If you are interviewing or hiring for a Hotel Front Desk job, you will want to read this post and take our Hotel Front Desk Job Interview Course. Below are some good job interview questions for a Hotel Front Desk position. The methods we used to develop these questions are the same ones we used as corporate HR in developing job interview questions for hiring managers. We have developed these questions by analyzing the core competencies or skills, job ad requirements and so forth.
Depending on the Hotel, Front Desk and Guest Services jobs can be titled as follows:
- front desk clerk, hotel
- front office clerk, hotel
- guest service agent
- guest service representative
- hotel front desk clerk
- night clerk
- reservations clerk – hotel
- room clerk
Hotel Front Desk and Guest Services Jobs in Canada
Hotel Front Desk and Guest Services Jobs in USA
Hotel Front Desk and Guest Services jobs in UK
Hotel Front Desk Job Interview Questions
Describe a time when you had to calm down an angry hotel guest? How were you able to successfully accomplish this?
Typing is required to create reservations. What is your typing speed?
How many languages do you speak and/or write? Describe your fluency level.
Dealing with peak volumes with guests all rushing to check-in and check-out at a certain time is a requirement of the job. Tell me about a time when you had to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment. How were you able to perform successfully in this environment?
Handling cash, maintaining a house bank and making deposits and accurate reports of receipts is part of the front desk position. How do you ensure accuracy with details when it comes to handling cash and these related tasks? Give an example.
Read the following scenario:
Mr and Mrs Smith, first-time guests to your hotel checked in today. They are a pleasant couple on their vacation and eager to see the sites and attractions. Shortly after they check in, they come to see you and inform you that they requested a room with a queen bed but got a room with two double beds instead. You look for a free room with a queen but realize that you are fully booked.
A few hours later, Mr Smith comes down to see you about their electronic key. It appears the key does not work, so you replace it for them and send them off. Unfortunately, the replacement key you made also is defective and Mr Smith is once again at the front desk. You can sense by the tone and facial expression on Mr Smith that he is disappointed with his experience. Luckily this third key is functional and he does not return to your front desk.Hoping that this will the end of their service problems you continue with your shift. Late that night, Mr Smith calls down to front desk with a complaint that the air conditioning unit has failed and his room is uncomfortably warm. He further demands to speak to your manager to lodge a formal complaint.
What is Mr Smith feeling? List as many of Mr Smith’s feelings as you can and for each explain why he is feeling that way. How would you handle this issue?
More About These Questions
The interview questions in this post assess the essential soft skills for his particular job through its core functions. We focus on the soft skills because we have found that most candidates handle the questions designed to assess their technical proficiency very well only to stumble with the questions designed to assess their soft skills. For example, when we ask a programmer to explain what a certain set of code means or how best to handle a coding issue, most often their answer is a good one. Now when we ask the same candidate to “describe a time when you did not get along well with a co-worker and how you handled it” to assess their interpersonal skills, 9 times out of 10 they stumble. We see the same thing over and over again whether we are hiring for an accountant, teacher, and so on. Most candidates can handle questions designed to assess their technical competencies much much better than questions designed to assess their soft skills
Why does soft skills matter? Because 9 times out of 10 applicants are bypassed due to their soft skills. We hear this all the time when we debrief with the hiring manager to get their feedback on the applicant. Sometimes, the hiring managers will directly state that the applicant lacked the soft skills but more often it will be phrased as “no connection with the applicant”, or “didn’t get a good feel about the applicant” or “don’t think the applicant would fit in well” and so on.
In addition to focusing on the soft skills we have incorporated behavioral based interview questions. We focus on behavioral based interview questions because they are very prevalent in the HR industry. Behavioral questions focus on assessing past behavior by asking you to provide an example or describe a situation that has happened in the past and what you did. So because of the reasons stated and others beyond the scope of this post, you will likely be asked these questions in your next job interview.
How to Answer Hotel Guest Services And Front Desk Interview Questions
Your response really depends on exactly the type of interview question asked. While interviewing skills as a hiring manager or job applicant can be quite an in depth topic and beyond the scope of this post, we have provided a quick lesson on how you can improve your interview skills. We have chosen to briefly cover the behavioral question because this is where we see most people struggle.
To ensure that you provide good answers consistently we advise that you follow a structured approach when responding to behavioral type questions. Two effective techniques to use are “STAR” (situation, task, action, result) and “PAR” (problem, action, result). These techniques are very similar to one another, so for illustrative purposes, we will discuss the STAR method.
To use the STAR technique, simply describe each element in your interview answer. So with the star technique, begin by describing the situation. Here you want to quickly give context to the interviewer (where, when, etc). Next clearly describe your task, that is what were you tasked to do in this situation. Now it is time to describe the steps or action you took to complete your task. Lastly, describe the results that you achieved. Sounds simple right? Well it is simple, but the secret is to practice responding following this structure. By following structure, you will ensure that you provide complete answers and do not omit vital pieces of information. For more information see our articles and courses on interviewing skills.
The Questions Are In Your Resume
Remember that another good source of job interview questions is your resume. Hiring managers will ask you questions based on your resume. For some people it’s hard to recall what you did last week, let alone what you did at work a few years ago. So it pays to review your resume before you go to your job interview.
For more see our online job interview and resume writing courses. So until our next post, we wish you much luck and success in your career search.
If you would like to see job interview questions for other positions, just let us know by leaving a comment here or contact us directly by email. If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to subscribe by email or RSS feed.
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