Office and Administrative Support · Holland code CSE

Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks

Accommodate hotel, motel, and resort patrons by registering and assigning rooms to guests, issuing room keys or cards, transmitting and receiving messages, keeping records of occupied rooms and guests' accounts, making and confirming reservations, and presenting statements to and collecting payments from departing guests.

Also called: Front Desk Agent, Front Desk Clerk, Guest Service Representative (GSR), Guest Services Agent (GSA), Desk Clerk, Front Desk Associate, Front Desk Attendant, Front Desk Receptionist.

O*NET 43-4081.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $35,070; Middle half earn $29,810 to $38,100. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED); 75% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 2 of 5; Some preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Make and confirm reservations.
Greet, register, and assign rooms to guests of hotels or motels.
Verify customers' credit, and establish how the customer will pay for the accommodation.
Post charges, such as those for rooms, food, liquor, or telephone calls, to ledgers, manually or by using computers.
Issue room keys and escort instructions to bellhops.
Advise housekeeping staff when rooms have been vacated and are ready for cleaning.
Transmit and receive messages, using telephones or telephone switchboards.
Record guest comments or complaints, referring customers to managers as necessary.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Speaking3.8 / 5
Active Listening3.4 / 5
Reading Comprehension3.0 / 5
Monitoring3.0 / 5
Writing2.9 / 5
Critical Thinking2.9 / 5

Knowledge areas

Customer and Personal Service4.3 / 5
English Language4.2 / 5
Public Safety and Security3.7 / 5
Administrative3.6 / 5
Computers and Electronics3.4 / 5
Administration and Management3.2 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic27
Investigative0
Artistic6
Social58
Enterprising47
Conventional79

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

hospitality establishment receptionist · DE Empfangsmitarbeiter in einem Beherbergungsbetrieb/Empfangsmitarbeiterin in einem Beherbergungsbetrieb · FR réceptionniste d’établissement hôtelier
night auditor · DE Nachtempfangsleiter/Nachtempfangsleiterin · FR veilleur de nuit/veilleuse de nuit
receptionist · DE Empfangssekretär/Empfangssekretärin · FR réceptionniste
hotel concierge · DE Hotelpförtner/Hotelpförtnerin · FR concierge d’hôtel

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Receptionists (4216)149,000 employed
Records clerks and assistants (4131)157,400 employed
Local government administrative occupations (4112)156,600 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Clerical support workers”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Clerical support workers, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€40,035
Austria	€38,296
Germany	€37,844
Netherlands	€35,854
Sweden	€33,483
Ireland	€32,144
Italy	€29,311
France	€25,943
Spain	€22,026
Portugal	€12,602
Poland	€10,250

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +0.61. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (43-4081).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test