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Customer services

Hotel receptionist

Hotel receptionists make guests feel welcome, manage new room bookings and reservations, and deal with requests from guests.

Annual Salary

£12,500 to £24,000

Average UK salary in 2022 was £33,200
(source Office for National Statistics)

Working hours

38 to 40 a week

You could work: evenings / weekends / bank holidays; on shifts

18.7%
Future employment

There will be 18.7% fewer Hotel receptionist jobs in 2027.

Day to day tasks

In this role you could be:

  • dealing with bookings
  • completing procedures when guests arrive and leave
  • choosing rooms and handing out keys
  • preparing bills and taking payments
  • taking and passing on messages to guests
  • dealing with special requests from guests (like booking theatre tickets or storing valuable items)
  • answering questions
  • dealing with complaints or problems

Working environment

You may need to wear a uniform.

You could work in a hotel.

You can get into this job through:

  • a college course
  • an apprenticeship
  • working towards this role
  • applying directly
College

You can do a college course like a Level 2 Certificate or Level 3 Diploma in Hospitality.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

  • 2 or more GCSEs at grades 9 to 3 (A* to D), or equivalent, for a level 2 course
  • 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, for a level 3 course
For more information
Apprenticeship

You can get into this job through a hospitality team member intermediate apprenticeship.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

  • some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship
For more information
Work

You can start work as an admin assistant or general staff in a hotel and do further training and qualifications on the job.

Direct application

You can apply directly for this job if you've got good administration and customer service skills. IT skills will also be useful to work with computerised booking and payment systems.

Many employers will want you to have a good standard of general education, including GCSE grades at 9 to 4 (A* to C) in maths and English.

More information

Career tips

You may find it useful if you can speak a second language, as a lot of hotels get visitors from outside the UK.

Further information

You'll find more on careers and training in the hotel industry from the Hospitality Guild.

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With experience and qualifications, you may be able to progress to front office manager or hotel manager. You could also move into different areas of hotel work, like events, sales, personnel or accounts.

You might decide to move outside the hospitality industry into related areas like customer service and administration.

Skills required and how your skills match up

What skills are required?

You'll need:

  • customer service skills
  • sensitivity and understanding
  • to be thorough and pay attention to detail
  • patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
  • the ability to work well with others
  • excellent verbal communication skills
  • administration skills
  • the ability to understand people’s reactions
  • the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
  • to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
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