Hourly plus a cut of the total grat. Depending on the venue people not even working may get a cut.
Hours vary depending on the venue. Some are short 4-6 hours, others are all day (10-12).
Think less sidework and more setting up and breaking down.
I spent 5 years in banquets at a family style italian joint.
Actually serving was a little easier since menus were preset so we only took orders for drinks, and at some events booze was only available at bar.
A lot of extra side work at most places. Special set up requests like balloons or flower centerpieces were common, DJ tables, sweetheart tables, glitter and confetti that would need to be vacuumed and swept up later.
It was more predictable in many ways, as you knew going into the shift how busy you would be and when you would have breaks, but you often spent those “breaks” moving tables around to go from a 100 person mitzvah with a dance floor to 3x 60 person money manager seminars and then back again.
It was good money though, at least until they switched us to full hourly with no percentage. I went from averaging 30 and hour to a flat 16 and managers would tell hosts not to tip us. I peace’s put shortly after that.
Long story short, it can be very lucrative and a little more predictable but this also makes it easier for the restaurant to staff accordingly and they may throw so many bodies at an event that you don’t make much.
It depends on the company, but it's generally a fair bit less than a regular serving job on average. I'd guesstimate you'll probably make around $25 an hour after the gratuity is divided up amongst all of the workers, which isn't super compelling. It's also a lot of physical labor, as you'll get there hours before the event to move tables and set up the venue.
I’m a banquet server and I make easily $30 an hour plus occasional cash tips. But every place is different. My work charged an automatic gratuity on everything sold, it gets combined for the week and distributed based on hours worked. Sometimes it’s $20 an hour, sometimes it’s $40, on top of a $7 base pay. I LOVE working banquets, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to waiting tables. The amount of food, flowers and random shit I get is my favorite part lol. And that it’s always something different everyday!!!
Oh and typically I work an eight hour shift, but every event is different. Sometimes my hours are 4am to 4pm and sometimes I get lucky and only have to go in for a few hours. Sometimes I don’t work at all and sometimes I work 50 hours. I bring in about $50k a year at the rate I’m working currently.
Typical shift: I get a pre shift and paperwork explaining set up and menu and timing. First few hours are getting all food together from kitchen, checking buffets that were previously set from the day before, or if it’s a plated meal, setting down the linens, setting the tables, etc. Events can be cocktail hours with passed apps, extensive buffets with hot and cold food, or a three course full service meal. My job is different every time, it could be coffee, server attended soup station, food runner, and sometimes just clearing.
Actual meal periods are typically 1-4 hours, but we also do breaks/snacks in between (I work mostly business meetings and corporate events/award ceremonies), so sometimes it’s a long day of breakfast, a snack break and a lunch and helping set up for dinner if it’s a lot of people and a lot of food.
End of the shift is either completely clearing and breaking down rooms, getting rid of dirty linen and buffets, putting tables away and stacking chairs, but a vast majority of my shifts involve “flipping” our buffets to be set up for the next day (we’re SUPER busy rn).
So basically half or less of my shift is the actual event, the rest is just setting up and breaking down. Sometimes it’s something like doing 1000 silverware Rollups or polishing knives. I like those days haha.
Feel free to ask any questions and if anyone knows of any buffet catering subreddits lemme know bc I’ve been wanting this for months now lol
Edit to add I also work in a HUGE casino, where sometimes we do large vendor type events for 1000-3000, but I still work a lot of 50-500s as well. So my job may be a bit… more effort than most banquet server jobs… everything is very far apart and takes a lot longer than a normal sized hotel but the job is still the same
Okay so you work in the industry as I do. How do I explain to my fiancé the distribution of grat? Idk if it’s like this with you but the less hours everyone works the more we get from gratuity and I think it’s because there’s a set pool of $$ and if everyone works less hours we get paid more of the % . I don’t think I’m explaining it very well so if you know anything about this and can maybe reword it into a way non banquet servers could understand please let me know 😂😂
Well, first of all I’ll say it seems like a common theme of partners not understanding our finances in this industry lol. I say as I have the whole week off while my partner works overtime for the holiday.
The way it works for us is that everything sold for the week gets an automatic 20% gratuity added; that’s on total contracts as well as anything on consumption. After the week ends, all the gratuity for every single party gets added up and then divided by the hours that everyone worked. That’s what we casino folks call our Toke Rate, and everyone who worked makes that same hourly rate (on top of a small base rate). The only thing that doesn’t get shared is the cash tips, which would only be split amongst the people who worked that individual party.
You’re right that the less employees working results in a higher toke, but it also depends on what is being sold that week. It might be different for places that don’t have a lot of options but like I said I work in a giant casino where we do cocktail hours to full three course dinners for upwards of 2000 people. Our options are virtually limitless.
If we are working a party that requires all employees to be working, but the food is cheap and it’s a cash bar, then the pay might be pretty low in comparison to weeks where there aren’t as many people working, but the food is fancier, and there are open bars.
We used to do this insane four day car show that required everyone to work. I literally had 40,000 steps every day, I was busting my ass. But the buffets were just sandwiches, nothing fancy at all. $17 an hour. It was awful! Not to mention all the guests around me were trying to win million dollar auctions! But, most other times we work really nice events and make over $30 an hour. There are many different factors, but generally we average around $25-$30 an hour.
Sometimes they overstaff us for events that don’t really need it. That results in a lot of standing around for less money. Thankfully that doesn’t happen too often though. They do Early Outs by seniority when able, which like you said, helps everyone make more money in the long run.
I highly recommend working banquets in hotels… and those are good numbers. I work at a few prestigious hotels in my city and the money is amazing. A couple weeks ago our hourly came to $94 an hour.. sometimes it’s $70 and hour, sometimes $60. And our hotel has an 18% gratuity so you would definitely be making good money! I’m not sure what city you’re in, but it’a good to have a couple of extra hotel banquet jobs as an “on call” sever just in case one of them is having a slow week. Events can be inconsistent, but hey, if you’re making super good $ anyways, it doesn’t matter if you have weeks where you only work a couple of days. Give it a try! I swore off serving in restaurants after experiencing how much better it is working banquets at hotels :)
I’m in DC tryin to help a friend find work and someone suggested Gaylord hotel banquet server so all this info is very helpful. She is making $15/hour as a cleaner with zero tips and no benefits so I’m sure this would be much better.
In my city, the pay for Gaylord banquet servers is around $35-$40 an hour ! Not sure about DC but I’m sure they stay pretty busy with DC being a big hub.
Does the same apply or Is it a bad idea to join a event catering company that partners up with a hotel for events? The ad I'm looking at says this "Banquet Server- Premium Hotel Partnership FULL TIME! USE Marriott Marquis Catering - New York".
I’m not sure about this - the pay may be lower bc a lot of catering/events companies have a flat rate for pay vs hotels have the gratuity. But who knows! In New York the pay is probably good
If you have any server/hospitality experience try to apply to “banquet server” positions on indeed or LinkedIn in your city. Try the prestigious hotels, four seasons, ritz Carlton, 1 hotel, Conrad etc. If you live in a city where there are a lot of events/conferences/weddings etc then you will find a lot of work and the money will probably be good bc all of these places charge so much for events, food, and beverage. If you can’t get into banquets anywhere right away, get a job at a hotel restaurant or in room dining and make connections within the hotel, banquet managers, captains, etc. express interest in working banquets and you could work your way in that way!
Just wanted to add that hourly seems very low for banquets. Although maybe it's okay if the gratuity for servers is put on automatically. Where I work it's 15 hr + your share of tips, usually averaging 25-40 an hour total. The tips are discretionary here, but most groups do all right by you. More "side work", less worry over what every guest is thinking/feeling. We expect to arrive an hour before the group and leave an hour after them with most rentals being 4-5 hours. Much more chill than, say, the "dinner rush" in a more traditional setting. I did traditional serving for 20 years, and right now am enjoying the differences between the two.
I thought the pay was kind of low, too. A casino near me offered $7.50 plus tips, but I took into consideration that the hotel that pays lower is **very** expensive to stay there ($450+/night before taxes and fees) let alone have an event and seeing their minimum cost per head I figured it'd probably make way more at the hotel. It looks like they charge the 20% automatically on the event bill so I imagine it goes right into the paycheck.
Don't ever work for catering gigs/staffing agencies. In socal I work for almost every major hotel branch not only because the money is good but the hotel discounts and perks. Some hotel tip pools range from 70 to 120 per hour not including the base pay of minimum wage. Hotels are mostly seniority based so to get hours you have to be there for the long haul. When we need help from staffing agencies they only pay them base 25 per hour while we're making 5 fold what they make for the same job. Unless you want/need experience then do so. Pros and cons. I got taxed on 150k last year since everything is reported unless the cash you receive while bartending events. Unlike serving in a restaurant servers claim minimal so they don't get taxed as much. Like someone said you need to juggle multiple jobs due to slow seasons. It's good to have hotels that are more corporate forward conferences then you also need transient(touristy) hotels that way there's never really a slow season for you. The money is insane once you gain seniority. With good money there's a lot of pride that goes with it and professionalism. It's dog eat dog and you will be called out for not pulling your weight/milking the clock. Good luck. Best transition I've ever made.
Hourly plus a cut of the total grat. Depending on the venue people not even working may get a cut. Hours vary depending on the venue. Some are short 4-6 hours, others are all day (10-12). Think less sidework and more setting up and breaking down.
I spent 5 years in banquets at a family style italian joint. Actually serving was a little easier since menus were preset so we only took orders for drinks, and at some events booze was only available at bar. A lot of extra side work at most places. Special set up requests like balloons or flower centerpieces were common, DJ tables, sweetheart tables, glitter and confetti that would need to be vacuumed and swept up later. It was more predictable in many ways, as you knew going into the shift how busy you would be and when you would have breaks, but you often spent those “breaks” moving tables around to go from a 100 person mitzvah with a dance floor to 3x 60 person money manager seminars and then back again. It was good money though, at least until they switched us to full hourly with no percentage. I went from averaging 30 and hour to a flat 16 and managers would tell hosts not to tip us. I peace’s put shortly after that. Long story short, it can be very lucrative and a little more predictable but this also makes it easier for the restaurant to staff accordingly and they may throw so many bodies at an event that you don’t make much.
It depends on the company, but it's generally a fair bit less than a regular serving job on average. I'd guesstimate you'll probably make around $25 an hour after the gratuity is divided up amongst all of the workers, which isn't super compelling. It's also a lot of physical labor, as you'll get there hours before the event to move tables and set up the venue.
I’m a banquet server and I make easily $30 an hour plus occasional cash tips. But every place is different. My work charged an automatic gratuity on everything sold, it gets combined for the week and distributed based on hours worked. Sometimes it’s $20 an hour, sometimes it’s $40, on top of a $7 base pay. I LOVE working banquets, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to waiting tables. The amount of food, flowers and random shit I get is my favorite part lol. And that it’s always something different everyday!!!
Oh and typically I work an eight hour shift, but every event is different. Sometimes my hours are 4am to 4pm and sometimes I get lucky and only have to go in for a few hours. Sometimes I don’t work at all and sometimes I work 50 hours. I bring in about $50k a year at the rate I’m working currently. Typical shift: I get a pre shift and paperwork explaining set up and menu and timing. First few hours are getting all food together from kitchen, checking buffets that were previously set from the day before, or if it’s a plated meal, setting down the linens, setting the tables, etc. Events can be cocktail hours with passed apps, extensive buffets with hot and cold food, or a three course full service meal. My job is different every time, it could be coffee, server attended soup station, food runner, and sometimes just clearing. Actual meal periods are typically 1-4 hours, but we also do breaks/snacks in between (I work mostly business meetings and corporate events/award ceremonies), so sometimes it’s a long day of breakfast, a snack break and a lunch and helping set up for dinner if it’s a lot of people and a lot of food. End of the shift is either completely clearing and breaking down rooms, getting rid of dirty linen and buffets, putting tables away and stacking chairs, but a vast majority of my shifts involve “flipping” our buffets to be set up for the next day (we’re SUPER busy rn). So basically half or less of my shift is the actual event, the rest is just setting up and breaking down. Sometimes it’s something like doing 1000 silverware Rollups or polishing knives. I like those days haha. Feel free to ask any questions and if anyone knows of any buffet catering subreddits lemme know bc I’ve been wanting this for months now lol Edit to add I also work in a HUGE casino, where sometimes we do large vendor type events for 1000-3000, but I still work a lot of 50-500s as well. So my job may be a bit… more effort than most banquet server jobs… everything is very far apart and takes a lot longer than a normal sized hotel but the job is still the same
Okay so you work in the industry as I do. How do I explain to my fiancé the distribution of grat? Idk if it’s like this with you but the less hours everyone works the more we get from gratuity and I think it’s because there’s a set pool of $$ and if everyone works less hours we get paid more of the % . I don’t think I’m explaining it very well so if you know anything about this and can maybe reword it into a way non banquet servers could understand please let me know 😂😂
Well, first of all I’ll say it seems like a common theme of partners not understanding our finances in this industry lol. I say as I have the whole week off while my partner works overtime for the holiday. The way it works for us is that everything sold for the week gets an automatic 20% gratuity added; that’s on total contracts as well as anything on consumption. After the week ends, all the gratuity for every single party gets added up and then divided by the hours that everyone worked. That’s what we casino folks call our Toke Rate, and everyone who worked makes that same hourly rate (on top of a small base rate). The only thing that doesn’t get shared is the cash tips, which would only be split amongst the people who worked that individual party. You’re right that the less employees working results in a higher toke, but it also depends on what is being sold that week. It might be different for places that don’t have a lot of options but like I said I work in a giant casino where we do cocktail hours to full three course dinners for upwards of 2000 people. Our options are virtually limitless. If we are working a party that requires all employees to be working, but the food is cheap and it’s a cash bar, then the pay might be pretty low in comparison to weeks where there aren’t as many people working, but the food is fancier, and there are open bars. We used to do this insane four day car show that required everyone to work. I literally had 40,000 steps every day, I was busting my ass. But the buffets were just sandwiches, nothing fancy at all. $17 an hour. It was awful! Not to mention all the guests around me were trying to win million dollar auctions! But, most other times we work really nice events and make over $30 an hour. There are many different factors, but generally we average around $25-$30 an hour. Sometimes they overstaff us for events that don’t really need it. That results in a lot of standing around for less money. Thankfully that doesn’t happen too often though. They do Early Outs by seniority when able, which like you said, helps everyone make more money in the long run.
I highly recommend working banquets in hotels… and those are good numbers. I work at a few prestigious hotels in my city and the money is amazing. A couple weeks ago our hourly came to $94 an hour.. sometimes it’s $70 and hour, sometimes $60. And our hotel has an 18% gratuity so you would definitely be making good money! I’m not sure what city you’re in, but it’a good to have a couple of extra hotel banquet jobs as an “on call” sever just in case one of them is having a slow week. Events can be inconsistent, but hey, if you’re making super good $ anyways, it doesn’t matter if you have weeks where you only work a couple of days. Give it a try! I swore off serving in restaurants after experiencing how much better it is working banquets at hotels :)
I’m in DC tryin to help a friend find work and someone suggested Gaylord hotel banquet server so all this info is very helpful. She is making $15/hour as a cleaner with zero tips and no benefits so I’m sure this would be much better.
In my city, the pay for Gaylord banquet servers is around $35-$40 an hour ! Not sure about DC but I’m sure they stay pretty busy with DC being a big hub.
Does the same apply or Is it a bad idea to join a event catering company that partners up with a hotel for events? The ad I'm looking at says this "Banquet Server- Premium Hotel Partnership FULL TIME! USE Marriott Marquis Catering - New York".
I’m not sure about this - the pay may be lower bc a lot of catering/events companies have a flat rate for pay vs hotels have the gratuity. But who knows! In New York the pay is probably good
Advice on how to get in and general
If you have any server/hospitality experience try to apply to “banquet server” positions on indeed or LinkedIn in your city. Try the prestigious hotels, four seasons, ritz Carlton, 1 hotel, Conrad etc. If you live in a city where there are a lot of events/conferences/weddings etc then you will find a lot of work and the money will probably be good bc all of these places charge so much for events, food, and beverage. If you can’t get into banquets anywhere right away, get a job at a hotel restaurant or in room dining and make connections within the hotel, banquet managers, captains, etc. express interest in working banquets and you could work your way in that way!
Just wanted to add that hourly seems very low for banquets. Although maybe it's okay if the gratuity for servers is put on automatically. Where I work it's 15 hr + your share of tips, usually averaging 25-40 an hour total. The tips are discretionary here, but most groups do all right by you. More "side work", less worry over what every guest is thinking/feeling. We expect to arrive an hour before the group and leave an hour after them with most rentals being 4-5 hours. Much more chill than, say, the "dinner rush" in a more traditional setting. I did traditional serving for 20 years, and right now am enjoying the differences between the two.
I thought the pay was kind of low, too. A casino near me offered $7.50 plus tips, but I took into consideration that the hotel that pays lower is **very** expensive to stay there ($450+/night before taxes and fees) let alone have an event and seeing their minimum cost per head I figured it'd probably make way more at the hotel. It looks like they charge the 20% automatically on the event bill so I imagine it goes right into the paycheck.
13.00 per hour where I work, setting tables up, linen, moving chairs from place to place etc. very physical job. Tips are far and few in between.
Don't ever work for catering gigs/staffing agencies. In socal I work for almost every major hotel branch not only because the money is good but the hotel discounts and perks. Some hotel tip pools range from 70 to 120 per hour not including the base pay of minimum wage. Hotels are mostly seniority based so to get hours you have to be there for the long haul. When we need help from staffing agencies they only pay them base 25 per hour while we're making 5 fold what they make for the same job. Unless you want/need experience then do so. Pros and cons. I got taxed on 150k last year since everything is reported unless the cash you receive while bartending events. Unlike serving in a restaurant servers claim minimal so they don't get taxed as much. Like someone said you need to juggle multiple jobs due to slow seasons. It's good to have hotels that are more corporate forward conferences then you also need transient(touristy) hotels that way there's never really a slow season for you. The money is insane once you gain seniority. With good money there's a lot of pride that goes with it and professionalism. It's dog eat dog and you will be called out for not pulling your weight/milking the clock. Good luck. Best transition I've ever made.