A restaurant host runs the front door: greeting guests, managing reservations and the waitlist, and seating each party in the right server's section. Where tables order by course, the host also spaces out the seatings so the kitchen doesn't get several large tables at the same moment.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, full-service restaurants · BLS, May 2025
We're hiring Hosts to run the front door at one of our restaurants. You'll manage reservations and the waitlist, quote honest wait times, seat guests so no server or the kitchen gets slammed, and answer the phone. You're the first and last person many guests see.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Greet guests, check reservations, and seat them by the floor plan and server rotation.
Manage the waitlist and quote wait times you can keep.
Space seatings so the kitchen doesn't get several large tables at once.
Take reservations and large-party requests in [your reservation system], noting allergies, celebrations and seating requests.
Answer the phone: hours, directions, menu questions and to-go orders.
Keep the entry and host stand clean, and wipe down menus between guests.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review the book before service and flag VIPs, large parties and allergy notes for the manager.
Track table status with servers and bussers to know which tables open next.
Confirm the day's reservations and follow the house policy on no-shows.
Thank guests on the way out and hand over to-go orders and gift cards.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Quoted wait time accuracy: [your target].
Reservation no-show rate: [your target].
Even seating across server sections: [your target].
Guest feedback on arrival and seating: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Speaks clearly with guests in person and on the phone.
Can learn the floor plan, table numbers and server sections in the first week.
Comfortable with a tablet reservation system [such as OpenTable, Resy or Tock].
Stays polite and honest when guests are unhappy about a wait.
Food handler card if your state or county requires one for hosts.
6. Preferred Experience
Prior host, retail or front desk experience.
Speaks [a language common among your guests] in addition to English.
Interest in moving into a server role.
7. Physical Requirements
Stand at the host stand and walk guests to tables for a full shift.
Carry stacks of menus, high chairs and booster seats up to [20] pounds.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Shifts center on dinner, with Friday and Saturday nights and holidays required.
Entry area can be drafty or warm depending on the weather.
Busy stretches with a line at the door and the phone ringing.
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 host 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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What's different about hosting in a full-service restaurant
Any host greets people and finds them a table. In a group of sit-down restaurants with reservations, servers working sections and a kitchen cooking by course, the door decides how the whole night goes.
Big tables get spaced out
Seat three big parties in a few minutes and every entrée hits the line together, so tickets run long and plates sit under the lamps. A good host staggers large tables, leaves an open table empty for a few minutes when the kitchen asks, and checks with the floor manager before seating a big walk-in. A clean table is not always a ready one.
Fair sections keep servers
Hosts seat by a rotation so each server gets a fair share of tables and covers, and they adjust when one server just took a twelve-top. Servers live on tips. A door that keeps favoring the same section shows up as a server who quits. Track covers per server on the floor plan in your reservation system or on a paper chart.
One guest book for every restaurant
When the central office runs one reservation system for every location, a regular's allergies, anniversaries and past complaints follow them from one restaurant to the next. Hosts add those notes when they book and read them before service. Large parties go in the book with a note for the manager, but private-room and buyout requests go to the catering and events team.
Service animals come in, even where pets can't
Restaurants that sell or prepare food must generally allow service animals in public areas, even where the health code bans animals. When the dog's role isn't obvious, the host gets two questions: whether it's needed because of a disability, and what work or task it has been trained to do. No papers, no questions about the disability, and no seating the party apart from other guests. Allergies or fear of dogs aren't reasons to refuse. Source: ADA.gov: ADA requirements for service animals.
The stand doubles as the to-go counter
Phone orders, delivery app tablets and drivers waiting for pickup often land at the host stand. The host checks each bag against the ticket, including sauces and utensils, and keeps drivers from crowding guests who are waiting for a table. Gift card sales and redemptions usually run through the stand too.
How much restaurant hosts make
The closest BLS group for restaurant hosts is hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop. Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $15.00 an hour ($31,200 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $31,200 median for hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop in all industries. About 363,100 of the 432,690 hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop in that survey work for full-service restaurants.
Usually hourly, sometimes topped up with part of the servers' tips or a cut of the tip pool. Whether hosts can share in a pool depends partly on whether you take a tip credit for anyone in it, so check the federal tip pool rules and your state's before you set it up.
Full-service restaurants
$31,200$31,200 median Middle half $27,320–$35,870 10th–90th $22,210–$43,150
All industries
$31,200$31,200 median Middle half $27,570–$36,250 10th–90th $22,340–$43,990
$10k$20k$30k$40k$50k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Full-service restaurants
$22,210
$27,320
$31,200
$35,870
$43,150
All industries
$22,340
$27,570
$31,200
$36,250
$43,990
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Quotes a wait they can keep, and tells guests early when it slips
Reads the floor at a glance: who's on dessert, who just sat, which table opens next
Speaks clearly in person and on the phone with a line at the door
Stays polite with a walk-in who is unhappy about the wait
Keeps the seating rotation fair even when a server asks for one more table
Teach these on the job
Your reservation and waitlist system
Table numbers, sections and which tables push together for large parties
Your no-show, deposit and large-party policies
When to slow the door for the kitchen, and who makes that call
The two service animal questions and what not to ask
To-go bag checks and gift card steps
Hosts work from a reservation and waitlist system such as OpenTable, Resy, Tock, SevenRooms or Yelp Guest Manager, usually on a tablet at the stand, along with the phone and text alerts for waiting guests. Someone who already knows your system can work a Saturday alone much sooner, so ask which ones they have used.
Restaurant host 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.
Treat these four measures as the frame and the template's blanks as yours to fill. Pull a few weeks of waitlist and reservation data before you set a number.
Quoted wait time accuracy
Compare the wait quoted to each walk-in party with the time they were actually seated. Most waitlist apps record both, so count the parties that waited well past their quote.
Reservation no-show rate
Reservations that neither arrived nor cancelled, divided by all reservations for the week, from your reservation system. Note whether confirmation texts or calls went out the day before.
Even seating across server sections
Covers seated per server per shift, from the floor plan or the POS. Flag servers who got far more or far fewer covers than their section size calls for.
Guest feedback on arrival and seating
Survey answers and reviews that mention the greeting, the wait or the table. Tag each one by shift to see which nights the door struggles.
Career path
First job, retail or front deskLearns to greet people and keep a line calm.
HostRuns the door, the book and the phone.
ServerTakes a section after menu and allergen training.
Floor managerRuns shifts, usually after time as a server or lead host.
What does a restaurant host do besides seat guests?
Plenty. Hosts take reservations and phone calls, confirm the next day's bookings, keep the waitlist, hand off to-go orders, sell gift cards and wipe down menus between guests. On a busy night they also watch table status with the bussers, so the next party sits as soon as a table is reset rather than when someone remembers to tell them.
How much does a restaurant host make?
Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $15.00 an hour ($31,200 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $27,320 and $35,870 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Does a restaurant host need a food handler card?
That turns on your state or county and on what the host handles. Maricopa County, Arizona, covers anyone who handles, serves or gives away food, or the utensils that go with it, and requires food safety training within 30 days of their first such task. A host who rolls silverware or brings bread to the table fits that wording, and one who only seats guests may not. Illinois instead sets one statewide rule for restaurant food handlers. Your local health department can tell you which rule covers your hosts.
How many hosts should work the stand on a busy night?
On a quiet weeknight, one host can usually hold the stand. Add a second on Friday and Saturday nights or when large parties are booked, so one person stays at the door and the phone while the other walks guests to tables. Where to-go is a big business, the second person often handles pickups and drivers. Guests standing at an empty stand is the sign you're short.
What should a host do when a reservation runs late?
Follow the house policy, and make sure every host knows it: how long the table is held, when to call the guest, and when it can go to the waitlist. If a late party arrives after their table is gone, the host offers the next open table or a seat at the bar, and brings in the floor manager before the guest has to ask.
How old does a restaurant host need to be?
Federal law lets 14- and 15-year-olds work as hosts, but only outside school hours and with an evening cutoff that ends most dinner shifts early. Once a worker turns 16, the federal rules no longer cap hours or set a cutoff time. States can go further, especially where alcohol is served: New York's liquor authority says a minor can't be employed as a host or hostess in a licensed restaurant. Check your state's labor and liquor agencies before you put a high school student at the stand.
Can hosts cover shifts at other restaurants in the group?
Yes, and it helps on short-staffed nights. Train hosts on each restaurant's floor plan, table numbers and sections before their first shift there, since layouts and party sizes differ by concept. One reservation system and one set of house policies across the group make the switch easier, because guest notes and the no-show rules read the same everywhere.
