How to Write a Hospitality CV: Examples & Template

Working in hospitality means serving guests, managing tables, and keeping operations smooth – but top hotels, bars, and restaurants get more applicants than openings. To stand out, you need a strong hospitality CV that highlights your experience, showcases relevant skills and proves you’re the right fit.

In this guide, you’ll find practical hospitality CV examples, a ready-to-use hospitality CV template, and expert tips to create a CV that gets noticed in the competitive UK hospitality industry. Let’s begin!

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We created the sample on the right using our builder. See other good CV examples like this one.

Applying for a specific hospitality job? Check these CV examples:

• Barista CV
• Catering Assistant CV
• Chef CV
• Cleaner CV
• Concierge CV
• Gardener CV
• Kitchen Porter CV
• Part-Time Job CV
• Receptionist CV
• Waiter / Waitress 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 let's move towriting your own CV for hospitality.

What to include in a hospitality CV?

Here’s what you should include in a CV for hospitality jobs:

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

Additionally, include languages you're proficient in, especially if you're applying for roles in tourist-heavy areas or diverse communities.

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

1. Start your hospitality CV strong with a personal statement

Yourpersonal statement is the opening line of your CV for hospitality – the quick pitch that decides whether a recruiter keeps reading. Think of it as a condensed elevator pitch (3–4 sentences / ~50–150 words) that does three things clearly and immediately:

• Who you are: job title and years or level of experience (e.g., “experienced front-of-house supervisor”).
• What you deliver: a short, concrete example or metric showing your impact (e.g., “reduced wait times by 20%” or “increased tips/up-sell rate by X%”).
• What you’ll do for them: how your skills match the role and the employer’s goals.

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 the main keywords, too.

Hospitality CV example: personal statement

Even though your CV starts with a personal statement, it is best written last. You’ll be able to do a much better job once the job descriptions and skills are 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.

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

The work experience section is the heart of your CV for hospitality jobs – recruiters and ATS scan it first to see whether you’ve done the job before and produced real results.

• Keep this section of your hospitality CV simple, scannable and result-focused.
• Use reverse-chronological order (most recent job first)
• Include clear headings for each role
• Add up to six short bullet points that pair what you did with the impact you created.
• Use action words for a CV that make the CV wording more dynamic and the entire document more interesting to read.
• Use the following template for each job description:

This way, your CV for hospitality jobs will be easy for humans to read and easy for systems to parse. Just like in the following example:

Hospitality CV: examples of work experience descriptions

If you don’t have any experience yet, focus on apprenticeships combining work and training, placement work, or any volunteer experience you've gained. 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.

Expert advice: Do not list your duties and responsibilities. Instead, focus on achievements. CV achievements involve concrete, measurable results. Use accomplishment statements to structure the bullet points and quantify each point.

3. Include an education section in your CV for hospitality

Even in a practical industry, your education section gives recruiters quick proof of basic skills and formal training – especially GCSEs in Maths and English and any hospitality-specific certificates.

In a CV for hospitality industry roles, make this section fast to scan: state the qualification, the awarding body/institution and location, the grade or class (or “expected”), and the dates.

• If you’re early in your career, add a short line with relevant modules, projects, or a hospitality placement.
• If you’re more experienced, keep the section compact and emphasise professional certificates.

When listing university degrees, use this template:

When detailing 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. Mathematics and English are a must.
• If you lack work experience, it’s beneficial to add bullet points here to highlight your achievements,extracurricular activities, or areas of excellence while studying.

Hospitality CV examples: education

4. Showcase relevant hospitality skills in your CV

Skills are the engine of any great CV for hospitality jobs. Rather than making a vague list (“team player”, “good communication”), turn each skill into a mini-proof: a one-line example of where you used it and the outcome. This makes the hospitality skills on a CV readable at a glance, helps Applicant Tracking Systems match you to roles, and gives recruiters the quick evidence they want.

When picking relevant hospitality skills for a CV: 

• Set your 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 I mentioned earlier.
• Add a sentence for 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 prove 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.

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: skills examples

5. Sprinkle some extra sections onto your hospitality CV

Additional CV sections allow you to highlight language ability, formal and on-the-job training, awards, volunteering, or software know-how. All of that can help tip the scales in a CV for hospitality industry applications.

Keep each extra section compact (1–3 lines per item): name the qualification, the certifying body or context, and a one-line proof of relevance. That short, scannable format works well for hiring managers and Applicant Tracking Systems.

Certifications play a significant role in hospitality, so if you have any, be sure to mention them in your CV. Sometimes you need to have them before starting, 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 of additional sections

6. Send a cover letter along with your hospitality CV

A cover letter is the perfect complement to any CV for hospitality jobs – it tells the hiring manager why you’re applying, not just what you’ve done. Many recruiters skim CVs first; the cover letter provides context to your skills and highlights the one most relevant achievement that could push you into the interview range.

Plus, studies show that 83% of recruiters read cover letters! The only time you shouldn’t write 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:

• Properly laid-out header
• Appropriate salutation
• Strong cover letter opening
• Showcase of your achievements
• Quick wrap-up and call to action
• Cover letter sign-off that matches the salutation

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

Expert advice: Use the same font, header, and basic layout as in your CV template for hospitality jobs, so your application looks like a single, professional package. This way, the ATS systems can link the documents more easily.

7. Format your CV for hospitality properly

Impress the recruiters by making your hospitality CV eye-catching and professional. There’s an easy way to do that: use modern templates, like the ones you can find in the LiveCareer UK CV builder. Or you can take care of the layout for your hospitality CV all by yourself – just use the tips below.

Keeping the following basic CV structure rules in mind:

• List your contact details in a prominent spot, like at the top of your hospitality CV. Stick to your name, surname, telephone number and email address (you might want to add a LinkedIn URL, 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).
• Best format for a CV? Attach it as a PDF file unless explicitly asked for something else.
• Proofread and spellcheck your hospitality CV and cover letter. You wouldn’t expect people to accept a smudged glass or a stained uniform.

How long should a CV be? Keep to a single page for each decade of experience, but don’t go over two pages.

One final CV tip: follow up if you haven’t heard back after a week. A quick phone call or email is simple 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. For more expert-written advice on CVs, cover letters, and more career-related topics, head over to our blog. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of value there!

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Oureditorial team has reviewed this article for compliance withLiveCareer’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.

Sources

• Harvard Business Review (2025), Cover Letters Still Matter—Even If They’re Not Required
• Western Kentucky University (2014), White Space: An Overlooked Element of Design