Occupation
Restaurant host
Hosts manage the door and the seating plan: taking bookings, greeting guests, and deciding which table goes where and when. The role keeps service flowing by balancing walk-ins, reservations, and how loaded each server's section is. It is the first and last impression most guests get of a venue.
Also known as: Host · Hostess · Front of house host · Greeter
Occupation content
Part of Hospitality, travel and tourism
What the work involves
- Take reservations by phone and through the booking system and confirm details.
- Greet arrivals, manage the waitlist, and seat guests against the floor plan.
- Balance seating across server sections so no one station is swamped.
- Explain waiting times honestly and keep waiting guests informed.
- Handle menus, high chairs, accessibility needs, and special-occasion requests.
- Answer general enquiries and pass complaints to a supervisor.
How people commonly enter
- Direct entry with on-the-job training on the booking system and floor plan.
- Transferring in from another guest-facing role such as retail or a call centre.
- A college certificate in hospitality or food and beverage service.
Typical training: Short course or on-the-job training
Licensing: Not typically licensed
Typical work context
Public facing · Fast paced · Shift work · Team based
Related interests
Social (helping) · Conventional (organizing) · Enterprising (leading)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
- Customer-service judgment
- Planning and scheduling exercises
- Attention and concentration
- Situational judgment
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Hospitality, travel and tourism.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- Canada Job Bank — career planning and occupation search (hosts and hostesses) · Canada
Link checked
- US BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Food and Beverage Serving and Related Workers · United States
Link checked
- O*NET OnLine — occupation quick search: hosts and hostesses restaurant · International
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Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Hospitality, travel and tourism in Canada, not a figure for Restaurant host. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Hospitality, travel and tourism family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Hospitality, travel and tourism: education pathways
Some roles in Hospitality, travel and tourism may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Hospitality, travel and tourism: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Restaurant host”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)