Housekeeping Resume Example & Writing Guide

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. 

Housekeeping can make great full-time and readily available work for people without a college degree. While housekeeping can be physically demanding, the job allows for a team spirit, and housekeepers take pride in the cleanliness and presentability of the places they clean. Housekeepers are most commonly associated with hotels, although some work in hospitals, private homes and other buildings. Cleaning staff in these situations are also referred to as custodians and janitors. These positions fall into the maintenance and repair category. 

How to write a housekeeping resume

So to get on your way to landing a job as a housekeeper, you need to start with a great resume. This guide, along with our resume builder tool and field-tested templates, will allow you to:

• Highlight your stamina and personal qualities that make you a good fit for the job
• Create a clean and straightforward resume that stands out to a hotel manager
• Convey your trustworthiness and ability to work in a team
• Craft a resume that meets the demands of today’s hotels and offices.

Nanny & housekeeper

Cleaner & housekeeper

What does a housekeeper do? 

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., that means 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, emphasize your ability to stay organized and efficient.

New housekeepers often time themselves to find out their average speed for tidying, cleaning and reorganizing each room and then work to cut down that time. A typical checkout requires a housekeeper to strip and remake the bed, clean the bathroom toilet, sink, floor and shower, vacuum the carpet and replenish the minibar, toiletries, towels and other amenities.

Housekeepers are paid hourly but also depend on tips from guests. While a fancier hotel may require extra attention to detail, housekeepers generally earn more in these situations. The right resume can give you a boost in landing a higher-paying hotel.

Turnover rate

As in many industries involving cleaning or service, the turnover rate for housekeepers is very high – even as high as 30 percent! That means that many newly employed staff are leaving their positions almost as soon as they are hired. This is a big headache for hotel operators who must pay all the costs associated with hiring and training new candidates. That’s why when it comes to writing a resume for a housekeeping position, motivation and grit are key. Some hotel managers even prefer to hire people with less professional experience but with the right personality traits. They know that a good work environment coupled with a strong work ethic is the right recipe for reducing the high turnover rate.

Job growth

According to ONET, an American work statistics database, the need for housekeepers will decline by about 2 percent 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. Let’s take a look at how to build your resume:

Profile summary resume example: Wipe away the competition

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 profile summary. The summary serves as your first introduction to a hotel manager looking for the right candidate who won’t jump ship the first week. 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 a great way to prove your worth to a potential employer.

Housekeeper employment history resume example: Getting down to business

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. If you have yet to work as a housekeeper, related activities can also show your commitment to service and physical stamina. Remember that you should not only list your past jobs, but also provide details and context when possible. That’s what the short bullet-point list beneath each position is for. It’s also important to use specific action verbs to convey the type of work you did, whether it was as a housekeeper or in a related role.

Instead of:

• Cleaned rooms
• Took care of bathrooms
• Picked up trash
• Checked amenities.

Try:

• Vacuumed and scrubbed floors
• Wiped and sanitized bathrooms
• Collected and emptied trash
• Ordered and restocked supplies.

Numbers are also 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.

Education resume sample: Polished and ready to go

Housekeeping is a great entry-level job for people without a college degree or formal education, since most of the work takes place during the day and indoors. Plus, housekeepers boost their earnings through customer tips, which increase with the quality of the hotel. 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 this 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.

Additional certifications

Bigger and fancier hotels mean bigger salaries and better tips. They also mean more work and responsibility when it comes to making rooms shine. If you’re looking to level up your career, it can’t hurt to have an additional certification on your resume. 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. Whatever organization you decide to work with, a boosted education section could be the key to landing a superior housekeeping role.

Housekeeping skills resume example: Your personal touches

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

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

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.

Languages

Depending on the region where you work, many housekeepers are bilingual or speak a language other than the predominant one. Hotels will assume you have a basic knowledge of the area in which you intend to work, but other language skills may be a bonus when dealing with the rest of the staff. In fact, at many hotels in the U.S. the lead housekeeper is bilingual, allowing him or her to train the rest of the staff no matter what language they speak.

Resume/CV layout: Fresh and clean

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. With resume.io’s 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.

You may be dropping off a printed resume in person, or you may email it to a hotel manager ahead of time. Either way, a PDF is the best file format to make sure your formatting stays consistent between computers or on paper. Resume.io’s resume builder makes it easy to add your details, customize the template and download as a PDF in just a few clicks. If you want an editable Word file version, we have that too. Resume.io offers multi-format resume saving functions!

Key takeaways

• While the need for housekeeping staff is overall in decline, there are many jobs available for housekeepers with grit and efficiency.
• Don’t forget about your soft skills like time management and organization since these are just as important as your cleaning know-how.
• Reliability is a key trait to make your resume standout to employers suffering from the industry’s high-turnover rate.
• Working in a higher level hotel or as a head housekeeper can come with a salary boost, but your resume will need to show a dedication to housekeeping to land one of those positions.

Now it’s your turn to craft the perfect resume! If you need a little help getting started, check out resume.io’s field-tested cv templates and resume builder tool to land the housekeeping job you’re after in no time.