The UK-based Caterer online platform is one of the fastest-growing hospitality job platforms. It is ideal for employers and candidates operating in this part of the world or looking to do so in the near future. In this article, you will learn much more about how to get the most from the service, regardless of whether you are hiring or seeking work.

Table of Contents:

What is Caterer?

Caterer is an online job board focusing on the hospitality industry, including hotels, restaurants, pubs, bars, and food service companies. The platform uses targeted technology to improve both the efficiency and accuracy of your job search while offering employers a range of tools to find the best candidates.

About Caterer

The Caterer platform is owned by Totaljobs Group Ltd, which also owns several similar platforms, including Jobsite and CWJobs. The Caterer service is based in the United Kingdom, with three main offices spread across the country, and it provides access to thousands of job advertisements at any given time.

What Kind of Jobs Does Caterer Offer?

Caterer can offer jobs from across the hospitality industry, including hotel, restaurant, cafe, and bar jobs, from small, medium, and large companies. These jobs range from front of the house, hotel reception, kitchen assistant, and bar jobs to hotel management jobs and other leadership roles. The focus area for these jobs and the employers offering them is the United Kingdom.

Food and Beverage Positions

The food and beverage department is one of the most critical departments in most hotels, and there are a variety of F&B jobs advertised on the Caterer service. These range from kitchen and bar management, well-paid senior roles, to service-related roles, like the waiting staff.

Service roles are generally considered entry-level positions, so there are unlikely to be significant demands for qualifications. Managerial positions are high-pressure roles suited to those with plenty of experience. Various jobs on the platform are linked to food and beverage preparation, such as chefs, cooks, and bartenders.

Marketing and Reservations Jobs

While the Caterer platform is most commonly associated with jobs linked to food and beverages, the platform is extremely diverse and offers highly specialized jobs. For example, there may be jobs within the reservations department, which handles customer reservations and maintains occupancy records.

Beyond this, there are also hotel jobs linked to marketing and communications. Marketing professionals are responsible for creating and implementing marketing strategies, including advertising, content marketing, and social media marketing. Communications staff, meanwhile, may deal with press releases or public relations.

Tips for Candidates Looking for a New Job in Hospitality

Below, you will find four tips intended to help you get the most from the Caterer platform.

Tip 1: Create a Free Account and Complete Your Caterer Candidate Profile

The first step in finding a hospitality job using Caterer is to create a free account and complete your candidate profile. This allows you to search for and apply for jobs on the website, but also allows you to access additional features, such as targeted job alerts and saved jobs or saved job searches.

You will also have the option to upload your CV or resume, which can then be accessed by employers who are using the service. Doing this will encourage employers to approach you if they feel you are well-suited to a role they are looking to fill, and it also serves to make future job applications much more efficient.

Tip 2: Realize the Full Potential of Caterer’s Job Search Features

When it comes to finding suitable jobs on the platform, it is important to get to know how the service works and what you can do. On a basic level, the ‘Jobs‘ section allows you to easily navigate options and find jobs based on location, job title, employer, and area of specialization.

You can be much more specific using the search function, setting custom parameters to find a suitable role. You will have options here, including searching based on location and an acceptable radius for travel, your preferred annual, daily, or hourly salary, the date the job was posted, preferred employers, and much more.

Tip 3: Make Effective Use of the Directory of Hospitality Employers

In addition to the main job search functionality, Caterer provides what it refers to as a ‘Directory of Hospitality Employers‘. Essentially, this is a list of employers within the hospitality industry who make use of the service.

By exploring this option in full, you can learn about different companies operating within the hospitality industry. Furthermore, this is another good way of searching through the available jobs. If you have a particular preference for who you want to work for, you can use this to narrow down your job search only to show jobs from that employer.

Tip 4: General Tips to Maximize Your Chances of Finding a Hospitality Job

There are also some strategies and tactics to remember, regardless of whether you use Caterer or another platform. For instance, you should only apply for jobs that meet the requirements for and try to tailor your CV appropriately. This is especially important with hotel manager roles and similar positions.

Check out “Hospitality Management Careers: Tips to Help You to Find Your Next Job” for 10 tips and advice that can be applied more generally to your job search to improve outcomes.

Information for Hoteliers or Chains Looking to Find Hotel Staff

Here, you can find some useful information that applies to hoteliers, hotel chains, and others involved in the recruitment process, to attract the best quality candidates for advertised vacancies.

How Do Hospitality Companies Find The Right Staff on Caterer?

The Caterer platform advertises the fact that it offers hospitality companies access to more than two million job seekers, and these individuals can be reached through job advertisements, which can be purchased online, or by requesting a call back from a member of the Caterer support team.

Both options can be effective, but the most efficient solution is to purchase job advertisements online. These can be bought individually or in bulk, and the website offers discounts on the usual purchase price. This is especially true for first-time customers. It is worth stressing that it costs more to advertise management roles.

On top of the main job advertising options, Caterer provides additional tools for employers. These include the option to send bespoke emails to the most relevant candidates, the ability to expand your efforts by running Facebook and Twitter campaigns, and options to include videos or images within job listings.

Caterer also offers a range of more advanced targeting solutions, such as regional or national targeting. This function also allows a single job to be advertised across various different locations.

More General Tips for Attracting the Best Hotel Staff

Before focusing on the Caterer service itself, there are some more general strategies and principles that you should take the time to understand. These include ensuring you create a high-quality job description, using interviews wisely, and consciously hiring candidates with the right qualities to succeed.

Take a look at the “How to Hire the Best Hotel Staff for Your Hotel” article for more information.

Other Websites to Find Hospitality Jobs or to Find Staff

Aside from Caterer, several other job boards exist, including the following four options.

HCareers

HCareers is based in British Columbia, Canada, and is operated by Virgil Holdings, Inc. The platform dates back to 1998 and allows employers in the hospitality industry to post jobs and candidates to apply for them. It also makes use of artificial intelligence, with a view to helping to match candidates with the roles they are best suited for.

For more, read the “HCareers: Tips to Find Hospitality Jobs or Staff via This Job Website” article.

Hosco

The Hosco service has its main HQ in Switzerland, with additional offices in Spain and the United Arab Emirates. It provides a comprehensive job service for those in the hospitality industry. Although there is a solid emphasis on those within Europe, the service caters to candidates and employers worldwide.

For more, read the “Hosco: Tips to Find Hospitality Jobs or Staff via This Job Website” article.

HospitalityOnline

Unlike the Caterer platform, HospitalityOnline is focused on job opportunities and employers in North America. The service includes a job search function, the option to set up job alerts and the ability for employers to carry out behavioral assessments, meaning they can focus their efforts on the candidates most likely to succeed.

For more, read the “HospitalityOnline: Tips to Find Hospitality Jobs or Staff via This Job Website” article.

HospitalityJobs

Finally, HospitalityJobs was created in 1996 and is focused on the United States. It enables candidates to easily search and apply for hospitality jobs, from entry-level positions to hospitality and hotel management roles. The platform has its own mobile app and enlists employers on a subscription basis.

For more, read the “HospitalityJobs: Tips to Find Hospitality Jobs or Staff via This Job Website” article.

3 More Tips to Boost Your Chances of Finding Work in Hospitality

The three tips below can also help to enhance your chances of finding the hospitality job you are looking for.

1. Use More Hospitality Job Boards to Find Your Next Job

Although Caterer is one of the best job boards around, it will not cover all hospitality jobs or all industry employers. For this reason, if you keep your job search too narrow, you could miss out on the ideal job. To solve this, it is recommended that you use a combination of different online job boards.

Visit “The Best Hotel Job Boards to Boost Your Career” to learn more and access a list of job boards.

2. Create a List of Hotel Chains to Apply to Directly

Next, it is worth thinking about the different companies operating in the hotel industry and what they have to offer. Moreover, it can be a good idea to regularly check back with these businesses and see whether they are advertising any opportunities on their websites that are not advertised elsewhere.

Visit “List of Hotel Chains to Search for Hotel Vacancies” for further details about applying directly, along with information about some of the main hotel companies and what they each offer.

3. An Overview Of All Channels to Find Hospitality Jobs

In the end, the more channels you turn to during your job search, the better your chances of finding work. After all, it stands to reason that different employers and recruitment companies will favor different platforms, and the broader your search, the closer you will be to covering all bases.

Visit “Hospitality Jobs: Overview of All Channels to Find Your Next Job” to access various channels, from job boards and company websites to recruitment agencies and the LinkedIn social networking site.

The No. 1 Hospitality Information Guide!

Ultimately, whether you are looking for a job or attempting to recruit new staff, you need to develop a working understanding of the hospitality industry. This means being able to define the industry, knowing about the latest trends, understanding the different sub-sectors, and being aware of the different career paths.

Check out the “Hospitality Industry: The No. 1 Hospitality Information Guide!” article, where you can learn more about these aspects and enhance your base knowledge of hospitality.

Caterer is focused on the UK market and is a solid hospitality platform for employers and job seekers in the region. It is especially notable for the range of different companies it attracts, while it claims more than two million users who have signed up to the platform to try to find work too.

More Tips to Grow Your Business

Revfine.com is a knowledge platform for the hospitality & travel industry. Professionals use our insights, strategies and actionable tips to get inspired, optimise revenue, innovate processes and improve customer experience. You can find all hotel & hospitality tips in the categories Revenue Management, Marketing & Distribution, Hotel Operations, Staffing & Career, Technology and Software.

Submit an Article

This article is written by:

Martijn Barten

Hi, I am Martijn Barten, founder of Revfine.com. With 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, I specialize in optimizing revenue by combining revenue management with marketing strategies. I have successfully developed, implemented, and managed revenue management and marketing strategies for individual properties and multi-property portfolios.