10 Free Hospitality Certifications
We’ve created a list of free hospitality certifications to help advance the skills of your team, both new hires, and seasoned crews. Some courses will drill down the steps to providing excellent guest service, primary duties of key hotel departments, the importance of teamwork in the hospitality industry, and more. Scroll down to learn more.
1. Guest Service in Hospitality and Tourism
Guest service is one of the most crucial skills in the hospitality industry. How your team serves their customers will determine whether they return for another visit or warn their friends to avoid your place in the future. EdApp’s Guest Service in Hospitality and Tourism will walk your team through the critical components of excellent guest service and why it's crucial not only for business but also for their career. It will also show them the ropes of greeting a guest in a hotel or restaurant and how good social skills will help secure a great and lasting first impression. The last part of this customer service course will focus on the most common customer complaints in this industry alongside tips on how to deal with them.
EdApp’s seamless integration with the scheduling system Deputy can help you deliver and allocate this training straight to your team’s smartphones. You can even set courses as prerequisites before your crew can be scheduled for shifts. Through this automated training delivery, you’ll spend less time creating and managing your training and focus on more important tasks.
Length: 5-10 minutes per lesson, 4 lessons
Certification: Free
Scope: Guest service skills and importance, ways to greet guests, responding to guest complaints
Created by EdApp
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2. Guest Experiences
The competition in the hospitality industry is undoubtedly fierce, and one of the best ways to survive on this battlefield is by creating a brand with a great guest experience. EdApp’s Guest Experiences contains helpful tips on how to deliver good customer service, which include smiling, breaking the ice, and reading the moods of guests. What’s great about this hospitality training course is that it uses animated examples to help your crew better understand and remember these techniques. Ways to personalize a guest experience and ensure consistent service are also discussed in detail, all of which are vital in turning guests into “regulars” and securing long-term business relationships with them. The last part of this course sheds light on the most common customer issues and how to anticipate and avoid them in the future.
Similar to other EdApp courses, this free hospitality certification comes fully editable. Feel free to use its authoring tool to edit this course’s content and add tips and strategies that are unique to your business. Customize the certificate and include your logo to match your organization’s look and branding.
Length: 5-10 minutes per lesson, 4 lessons
Certification: Free
Scope: Components of good guest experiences, personalized guest experiences, serving with consistency, managing customer issues
Created by EdApp
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3. Demand management: Breaking down today’s commercial silos
This free hospitality certification by Coursera is geared towards breaking down commercial silos, making sure that the information and resources flow freely across your organization. It covers topics such as asset management, a marketing strategy called demand generation, and revenue management. Your crew will get to explore key factors that will secure your hotel’s success in such a competitive marketplace. With the rapid rise of technology trends today, this course will also guide your team through the importance of online marketing in building their presence in the digital world. Coursera offers flexible deadlines for this hotel certification course and it can be taken anytime and anywhere.
Length: Approximately 14 hours
Certification: Free
Scope: Asset management, demand generation, revenue management
Created by Coursera
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4. Hotel Management Course
If you’re looking for a free hospitality certification for your entry-level workers, Brentwood’s Hotel Management Course is a good option. This course delves into the basics of hotel management and the primary duties of key hotel departments. It will also introduce your team to the basics of front office operations and housekeeping. There are no deadlines and time restrictions – learners are in charge of their learning schedule. This hotel management course is completely free to take and certificates are available for a small fee.
Length: Approximately 20 hours
Certification: Paid
Scope: Basics of hotel management, key hotel departments, front office operations, housekeeping
Created by Brentwood
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5. Teamwork in the Hospitality Industry
Teamwork, without any speck of doubt, is essential to the success of every hospitality business. The combined efforts of your team will bring your hotel’s guest service to the next level, and that will give your business a healthier bottom line. EdApp’s Teamwork in the Hospitality Industry highlights the role of teamwork in the hospitality industry, how it looks in practice, and how your team can benefit from it, both personally and professionally. The course discusses the important aspects of verbal and non-verbal communication, and why this skill is particularly vital in building healthy relationships with their team. To ensure higher learning retention, this free hospitality certification contains real-world scenarios where teamwork can be applied, alongside some tips to improve each situation.
Embracing the mobile learning technology, all EdApp courses have been designed to perfectly respond to smartphones. This gives learners the flexibility to take their courses on the go or between their breaks, anytime and anywhere they prefer.
Length: 5-10 minutes per lesson, 4 lessons
Certification: Free
Scope: Importance of teamwork in hospitality, teamwork in practice, effective communication
Created by EdApp
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6. Cleaning and Sanitizing in Hospitality
According to studies, 92% percent of customers are more likely to recommend a hotel or restaurant to their peers if the place is clean with excellent hygienic practices. Nearly 74% of these consumers even agree that they can tolerate slow services as long as the establishment is clean. With that in mind, EdApp has put together this cleaning training course to provide your team with all the information needed to secure cleanliness in your hotel or restaurant. It discusses the best practices in servicing restrooms and cleaning dining locations and other public service areas, like lobbies, corridors, walkways, and waiting rooms. By the end of this course, learners will get to explore the difference between cleaning and sanitizing, and also proper disinfection and cleaning techniques.
A gamified quiz is ready by the end of the course to test the understanding of your hoteliers. Enable EdApp’s gamification features like Star Bar and Leaderboard to foster healthy competition among your team.
Length: 5-10 minutes per lesson, 6 lessons
Certification: Free
Scope: Servicing restrooms, dining areas, and public areas, difference between cleaning and sanitizing
Created by EdApp
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7. Luxury Management
This edX-hosted free hospitality certification was created by industry experts from the Hongkong Polytechnic University, and it’s geared towards teams that are managing luxury brands within the hospitality industry. It unpacks the essence of luxury brand management as well as the skills and strategies needed to thrive in this sector. Your team will get to explore expert marketing techniques and long-term trends in the luxury industry that will help put your brand at the forefront of the competition. It will also go over some of the widespread problems within the sector alongside strategies to overcome them. This hospitality management training program is free, but to get the most out of it, learners should have basic hospitality experience.
Length: Approximately 8 weeks
Certification: Paid
Scope: Essence of luxury brand management, marketing techniques and long-term trends in the luxury industry, luxury brand problems within the hotel context
Created by edX
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8. Hotel Management
Oxford Home Study Centre’s Hotel Management is an introductory course engineered by renowned academics and experts in this field. It discusses the basics of hotel management, which is perfect for onboarding new hires. There’s also a comprehensive rundown of the function of front desk operations, as well as the responsibilities of the housekeeping department. Enrolling in this free hospitality certification course comes with study aids and learning materials. It also supports self-paced learning, allowing your team to decide when and where they want to take and complete their training.
Length: Approximately 20 hours
Certification: Paid
Scope: Introduction to hotel management, front desk operations, responsibilities of the housekeeping department
Created by Oxford Home Study Centre
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9. English for Tourism
Alison’s English for Tourism course is more than just a language course. It’s intended to help hotel receptionists and front desk workers in improving their communication skills and ensuring that they leave a positive impression on their guests. In this course, they will learn how to greet their guests respectfully, give them directions, and provide them with help whenever needed. It will go over some helpful conversational techniques especially when answering hotel inquiries and checking a guest in and out of the hotel. Steps to handle and resolve complaints will be discussed as well. This program is free, but a small fee will be needed should you wish to avail a shareable certificate.
Length: 1.5-3 hours
Certification: Paid
Scope: Improving English and communication skills, greeting guests, providing help as needed, conversational techniques, resolving complaints
Created by Alison
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10. The Art of Bussing
If you’re also handling a team of bussers for your hotel restaurant, then you might want to give them this course from EdApp to enhance their skills and ensure the best service to your guests. Here, they’ll learn everything about the role and responsibilities of a busser, which includes folding the napkins, pre-bussing tables, clearing tables, carrying plates, and more. It goes through ways on how to read a guest's mood, which, once mastered, can help your bussers provide exceptional guest service. Lessons on how to clear tables professionally and clean dishes and utensils are included as well. Toward the end of this course, your learners will be provided with a quick quiz to check how much they’ve learned and remembered from their training.
This free hospitality certification follows a microlearning design model. Lessons are structured in bite sizes that your crew can finish in just about 5-10 minutes. This microlearning course is also more concise and targeted, ensuring higher learner engagement and increased knowledge retention.
Length: 5-10 minutes per lesson, 5 lessons
Certification: Free
Scope: Busser’s role and responsibilities, how to read and interact with guests, how to clear tables, dishwashing responsibilities
Created by EdApp
Explore the courseAdvancing career in hospitality with free hospitality certifications
The hospitality industry is, without any doubt, one of the most competitive and dynamic sectors in the world. Considering the constant and rapid changes in hotel trends and technological developments, your hoteliers must gain a leg up in order to survive and thrive in this industry. Whether you have a new crew or a pool of seasoned hoteliers, you can benefit from free hospitality certificates to help them develop their skill set and stay current with the industry trends. Take a look at the programs we’ve listed above to find the best training that will help them advance their skills and remain competitive in the growing hospitality industry.