A great hotel front desk cover letter can strengthen your application during the job hunt. The key is to emphasize your genuine passion for delivering hotel experiences that enrich your guests’ lives. As you build your content, highlight achievements that illustrate your expertise in guest services and knowledge of the hospitality industry. Our guide provides expert tips and examples to help translate your career into a powerful cover letter.
Hotel Front Desk Cover Letter Templates and Examples
- Entry-Level
- Mid-Career
- Senior-Level
Hotel Front Desk Cover Letter Checklist
To write a great hotel front desk cover letter, reflect on your prior success within the hospitality industry. How have your contributions helped to improve the guest experience? What is the hotel looking for in a candidate? Using our methodology, you can quickly build an eye-catching document that piques the interest of the hiring manager. Below, we’ll walk you through each step of the cover letter writing process:
1. Contact information and salutation
In the header of your hotel front desk cover letter, include your name, phone number, email, and LinkedIn URL. Be sure to address the hiring manager by name — Mr. or Ms. [Last Name]. If you can’t find the hiring manager’s name, use a variation of “Dear Hiring Manager.” Avoid salutations such as “To Whom It May Concern,” as these types of greetings are less direct and personal.
2. Introduction
Lead with a powerful opening paragraph to set the tone for your hotel front desk cover letter. Emphasize your years of experience and genuine passion for the hospitality industry. Feature a stunning career achievement demonstrating your ability to drive guest satisfaction and improve hotel operations. If possible, include hard numbers or metrics in your introduction to grab the hiring manager’s attention early.
Example
Improving guest satisfaction scores by 30% as a front desk agent for Wyndham Suites was one of my proudest achievements in 2023. As a front desk agent, I coordinated with the guest services team to enhance operational effectiveness and deliver an unparalleled hotel experience. My expertise within the hospitality space will allow me to make valuable contributions to your organization.
3. Body paragraphs
In the body paragraphs of your hotel front desk cover letter, continue to feature your most compelling qualifications and career achievements. Describe how your experience within the hotel industry aligns with the company’s reputation or mission statement. Highlight accomplishments that convey your expertise in communicating with guests, upselling amenities, and coordinating effectively with diverse teams.
Notice how this candidate leverages their previous hotel front desk experience to demonstrate the value they can bring to future employers. They show how they enhanced the hotel experience for guests by improving communication across departments. A hotel’s reputation is everything, so it’s critical you convey your past success using clear and tangible examples from your career.
Example
Hampton Inn has a reputation for delivering a superior hotel experience that strongly aligns with my professional background. I can help to continue to grow this reputation based on my achievements throughout my career:
- Coordinated front desk operations in collaboration with the hotel manager and guest services team for a hotel with 250 guests, fielded phone inquiries from customers, booked stays, and upsold suites, which generated a 10% increase in sales
- Developed new procedures to reduce communication breakdowns across departments, which improved guest satisfaction scores by 20%
- Received the Employee of the Month award four times over two years for providing exceptional service to guests and strong support to team members
4. Hotel front desk skills and qualifications
Rather than including a list of your customer service and hospitality-related skills on your hotel front desk cover letter, carefully integrate key terms from the job posting into your paragraphs. This shows you have the qualifications the hotel is looking for and have utilized them effectively in previous roles. Below, we’ve compiled a range of skills you may encounter during the job search:
| Key Skills and Qualifications | |
|---|---|
| Administrative support | Client relations |
| Communication | Cross-functional collaboration |
| Cross-selling | Customer satisfaction |
| Customer service | Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) |
| Front desk operations | Guest relations |
| Guest satisfaction | Guest services |
| Hospitality | Hotel operations |
| Operational excellence | Operations management |
| Process improvement | Sales |
| Upselling | |
5. Closing section
End your hotel front desk cover letter on a strong note with a call to action (CTA) that encourages the hiring manager to schedule an interview. Reinforce how your expertise in guest services and hotel operations can benefit the organization you’re targeting. Be sure to thank the hiring manager for their time in the last sentence of the paragraph.
Example
I hope to speak with you further to discuss how my operations management experience can benefit your guest services department. You can schedule an interview with me at your earliest convenience with any follow-up questions you may have. I appreciate your time and consideration.
Best regards,
Maria Valdez
Hotel Front Desk Cover Letter Tips
1. Quantify your achievements within the hotel industry
Incorporating hard numbers, metrics, and monetary figures is a great way to help your application stand out from other candidates during the job search. Guest satisfaction scores are the most common approach, but there are other ways to quantify your experience. In the example below, the candidate features sales data and highlights the large number of rooms available at the hotel. This shows they can generate results in high-volume business settings:
- Fielded inquiries, managed guest issues related to rooms, service, and booking, and collaborated with the guest services team to drive operational excellence and improve the customer experience, which improved satisfaction ratings by 20% over one year
- Utilized upselling techniques to improve sales for luxury suites, amenities, and rewards memberships, which resulted in a 15% increase in monthly sales
- Coordinated with the hotel manager and five departments to ensure timely resolutions for guest issues in a fast-paced hotel environment with 3,000 rooms
2. Highlight your communication and leadership skills
In a front desk agent position at a hotel, you’ll interact with a diverse range of guests and team members on a daily basis. Potential employers want to see you have the communication and leadership capabilities to succeed. The best way to illustrate this is by leveraging tangible examples from your career. Below, the candidate emphasizes how they’ve worked effectively in fast-paced team environments to improve the guest experience:
As a front desk agent with Marriott, I played a pivotal role in improving the guest services department. I developed new communication protocols to de-escalate stressful situations with empathy and understanding in collaboration with the team. Our efforts resulted in a 35% improvement in guest satisfaction on online surveys. I can achieve similar success as the new front desk agent with Hilton Hotel based on my career achievements:
3. Tailor your cover letter towards individual hotel brands
Another way to give yourself an edge over the competition is by aligning your cover letter with the hotel’s reputation, culture, and brand identity. This shows you’ve taken the time to research the organization beforehand and conveys your genuine interest in the position. In the example below, the applicant demonstrates how their background aligns with the hotel’s mission statement:
Marriott’s mission to enhance customers’ lives through exceptional vacation experiences is what draws me to apply for the position. With over seven years of experience in the hotel industry, I am passionate about delivering a hotel experience that comforts others. I can provide valuable contributions in the area of guest services based on my past accomplishments:
Hospitality Hotel Front Desk Text-Only Cover Letter Templates and Examples
- Example #1
- Example #2
- Example #3
Maria Valdez
Front Desk Agent | [email protected] | (123) 456-7890 | New York, NY 12345 | LinkedIn
January 1, 2024
Christine Baker
Hiring Manager
Hampton Inn
(987) 654-3210
[email protected]
Dear Ms. Baker,
With over five years of experience within the hospitality industry, I’ve developed strong expertise in operations management. While working as a front desk agent at the Microtel Inn & Suites, I improved resolution times for guest issues by 15% by improving communication protocols across departments. My ability to drive continuous improvements to hotel operations makes me an ideal candidate for the front desk agent position with your company.
Hampton Inn has a reputation for delivering a superior hotel experience that strongly aligns with my professional background. I can help to continue to grow this reputation based on my achievements throughout my career:
- Coordinated front desk operations in collaboration with the hotel manager and guest services team for a hotel with 250 guests, fielded phone inquiries from customers, booked stays, and upsold suites, which generated a 10% increase in sales
- Developed new procedures to reduce communication breakdowns across departments, which improved guest satisfaction scores by 20%
- Received the Employee of the Month award four times over two years for providing exceptional service to guests and strong support to team members
I hope to speak with you further to discuss how my operations management experience can benefit your guest services department. You can schedule an interview with me at your earliest convenience with any follow-up questions you may have. I appreciate your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Maria Valdez
Hotel Front Desk Cover Letter FAQs
Why should I include a hotel front desk cover letter?-
Although most hotels won’t require a cover letter for front desk agent positions, submitting one can offer some advantages during the job hunt. Most importantly, the cover letter allows you to illustrate your passion for hospitality using personal language that wouldn’t work on a resume. It helps the hiring manager gain a better sense of you as an industry professional, which can sometimes make all the difference during the application process.
Should I use artificial intelligence to write my cover letter?-
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have continued to evolve rapidly, but it’s still not advisable to use AI tools to write your entire cover letter. Utilizing ChatGPT to give yourself a framework might be acceptable, but without infusing your own voice into the content, you’re likely to be left with a generic and uninspiring document.
How long should my cover letter be?-
It’s best to keep your cover letter short and straightforward in most instances. Hiring managers have limited bandwidth to assess each application, and submitting a long-winded document may do more harm than good. Limit your cover letter to three or four paragraphs with a keen focus on your most relevant and impressive achievements within the hotel industry.
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