Banquet manager duties, week by week

What the role is

The banquet manager makes the event order happen. Sales or catering writes the order; the banquet manager turns it into a room, a crew and a plan, and answers for how it runs. They work between four groups: sales and catering (what was sold), the kitchen (what is cooked and when), setup (the room) and the floor team (captains, servers, bartenders, bussers).

Titles vary by hotel. In some properties the banquet manager reports to a director of banquets; in others one person holds both jobs, or an assistant banquet manager covers the floor while the manager does the office work. Read your own job description before comparing it with anyone else's.

The week, step by step

The paperwork load

Behind every week sits a stack of documents the manager builds: the Daily Event Sheet for each day, event packets with the pages each server carries, buffet labels, and the staff schedule. Much of it is the same information from the event orders, typed again in a different shape, and every change after printing means doing some of it twice. Naming this honestly is the first step to deciding what to keep doing by hand.

People

• Fair shift filling. Crews change with every order, so the manager needs a way to offer shifts that people trust.
• Bilingual teams. If your banquet team works in English and Spanish, staff do better when schedules, tasks and allergen words reach them in the language they read.
• Captains. Decide how much a captain may do: tick tasks, also assign people, or also change counts and times. Be explicit; it prevents arguments on a busy night.

Job description template (copy and edit)

Banquet Manager

Purpose: Lead banquet service and staffing for all functions, so that every event runs as the event order says.

Reports to: Director of Banquets (or the title your hotel uses).

Responsibilities

• Review each event order and confirm room, times, counts, service style, menu and special requirements with sales and catering.

• Set staffing for each function from the guarantee and the hotel's staffing guidelines.

• Build, publish and adjust the staff schedule; manage open shifts and on-call lists fairly and consistently.

• Run pre-shift line-ups and walk rooms before doors with the captains.

• Handle changes to counts, times and rooms, and make sure reprinted paperwork reaches the right people.

• Coordinate with the kitchen on timing, dietary requests and allergen questions; never guess an allergen answer.

• Review hours and flags before they reach payroll, and record the reason when a rule is overridden.

• Train, coach and, where needed, discipline banquet staff in line with hotel policy.

Requirements: Hotel or event banquet experience; comfort reading event orders; ability to lead a team through long, changing days; bilingual English and Spanish a plus. Follow your hotel's safety training and policies.

Add pay, schedule and location in your own posting. This template has no salary and does not describe any specific employer.

Interview questions

1. Walk me through how you would staff a plated dinner for 180 from a new event order.
2. The guarantee drops by 25 the afternoon before. What do you change, and who do you tell?
3. How do you decide who gets offered an open shift, and how do you explain it to the person who was skipped?
4. A guest tells a server they have a nut allergy. What happens next?
5. Two functions start in the same hour and you are short two servers. What do you do?

Where Hotelwright fits

Hotelwright makes the paperwork from the event orders you already get: it reads the PDFs your booking system prints and builds the Daily Event Sheet, packets and buffet labels. On the Team plan it also works out crews from your own ratios and builds the schedule. It doesn't write event orders and doesn't replace your sales system. See the home page for the two plans, Paperwork and Team, and a 14-day trial with no card.