Okuzeka
Tourism & Hospitality vocabulary · Hotel Departments & Facilities

Shift

Meaning in tourism & hospitality, with examples

/ʃɪft/nounCommon term

In tourism & hospitality, shift means: A fixed period of work, such as morning, evening or night, in a job where different teams work at different times.

In Turkish: vardiya, nöbet

How it is used

Hotels work around the clock in shifts: morning shift, afternoon or evening shift, night shift. Staff do a shift handover, swap shifts with colleagues and sometimes work double shifts in busy periods. A split shift has a long break in the middle.

Example sentences

  1. I'm on the night shift this week, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

  2. Before you leave, please write any open guest requests in the shift handover log.

Common collocations

  • night shift
  • morning shift
  • shift handover
  • swap shifts
  • work a double shift
  • duty managerThe manager in charge of the whole hotel during a shift, especially in the evening and at night, who deals with problems and emergencies.
  • night auditA daily process, done late at night, of checking all the day's transactions, posting room charges and closing the hotel's business day.
  • receptionistA person who works at the hotel front desk, welcoming guests, checking them in and out and answering their questions.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Hotel Departments & Facilities

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: