15 Must Ask Questions When Hiring for Hotel Front Desk Staff

Hiring for a Hotel front desk staff is an important task. This is the first impression of your hotel guest. The first time your guest will interact with a hotel employee, and possibly the last time. Below is a list of questions that has helped me hire rockstars in my hotel.

Question 1 — What are your strengths and weaknesses?

This is a no-brainer. We as humans are hard wired to be our own biggest critics. Hence it’s a great way to get a potential employee start to tell you what they’re good at and what they’re not good at. Since you’re hiring for a customer facing role it’s important to have the right people in place who display the strengths required to man that front desk. I usually don’t focus too much on the weaknesses unless they mention something which is glaringly a no-­no for this position.

Question 2— What makes your really angry?

This is a question that does not get asked very often. Here you’re trying illicit a response and see how your candidate responds to these candid questions. We all get angry in certain situations, it’s in our genes. How we deal with it is the important part. LISTEN to their response to this question. Do they get angry on really trivial things? How will they adopt to this front desk role where they have to deal with rude guests and/or employees.

Question 3— What makes you really happy?

It’s important to stay Happy. We all want to be happy all the time. But it’s equally important to know what makes us happy so we can do more of that in our lives. This is a question not just for your front desk agents but ask this to yourself. Are you doing something day in and day out that is making you happy?

Question 4— What are you grateful for?

There is no right or wrong answer here. We’re all grateful for different things. I look for people who’re grateful for the smaller finer things in life. Because I know that if someone can appreciate it then they’ll appreciate the small compliments they receive by the guests or a small pat on the back.

Question 5— What drew you to work in customer service?

You want to make sure that you’re not just a pit­stop in someone else’s journey. The key to retaining great employees is to hire great employees. If you go with the “promote from within” mantra you will make sure that you’re only hiring ROCKSTARS. Don’t hire just for the sake of filling a position. Hire with the goal to nurture this person so they can be tomorrow where you are today.

Question 6— Why should we choose you over someone else?

This one is my personal favorite. Isn’t it true that when you have a job opening there are literally 100’s of people applying for that one job. Which means competition is tough and these candidates better bring their A Game. They need to sell themselves and prove that they’re the right fit for the job. Some of the answers I would look for here are:

“You should hire me because of my extensive customer service experience and the ability to anticipate guest needs” or “because I’m a self starter, I work well with teams and individually and love interacting with guests” etc.

Question 7 — What is your approach to customer service?

This is a good way to gauge an individual’s approach towards customer service. What is THEIR definition of customer service. Is it just doing what is asked of them by their customers? Or is it going above and beyond to meet and exceed customer expectations?

Question 8— What are your long term goals?

This goes back to the question about what first drew you to work in customer service. You’re looking for someone who can grow in their role.

Remember the quote “If you’re not growing, you’re dying”.

Lack of growth leads to complacency in life. We should all be striving towards growth in our personal and professional lives.

Question 9— Have you encountered a scenario where you dealt with a really upset customer? How did you handle that situation?

Isn’t this what happens all the time in our industry? It’s important to know how individuals will handle these situations. Even though the guest is not ALWAYS right; we can make them believe that they are. It’s all about body language and message delivery. We’re not looking to put the blame here back on the guest or tell them they’re wrong and we’re right. A calm and composed individual should be able to handle/diffuse any situation.

Question 10— Describe an experience where you received positive (or negative) feedback from a customer?

Remember, you’re looking for a rockstar. Candidates who have already received a slew of positive comments are excellent for this position. On the flip side keep an eye out for poachers. Sometimes area hotels will send their A performers with a story why their quitting their current job. You don’t want to hire someone just so they can access your guest list and then hand it to your competitor.

Question 11 — Share a story when you encountered a problem and how you resolved it?

Pretty self­ explanatory. See what kind of situations this potential candidate has been in. If s/he say they can’t think of any it’s a red flag. They could either be nervous, which is fine or they didn’t prepare for the interview in advance (which should not be acceptable). Your time is just as important as theirs and if they do not have the courtesy to prepare for some questions in advance they obviously don’t care too much about the position.

Question 12 — Describe an experience where you had to empathize with a customer’s situation?

So this one is a little different from the previous question. Here we’re specifically looking for empathy! We’re in the customer service business and our guests are more often than not just looking for some empathy. They want to be understood from someone who can stand in their shoes and feel what they’re feeling.

Question 13 — Customer service reps should also be problem solvers. Give your candidate a problem to solve and see how s/he responds?

My fellow managers if you can relate with me, give me an AMEN! We have all been in this situation where we were the only desk agent on shift. Law and behold we get that guest who’s WiFi is not working or their room wasn’t cleaned or whatever. It’s important to know if you’re hiring someone who have that problem solving nature. We don’t always know the answer to every problem our guest is going to encounter. But it’s all about handling their problem, acknowledging and empathizing with them and then proposing a solution. For example “ Sorry to hear Mr. Smith that your bed was not made today. It’s 8pm now and our housekeepers are gone for the day. However, I know this is totally our fault. Let me see if one of your neighboring room is vacant if you don’t mind using that for tonight? Or allow me to take 25% off tonight’s room rate and I will personally make sure your room gets cleaned 1st thing tomorrow morning? Or Would it be okay if I brought you some fresh sheets and towels and then schedule you for a deep cleaning 1st thing tomorrow morning?

Question 14 — Sometimes guests will ask to speak with a manager. If you’re the only person on duty what would you tell the guest?

We are looking to see if this potential candidate is a self­ motivated person to take action and diffuse situations instead of escalating everything to their next in line. Of course there will be times when you need to involve your supervisor but most situations can be handled on the ground level by just listening to the guest needs/wants. In order for your staff to handle these situations on their own you want to empower them with the decision making process. Maybe create a checklist of discounts they can offer or actions they can take based on the guest situation. If you define a clear order of hierarchy there will be no confusion for either the guest or your staff.

Question 15 — Who is your favorite superhero? Why?

So, why not have some fun with your interview? Throw a curveball and see how your candidate responds. If they have a great sense of humor it means that they’ll be able to make your guests smile during check­in. And those are the guests who will give you a 5/5 on your guest satisfaction scores.

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