What skills should a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk put on a resume?

O*NET rates Social Perceptiveness, Speaking, Service Orientation, Active Listening, and Coordination among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes ASI FrontDesk, Blink, Delphi Technology, Facebook, and Incident tracking software. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk work?

O*NET records 37 titles for this occupation, including Front Desk Agent, Front Desk Clerk, Guest Services Agent, and GSA. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 75% reported their level of education as "High School Diploma, or the equivalent". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk resume example

A resume for a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk needs to show the work itself: accommodate hotel, motel, and resort patrons by registering and assigning rooms to guests, issuing room keys or cards, transmitting and receiving messages, keeping records of occupied rooms and guests' accounts, making and confirming reservations, and presenting statements to and collecting payments from departing guests. Day to day that means work like this: greet, register, and assign rooms to guests of hotels or motels; contact housekeeping or maintenance staff when guests report problems. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Front Desk Agent
Front Desk Clerk
Guest Services Agent
GSA
Night Auditor
Desk Clerk
Front Desk Associate
Front Office Agent
Guest Service Representative
Floor Clerk
Front Desk Attendant
Front Desk Auditor
Front Desk Concierge
Front Desk Coordinator
Front Desk Receptionist
Front Desk Representative
Guest Services Associate
Guest Services Attendant

O*NET records 37 titles for this occupation in total.

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Greet, register, and assign rooms to guests of hotels or motels.
Contact housekeeping or maintenance staff when guests report problems.
Issue room keys and escort instructions to bellhops.
Make and confirm reservations.
Verify customers' credit, and establish how the customer will pay for the accommodation.
Keep records of room availability and guests' accounts, manually or using computers.
Post charges, such as those for rooms, food, liquor, or telephone calls, to ledgers, manually or by using computers.
Review accounts and charges with guests during the check out process.
Record guest comments or complaints, referring customers to managers as necessary.
Compute bills, collect payments, and make change for guests.
Transmit and receive messages, using telephones or telephone switchboards.
Answer inquiries pertaining to hotel services, guest registration, and travel directions, or make recommendations regarding shopping, dining, or entertainment.

20 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Greet, register, and assign rooms to guests of hotels or motels, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Contact housekeeping or maintenance staff when guests report problems, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Issue room keys and escort instructions to bellhops, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Make and confirm reservations, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

ASI FrontDesk
Blink
Delphi Technology
Facebook
Incident tracking software
InnQuest roomMaster
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Publisher
Microsoft Word
Property management system PMS software
Ramesys Hospitality

16 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Automated call distributors ACD
Automated telephone answering systems
Centrex phone consoles
On hold players
Personal computers
Private automatic branch exchange PABX systems
Steam cleaning equipment
Telephone call identification systems
Vacuum cleaners
Voice mail systems

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

Property management system PMS

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Social Perceptiveness
02Speaking
03Service Orientation
04Active Listening
05Coordination
06Complex Problem Solving
07Judgment and Decision Making
08Management of Personnel Resources
09Monitoring
10Reading Comprehension

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Customer and Personal Service
English Language
Public Safety and Security
Administrative
Computers and Electronics
Administration and Management
Mathematics

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

75%High School Diploma, or the equivalent
11%Some College Courses
6%Associate's Degree

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Some Preparation Needed”. These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Common questions

What does a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk do?: Accommodate hotel, motel, and resort patrons by registering and assigning rooms to guests, issuing room keys or cards, transmitting and receiving messages, keeping records of occupied rooms and guests' accounts, making and confirming reservations, and presenting statements to and collecting payments from departing guests. Day to day that includes work like greet, register, and assign rooms to guests of hotels or motels and Contact housekeeping or maintenance staff when guests report problems.
What skills should a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk put on a resume?: O*NET rates Social Perceptiveness, Speaking, Service Orientation, Active Listening, and Coordination among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes ASI FrontDesk, Blink, Delphi Technology, Facebook, and Incident tracking software. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk work?: O*NET records 37 titles for this occupation, including Front Desk Agent, Front Desk Clerk, Guest Services Agent, and GSA. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 75% reported their level of education as "High School Diploma, or the equivalent". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.