A good hospitality CV shows a manager, at a glance, that you can look after guests, work fast at busy times and be trusted with standards, money and safety. UK hotels, restaurants, bars and venues hire quickly, so the strongest hospitality CVs are short, specific and easy to scan, with the type of venue, its size and your results set out clearly rather than buried in a list of duties.
This guide covers front of house, waiting and bar staff, restaurant supervisors, hotel front office, events and banqueting, and food and beverage managers. Pick one of the hospitality CV templates above for a clean, ATS-friendly layout, then use the UK example, personal statements and tips below to show the experience, licences and certificates that hotel, restaurant and bar employers ask for most often.
A complete example you can use as a starting point. Pick a template above and the builder will pre-fill similar content for you to edit.
Personal statement
Restaurant supervisor with five years in busy independent restaurants and a hotel brasserie. Runs the floor for up to 120 covers a service, leads pre-shift briefings and trains new starters on service standards, tills and allergens. Holds a Level 2 Food Safety certificate and WSET Level 2 in Wines, and is now looking for an assistant restaurant manager role.
Experience
Restaurant Supervisor, The Wharf Kitchen, Bristol
Apr 2023 – Present
- Supervise a front of house team of up to 10 across lunch and dinner in a 120-cover restaurant.
- Increased average spend per head by 11% through staff training on drinks pairing and dessert recommendations.
- Manage bookings and table plans in ResDiary and handle complaints at the table to protect review scores.
- Open and close the restaurant, including till reconciliation, cleaning checks and alarm set.
Waitress, Quayside Hotel Brasserie, Bristol
Jun 2021 – Mar 2023
- Served breakfast, lunch and dinner for up to 90 covers, including hotel guests and private dining.
- Worked weddings and functions of up to 150 guests, from canapes and drinks receptions to plated dinners.
- Named team member of the month three times for positive guest feedback.
Education
WSET Level 2 Award in Wines, Wine & Spirit Education Trust
2024
Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene for Catering, Highfield Qualifications
2023
A levels: English Literature, Business, Media Studies, Southmead Sixth Form College
2019 – 2021
Key skills
Front of house supervision · Allergen management · ResDiary and EPOS tills · Wine and drinks upselling · Complaint handling · Opening and closing procedures
Contact details and availability
Give your name, phone, email and the town or city you live in. Hospitality employers care about whether you can get to the venue for early and late shifts, so it can help to note availability (full-time, weekends, evenings) in your profile. Do not add a photo, date of birth or marital status.
Personal statement
Three or four lines saying what kind of hospitality you work in, your level, the size of venue you are used to and one or two strengths, such as upselling, calm at peak times or training staff. Mention the role you want, e.g. assistant restaurant manager or front office supervisor.
Hospitality experience with numbers
List jobs in reverse order. Give the venue type and size, such as covers, bedrooms, event capacity or turnover, and what you achieved: spend per head, review scores, stock variance, labour costs or team size. A reader should be able to picture the operation you worked in.
Licences, certificates and training
Include food safety (Level 2 or Level 3), allergen training, a Personal Licence (APLH) for alcohol sales in England and Wales, WSET wine or spirits awards, first aid, fire marshal and IOSH Managing Safely. These are often deal-breakers for supervisory and management roles.
Systems and languages
Name the systems you use, such as Opera PMS or Opera Cloud, ResDiary, OpenTable, Amadeus Delphi, Square or Lightspeed tills, and rota tools. Languages are a real advantage in hotels and tourist areas, so add any you speak with your level.
Guest service skills
- Customer service and guest recognition
- Complaint handling and service recovery
- Table and silver service
- Upselling food, drinks and room upgrades
- Allergen communication
- Working calmly at peak times
Operational and technical
- Opera PMS and Opera Cloud
- ResDiary and OpenTable
- EPOS tills and cash reconciliation
- Stock control and stocktakes
- Food safety and HACCP
- Licensing and Challenge 25
Leadership and management
- Rota planning and labour control
- Pre-shift briefings
- Training new starters
- Budgets and GP management
- Supplier relationships
- Health and safety compliance
Entry level / first hospitality job
Friendly and hard-working sixth form leaver with a year of weekend experience in a busy cafe, serving customers, taking payments and keeping the counter clean and stocked. Holds a Level 2 Food Safety certificate and is happy to work evenings and weekends. Looking for a full-time front of house role where I can learn table service and progress to supervisor.
Supervisor / front office
Front office supervisor with four years in a 180-bedroom city hotel, leading shifts of five receptionists and porters. Confident with Opera PMS, group check-ins and upselling, and recognised for high guest review scores. Trains new receptionists and handles escalated complaints calmly. Now seeking an assistant front office manager role.
Manager
Food and beverage manager with 12 years in four and five-star hotels, running restaurants, bars and banqueting with F&B revenue of up to £6m. Strong on menu engineering, labour control and building stable teams, with a record of improving departmental profit and guest scores. Holds a Personal Licence, WSET Level 3 and IOSH Managing Safely.
- Show the size of the operation. Covers per service, bedrooms, event capacity and team size tell an employer more about you than a list of duties ever will.
- Lead with licences and certificates. If a role asks for a Personal Licence, food safety or WSET, make sure these are easy to find, ideally mentioned in your profile and listed in their own section.
- Keep it short. One page is fine for most front of house and supervisor roles. Managers can use two pages but should cut early jobs down to a line each.
- Prove your guest service. Use review scores, awards, mystery shopper results, repeat bookings or employee of the month awards as evidence rather than simply calling yourself friendly.
- Tailor to the venue. A fine dining restaurant, a high-volume pub and a city hotel want different things. Mirror the language of the advert and move the most relevant experience to the top.
How long should a hospitality CV be?+
One A4 page is ideal for most front of house, bar, waiting and reception roles in the UK. Supervisors and managers with several years of relevant experience can use two pages. Keep older or unrelated jobs to a single line so that recent hospitality experience, licences and results stay easy to find.
How do I write a hospitality CV with no experience?+
Lead with a short personal statement about why you want to work in hospitality and when you are available. Then add transferable experience from retail, volunteering, school events or helping in a family business, focusing on customer service, teamwork and handling money. A Level 2 Food Safety certificate is quick and inexpensive to complete and shows commitment.
Do I need a Personal Licence to work in a bar?+
No. Bar staff in England and Wales can sell alcohol without a Personal Licence, as long as sales are authorised by a Personal Licence holder. Every premises selling alcohol needs a designated premises supervisor (DPS) who holds a Personal Licence, so it is often required for bar managers and assistant managers. Scotland has its own personal licence scheme.
Should I put a photo on my hospitality CV?+
No. Photos are not expected on UK CVs, including in hospitality, and leaving one out avoids any risk of bias. Use the space for experience and certificates instead. Some front of house or hotel roles may ask about dress and appearance standards at interview, but that does not need to be on your CV.
What certificates should I put on a hospitality CV?+
The most useful are Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene (Level 3 for supervisors), allergen awareness training, a Personal Licence, WSET wine or spirits awards, first aid at work and fire marshal training. Managers often add IOSH Managing Safely and Institute of Hospitality membership. Include the awarding body and year for each.
Should I list every bar and restaurant job I have had?+
Not in full. Give detail for your most recent and most relevant three or four roles, and group older short-term or seasonal jobs into one line, for example "Seasonal bar and waiting roles, Cornwall, 2019 – 2021". This avoids a long, repetitive CV while still showing a steady work history.
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