Housekeeping resume examples & templates

There’s nothing like the feeling of walking into a pristine hotel room after a long day of traveling and collapsing on a perfectly made bed. But behind every towel folded into a swan, there’s a hardworking housekeeper to thank. The guardian angels of the hotel experience, housekeepers make sure that one guest’s mess doesn’t become the next guest’s unwelcome surprise. 

If you're looking to create that same sense of comfort and order for others, then a career in housekeeping may be a great fit for you. But before you can win that interview with a clean sweep, you’ll need a polished resume to help you stand out and beat the competition.

Resume guide for a housekeeping resume

Resume.io is a top resource for job seekers across all industries, offering over 500 tailored resume guides, samples, and customizable templates.

This guide, featuring a housekeeping resume example, will help you create a personalized resume that stands out to hiring managers. Keep reading as we walk you through these key components of a winning housekeeping resume:

• How to write a housekeeping resume
• Choosing the best resume format for a housekeeper
• Including your contact information
• Crafting a strong resume summary
• Highlighting your hospitality experience
• Listing relevant education and skills
• Selecting the right resume design/layout
• An overview of the housekeeping job market and salary trends

How to write a housekeeping resume

Before crafting your housekeeping resume, it's essential to understand the critical sections to include. Here are the key components to focus on:

• The resume header
• The resume summary (aka profile or personal statement)
• The employment history section
• The resume skills section
• The education section

Housekeeping is a job that requires a variety of cleaning and organizational skills and excellent time management. If 40 guests check out of their hotel rooms at 11 a.m., then there could be 40 new guests waiting to check in at 3 p.m. That’s quite a time crunch, even without the added difficulty of extraordinary messes.

When composing your resume, it’s important to emphasize your ability to stay organized and efficient while maintaining cleanliness and order. This is also your opportunity to showcase any special skills, such as handling specialized cleaning equipment or using cleaning products that comply with safety standards.

Here are the main points to consider for crafting your housekeeping resume:

• Highlight your unique housekeeping skills, certifications, or work experiences that make you stand out from others.
• Include quantifiable successes, such as speeding up room cleaning times or consistently achieving top cleanliness ratings.
• Customize your resume based on the specific requirements of the hotel or facility you're applying to.
• Ensure your resume is ATS-ready by including key terms like "cleaning procedures" or "supply management." Start with a format that's easy for ATS systems to scan and prioritize.

Choosing the right resume format for a housekeeper

For most job seekers, the standard resume format is reverse chronological. This layout highlights your work experience by listing your previous roles from the most recent to the earliest. It allows employers to quickly see your job progression and responsibilities, making it the go-to option for most industries.

Although the functional format may be a good fit for individuals whose skill set is more critical than their work history, it is less favored by hiring officials. This approach prioritizes abilities over specific job titles, which can be useful if your hands-on skills outweigh the number of years you've been working in the field. However, given the current job market, we strongly recommend the reverse chronological format, and most of our resume examples reflect this style.

Include your contact information

Your housekeeping resume needs several pieces of information, but most important of all is your contact information. Imagine applying for several jobs and employers have no way to contact you for an interview!

Make sure your housekeeping resume includes

• Name and target position. Include your first and last name along with the specific housekeeping position you are applying for.
• Email address. Use a straightforward email format, like firstname.lastname@email.com.
• Contact number. Provide a dependable phone number so employers can easily reach you.
• Location. Mention only your city and state—no need to include your complete address. If you are open to relocating, indicate "Willing to Relocate."
• LinkedIn profile. Add your LinkedIn profile if it is current and applicable to the job

 Don’t include:

• Date of birth. Leave this out to prevent potential age discrimination.
• Personal details. Leave out marital status, social security number, or passport information.
• Headshot. Photos can introduce bias, so skip adding a picture.

Create a strong resume summary

As a housekeeper, your whole job is about presentation. It’s important that your resume also conveys this commitment to professionalism and organization—starting with your resume summary. The summary serves as your first introduction to a hotel manager looking for the right candidate. This is a great place to show employers that you are a well-rounded candidate with grit and a positive attitude.

You can write a top-notch profile summary by thinking of your strongest attributes and using those to describe yourself. Then add a few more lines to summarize your previous experience and skills. This is also a great place to include any standout qualities you possess. Maybe you were recognized for leadership or efficiency at your previous job. Maybe you have experience in ordering supplies or another special task. This is the perfect opportunity to prove your worth to a potential employer.

Avoid cliches and overused buzzwords like “team player” or “go-getter.” Instead, describe a situation where you used those attributes to the benefit of your employer.

You can find example housekeeping resume summaries below:

Outline your housekeeping work experience: wipe the floor with your competition

It’s best to list your experience in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first, working backward until you have at least three relevant examples. Remember that you should not only list your past jobs but also provide details and context when possible.

For each job on your resume, use bullet points to clearly outline your contributions. Select strong, action-oriented verbs such as organized, cleaned, inspected, maintained, and improved.

Instead of simply listing tasks, emphasize specific accomplishments and the positive effects you had on the hotel or facility. Replace general descriptions with concrete outcomes that highlight your work, such as enhanced room cleanliness, increased guest satisfaction scores, or improved turnaround times.

Numbers are a great way to add weight to your words. Some possibilities include: How many rooms did you clean on a typical shift? How large was the hotel? How big was the staff you managed? How many stars did the hotel have? All of these figures give employers the sense that you’re not afraid of a challenge and you strive for excellence in your work.  

Basically, focus on how your efforts made a difference to showcase your value.

• “Recognized for maintaining an impeccable work environment and achieving 100% customer satisfaction for five consecutive years.”

How to write a housekeeping resume with no experience

If you have yet to work as a housekeeper, don’t worry. Related activities can also show your physical stamina and commitment to service. Here are a few ways you can still appeal to hiring managers without no housekeeping experience:

• Focus on transferable skills that demonstrate your reliability and work ethic. Highlight your attention to detail, time management, and organizational abilities.
• Include any relevant volunteer work, internships, or even personal experiences where you've maintained cleanliness or organized spaces.
• Emphasize soft skills like communication and teamwork, which are vital in housekeeping roles. Use a clean, professional format to present your information clearly.

These tactics will help you stand out, even without direct experience.

Include the relevant key skills to qualify for housekeeping roles

Chances are if you’ve ever made a bed or picked up the living room, you already have some of the skills needed to be a successful housekeeper. In fact, you may have no previous housekeeping experience, but with the right mix of hard and soft skills you’ll be able to ace your training and ease into the job in no time. On your resume, it’s important to highlight both these types of skills to give employers a well-rounded impression of you and your work style.

Hard skills are ones requiring objects, tools, exact knowledge or materials. In the day-to-day, you’ll need a fair amount of hard skills to clean rooms and other spaces. Think about the categories of work you do and the types of tools you are comfortable using. Then list out all the hard skills you possess. Later, you can remove any skills that are too niche, unless, of course, you think that skill will be hard for an employer to come by in other candidates.

Soft skills are almost equally important for housekeepers. You’ll need to work well in a team and have excellent organizational and time management skills. You’ll also need to have good customer service skills, taking care of problems correctly and immediately when guests bring them to your attention. A housekeeper with all of the hard skills but none of the soft ones won’t last long in any hotel. 

Remember that the skills section is generally not too large, so don’t bloat your resume without necessity. Consider how much free space you have left on the page, how important each skill is and how important it may be to an employer or manager.

Here’s what the skills box looks like in our housekeeping resume template. 

Detail your education & relevant housekeeping certifications

Housekeeping is a great entry-level job for people without a college degree or formal education. While no official education is required, most hotels prefer housekeepers who have finished high school. You can include your high school by adding the dates attended, name of the school and its location, in that order.

Most housekeepers learn the majority of their skills through on-the-job training led by the head housekeeper. Since the education section is not the most important part of your resume as a housekeeper, it’s best to keep it short, unless you have specific qualifications relating to the job.

If you want to level up your career, having an additional certification on your resume can't hurt. The American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute offers, for example, the Certified Hospitality Housekeeping Executive designation which includes training on housekeeping, financial management, leadership, and human resources. The designation also requires a timed exam.

Pick the right resume layout and design for your housekeeping resume

Remember, your job as a housekeeper is all about being neat and orderly. Those standards should extend all the way to your resume layout. A busy hotel manager needs to quickly assess your skills and experience, and they won’t be able to do that with a nonsensical layout.

For a housekeeping job, a straightforward resume layout is the way to go, and it’s best to avoid unnecessary color or pictures. A PDF is the best file format to make sure your formatting stays consistent between computers or on paper.

With our field-tested templates, you can take the frustration out of constructing a resume and land an interview in no time. For a housekeeping position, we recommend resumes in the Simple category for a clean feel with no frilly extras.

Housekeeping text-only resume example

Housekeeping job market and outlook

According to ONET, an American work statistics database, the need for housekeepers will grow 1% to 2% over the coming decade. While this might seem like bad news, the reality is that good and capable housekeepers are always in demand. The high turnover rate among hotel staff will continue to be an issue, and that means there’s always a spot opening up for you—if you have the right resume to land the job.

What type of salary you can expect in housekeeping

Housekeepers are paid hourly but also depend on tips from guests. Bigger and fancier hotels mean bigger salaries and better tips. They also mean more work and responsibility when it comes to making rooms shine.

According to a recent article from US News, maids and housekeepers made a median salary of $29,960 in 2022. The best-paid 25% made $35,480 that year, while the lowest-paid 25% made $26,510. 

Key takeaways for a housekeeping resume

Creating a compelling housekeeping resume is essential for standing out in the hospitality industry. Focus on emphasizing your unique skills, even if you lack direct experience, by highlighting relevant abilities like attention to detail, organization, and time management. Use strong action verbs to describe your contributions and consider quantifying your achievements where possible. Tailor your resume to each job application, ensuring it's optimized for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). 

If you're ready for your next housekeeping role, use our proven templates and custom resume builder tool to create a fresh and clean resume that will land you the job.