cover letter opening
• A showcase of your achievements
• A quick wrap-up and call to action
• A cover letter sign-off that matches the salutation

How long should a cover letter be? Your hospitality cover letter should end up being between half an A4 page and one A4 page long, about 200–350 words in total. If you’ve done your job descriptions and personal statement, then you’re halfway there.

7. Keep your CV for hospitality clean

Sometimes it’s the way a table is set or a bar lit. The soft music piped into a foyer. Seemingly little, cosmetic touches can make all the difference—for good or ill.

Set your hospitality CV up to impress and avoid disaster by keeping the following basic CV structure rules in mind:

• Leave your contact details where they’ll be easy to find, like at the top of your hospitality CV. There's no need to add address to you CV, though. Stick to your name, surname, telephone number and email address (you might want to add a LinkedIn URL, too). Mentioning your date of birth on a CV is an outdated practice, too.
• Go for a neat CV layout. Use subheadings and white space to clearly break your CV down into sections.
• Choose an appropriate CV font like Arial, Noto, Garamond or Liberation (when in doubt, stick to the default).
• Use a creative CV template unless you're applying to a conservative company.
• Best format for a CV? Attach it as a PDF file unless explicitly asked for something else.
• How long should a CV be? Keep to a single page for each decade of experience, but don’t go over two pages.
• Use action words for a CV that make your CV wording more dynamic and your CV more interesting to read. They can also emphasise your confidence and engagement.

Proofread and spellcheck your hospitality CV and cover letter. Ask someone else to read and proofread both documents.

Use any of the apps, web apps, or programmes out there that can help you with spelling and grammar. You wouldn’t expect people to accept a smudged glass or stained uniform.

One final CV tip: follow up if you haven’t heard back after a week. A quick phone call or email is simple enough to do and sends all the right messages.

You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.

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You’ve made it to the end—with a dazzling new hospitality CV example in hand. Is there anything I’ve mentioned that you’d like more information on? Do you have any comments, questions or feedback? Maybe you have some advice of your own to give? Leave it all in the comments section below!

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Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.