A hotel reservations agent books stays for guests who call, email or chat with the hotel directly. They quote the right rate and room type and explain deposits and cancellation terms. They also offer packages that fit, enter group rooming lists, and fix booking errors before guests arrive.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Reservations Agents turn calls and emails into booked rooms. You'll quote the right rate and room type, explain deposit and cancellation policies, book packages and group rooms from rooming lists, and change or cancel reservations accurately in [your property management system]. Good agents book the stay and offer the upgrade without pushing.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Answer reservation calls, emails and chats, and book rooms at the correct rate code and room type.
Explain deposit, cancellation and pet policies before the guest commits.
Sell packages, upgrades and add-ons such as spa, dining or parking when they fit the guest.
Enter group rooming lists and make changes inside the group block.
Modify and cancel reservations, and send confirmations with the right dates, rate and policies.
Record special requests, accessibility needs and preferences in the guest profile.
Follow up on quotes and inquiries that haven't booked.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Check rate and availability updates from the Revenue Manager before taking calls.
Work the reservations inbox and voicemail in the order messages came in.
Return calls on open quotes and rooming list questions.
Review the next day's arrivals for missing deposits, card guarantees or special requests.
Fix duplicate reservations and booking errors from online channels.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Call conversion: [your target].
Average daily rate on booked reservations: [your target].
Upsell revenue per agent: [your target].
Reservation errors: [your target].
Calls answered within your standard: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[1+] year of phone sales, call center or hotel experience.
Types accurately and works across several screens while on the phone.
Explains rates and policies clearly, then asks for the booking.
Learns rate codes, room types and packages and quotes them correctly.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience with [your property management system] or a central reservation system.
Hotel sales or front desk experience.
Has sold packages or add-ons by phone, such as in travel or ticketing.
7. Physical Requirements
Sit at a computer with a headset for most of the shift.
Type and read screens throughout the day.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Day or evening shifts, [weekdays only or including weekends], based on call volume.
Works in the reservations office or [remotely, if you allow it].
Call volume rises with promotions, holidays and peak season.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new reservations agent gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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Call center agents in any business answer phones and take orders. A hotel agent quotes rates that change by date and room type, and federal rules shape how fees and accessible rooms are handled on the call.
Every quote includes the required fees
If the hotel charges a mandatory resort, amenity or parking fee, the rate an agent quotes has to include it. The FTC's fee rule applies to any price a hotel offers, and its standard for a clear disclosure names phone calls: spoken at a volume and pace callers can easily hear and understand. Taxes can come later in the call. But the guest must hear what they are and the final amount before paying. Source: 16 CFR 464.1: Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, definitions (Cornell LII).
Accessible rooms are booked like any other room
A caller who needs an accessible room can't be told to call back when a manager is in. The ADA rule for hotel reservations says they must be able to book it in the same hours and the same way as other guests. The agent describes what the room has, such as a roll-in shower or a tub with grab bars, so the guest can decide. Once booked, that room comes out of every reservation system. Source: 28 CFR 36.302(e): Reservations made by places of lodging (Cornell LII).
A resort sells the stay, not just the room
Callers to a resort ask about the pool, the spa, the restaurants or kids' activities as often as the room itself. Good agents know which packages run on which dates, the deposit and cancellation terms that come with each, and when an upgrade or spa add-on fits the guest. They offer it once, plainly, and note the answer.
Group callers book inside a block
Wedding guests, team members and conference attendees call to book from a group block. The agent finds the right block, applies the group rate, and enters rooming lists as they arrive. A caller after the cutoff date may pay the going rate or find no room left, so agents tell the Sales Manager when callers say the group's deadline was unclear.
The security code is never kept
Callers read out a card number, and often its security code, to guarantee a room. PCI DSS, the card industry's data security standard, says a business may not keep that code once the charge it was taken for is authorized. That holds even if it is encrypted, and even if the guest agrees. So the code goes into the payment screen only, never into a guest profile, an email or a note. Many hotels send a secure payment link instead. Source: PCI Security Standards Council: Can card verification codes be stored for card-on-file or recurring transactions?.
How much hotel reservations agents make
The closest BLS group for hotel reservations agents is reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks. Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $20.40 an hour ($42,420 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $44,390 median for reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks in all industries. About 4,120 of the 118,710 reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks in that survey work for hotels and resorts.
Usually hourly, often with a monthly incentive on the room revenue or upgrades an agent books. Base the incentive on stays that arrive, so a booking that cancels doesn't count.
Hotels and resorts
$42,420$42,420 median Middle half $37,680–$49,270 10th–90th $32,970–$62,090
All industries
$44,390$44,390 median Middle half $37,850–$59,640 10th–90th $32,140–$78,150
$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k$90k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Hotels and resorts
$32,970
$37,680
$42,420
$49,270
$62,090
All industries
$32,140
$37,850
$44,390
$59,640
$78,150
BLS groups hotels, resorts and motels as traveler accommodation. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Types quickly and accurately while talking
Explains rates, deposits and cancellation terms in plain words
Closes the booking in a natural voice, not a script
Catches small errors such as wrong dates, rate codes or room types
Stays patient with guests who call several times about one stay
Teach these on the job
Your property management and central reservation systems
Rate codes, packages, room types and blackout dates
Each accessible room's features and how to describe them
Group blocks, rooming lists and cutoff dates
Your card handling and fee wording on calls
Agents book in the property management system, usually OPERA or the brand's own, and at many branded hotels in a central reservation system such as Sabre SynXis as well. They work from a headset and call queue, a shared reservations inbox, and a secure screen or payment link for card guarantees.
Hotel reservations agent interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Base targets on recent phone and booking reports, and judge agents across several weeks. Holiday promotions and slow weeks shift every figure.
Call conversion
Reservations booked divided by calls asking about a new stay, from the phone system and booking source codes. Leave out calls about existing reservations, since those can't convert.
Average daily rate on booked reservations
Room revenue divided by room nights for the reservations each agent booked, from the PMS. Compare agents working the same dates, since peak and slow weeks price differently.
Upsell revenue per agent
Extra revenue from upgrades, packages and add-ons on each agent's bookings, tracked with upsell codes. Count only stays that arrived, and read guest comments for any sign of pressure.
Reservation errors
Wrong dates, rates, room types or missing guarantees traced to each agent, from front desk notes and the night audit. Go over the list weekly and retrain on repeats.
Calls answered within your standard
From the phone system, the portion of calls picked up within the wait time you set, plus abandoned calls. Read it by hour so the schedule matches the busy times.
Career path
Front Desk AgentChecks guests in and learns rate codes, room types and the property system.
Reservations AgentBooks calls, emails and group rooming lists.
Reservations supervisorTrains agents, sets call schedules and takes the hardest calls.
Do I need a reservations agent if I have a front desk?
A reservations agent sells future stays by phone, email and chat, often from a back office or from home. A front desk agent looks after guests who are here now: check-in, checkout, keys and problems during the stay. Smaller hotels often let the desk take reservation calls. Once callers wait on hold while the desk checks guests in, or packages and groups need a seller's attention, a dedicated agent pays off.
How much does a hotel reservations agent make?
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $20.40 an hour ($42,420 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $37,680 and $49,270 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Can hotel reservations agents work from home?
Some hotels and brand call centers allow it, since the work runs on a headset and a computer. Set the rules first: a quiet room, a company computer or secure connection, and no card numbers written down anywhere. Some hotels keep new agents on site for their training period so they learn the property before selling it from a distance.
What is a rooming list?
A rooming list is the group's list of guests, with names, arrival and departure dates, room types and who shares with whom, sent before the deadline in the group contract. The reservations agent enters it against the block and sends back confirmation numbers. Lists often change several times, so agents keep each dated version until the group has left.
Where should training for a new reservations agent start?
Start with the property. Have them walk every room type, the spa, the restaurants and the pool so they can describe what they sell. Then teach rate codes and packages, then live calls beside an experienced agent before they take calls alone. Give them a sheet of current offers, blackout dates and fee wording, and listen to calls together each week at first.
Should a hotel reservations agent have sales experience?
Phone sales or call center work is the most useful background, because the job means asking for the booking many times a day. Room types and rate codes can be taught to anyone who learns systems quickly. Run a role play where the candidate explains a cancellation policy, and hire the one who stays clear and still asks for the booking.
