Working with the public is hard. Sometimes it’s easy to greet people and get them seated quickly, but when the restaurant is full, you have an hour-long wait list and a line of hungry people in front of you, and hosting gets tricky. It’s usually said that being a host or hostess in a restaurant is the easiest job. However if people knew what it really entailed, they would praise you for your ability to stay calm with all the chaos happening around you.
1. Some people are incredibly picky.
Sometimes you have a couple walk into your restaurant and say, “We want this table right here,” and there is no way in heck you’re going to get them to sit anywhere else. The staff may hate you for it but “the customer is always right.”
2. Some people have no idea what the heck they want.
On the flip side, some people have no clue what they’re coming for. The restaurant I used to work in was both a dining restaurant and a cocktail lounge; so when I asked people if they were coming for cocktails or dinner – in order to seat them accordingly – some would literally look at each other and go, “Uhhh, we don’t know.”
3. Some like to eat and get out.
This is every host’s dream. The people that come in, enjoy their food and drinks, and leave. They don’t dillydally and they allow us to turn tables quickly to get more people in. We love these people.
4. Other people stay for hours and hours and hours.
It’s easy to assume that big groups of 20 people are going to stay a long time. But to the couple that sits at their table for four hours, what are you doing?! You stopped eating two hours ago! Go dancing, go to a bar, get a room! Please, leave so we can seat more guests.
5. 'Table Hopping' is a thing.
Nothing is more frustrating than when you take a group to their table and ask them if this table is OK and they rave, “Oh, yes, it’s great!” so you tell their server they’ve been seated, only to find out that the minute you were out of sight, they got up and moved to another table. If you didn’t like where you were sitting, why didn’t you say anything when I asked you?!
6. Servers will always complain about their tables…until they get an awesome tip.
I can’t even begin to explain how many times this happened at the restaurant I used to work in. Every time I gave a server a table, they’d come back and complain that they were annoying or that they had an accent and were hard to understand or that they were extremely picky. Yet, when that big tip came, there was no 'Thank you.' Just that big 'ol check waving in your face.
7.Nobody understands that your job actually involves some thought.
Seating guests takes strategy. You have to keep the flow even for the servers. For example, don’t give this server three tables back-to-back without giving this server any. And if, for whatever reason, that happens, you’ll hear about it.
8. This restaurant would go down in flames without you.
Amongst all the chaos, it’s hard to remember that this ship would sink without you. If you weren’t there to make sure that the tables were spread evenly or to hold people on the wait list, these servers would crash and burn. Most of the time they won’t thank you for doing this, but you should never forget how important your role is.
