Hospitality hiring platforms are designed to make it easier for operators to hire staff and fill the shifts they need. 

Most operators still report openings that are hard to fill, with employee churn rates not far off the pandemic-level high’s of 2020 and 2021. 

In this article, we review the best on-demand hospitality hiring apps and platforms. If you’re hiring permanent roles, it’s also worth taking a look at the ATS/job boards below.

Top criteria that matter when choosing a hospitality hiring platform summary:

1. Speed to fill shifts: The quicker the better. 
2. Hospitality-specific worker vetting/ratings: Evidence that temp/flexi staff on these platforms have hospitality experience is essential. 
3. Reliability/show rate + replacement handling: All of this is an important factor for busy operators who need reliable staff. 
4. Coverage (cities/regions): Make sure there are temp/flexi staff in your city, region, or covering multiple locations. 
5. Payroll/compliance model (W-2/EOR vs marketplace): Work with a platform that aligns with your needs. 
6. Ability to build a repeat roster (favorites/teams): Make it easier to fill out your staffing bench, and even hire full-time staff. 

Now, let’s dive into the comparison. 

8 Hospitality Staffing Apps: A Comparison

shiftNOW

shiftNOW is a purpose-built hiring platform explicitly designed for hospitality businesses. 

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Unlike generalist gig apps, it was created with restaurants, hotels, catering companies, golf courses, and event venues in mind. Its focus is on making it easy and affordable to find pre-vetted local talent.

Best for: Supports on-demand, seasonal, event, and full-time hiring with staff and a platform that is completely tailored for the hospitality sector. 

Strengths: 

• Temp workers are vetted to ensure they have relevant experience
• Unique features like profile videos and worker reviews to help managers make better hiring decisions
• Transparent, predictable, and affordable pricing options
•  Uses video profile hiring and the temp-to-hire approach to make sure that workers have relevant experience in the hospitality industry. 
• This ensures that hospitality businesses are hiring skilled temp staff every time.

Limitations:

• Strongest network of workers in hospitality-heavy regions
• Expanding reach but not yet as broad as Instawork’s multi-industry footprint

What to ask on a demo: 

• Do you have restaurant staff in (your area)?
• Do you have staff on your platform with the specific skills you need?

Sign up for shiftNOW today and experience hassle-free staffing for your hospitality business.

Request a Demo

Instawork

Instawork is one of the most widely recognized names in the hiring platform industry.

Best for: Instawork is for multi-venue hospitality operators that need reliable on-demand fill across a large geographic area.

Strengths:

• It has over 9 million background-checked workers across 400+ U.S. and Canadian cities.
• AI-powered matching using 2+ billion data signals results in a claimed 98% show rate and 90%+ fill rate
• Workers are pre-vetted through skill assessments, competency quizzes, and certification verification.

Limitations:

• Markup rate (around 35%) is on the higher end among gig platforms, and a direct-hire placement fee applies if you want to convert a temp worker to permanent.
• Not hospitality-exclusive: the platform also serves warehouse, logistics, and retail, meaning the worker pool is broader, and hospitality-specific skill depth may vary more than on specialist platforms.

What to ask on a demo:

• What is the typical fill rate and time-to-fill for hospitality-specific roles (e.g., event servers, line cooks, etc.) in our specific market, and how does that compare to your platform-wide averages?
• How does your temp-to-hire conversion process work, and what are the associated fees if we want to bring a recurring "Pro" onto our permanent payroll?

GigSmart

GigSmart markets itself as a flexible gig platform that connects businesses with independent workers across dozens of industries.

Best for: Hospitality and hotel operators that want to post shifts themselves, review applicant profiles before hiring, and maintain direct control over who gets selected.

Strengths:

• Available across all 50 states with a self-service model: businesses post shifts, set their own pay rate, receive applicants within minutes, and choose workers based on profiles, ratings, and past experience.
• No long-term commitments or hidden fees; you pay only for hours worked, making it a cost-predictable option for businesses with variable or seasonal demand.
• Industry-leading average worker rating of 4.9 stars (per GigSmart's own data), with immediate insurance coverage for workers during shifts.

Limitations:

• GigSmart is a generalist platform spanning construction, retail, transportation, and more, meaning hospitality workers are part of a broader talent pool.
• Worker supply can be inconsistent in smaller or non-metro markets, and user reviews indicate the app can feel thin on available jobs outside major metropolitan areas.

What to ask on a demo:

• What is your average fill time and fill rate for hospitality-specific roles in our city or region, and how deep is your active worker pool for positions like FOH servers, bartenders, or kitchen prep?
• Since employers set pay rates themselves, what guidance or benchmarking tools do you provide to help us price shifts competitively enough to attract and retain reliable workers?

Qwick (formerly GigPro)

Qwick is more focused than Instawork or GigSmart, but its scope is narrower. It was known as GigPro, but rebranded as Qwick after the larger platform (Qwick) bought a smaller competitor. 

Best for: Hospitality-only venues — restaurants, hotels, caterers, and event companies — that need fast access to experienced, industry-vetted FOH and BOH workers without paying placement fees.

Strengths:

• Built exclusively for hospitality and food service, meaning every worker on the platform has relevant industry experience. The platform's focus enables tighter skill matching for positions like servers, bartenders, line cooks, and event staff.
• No placement fee model: businesses pay per gig worked rather than facing direct-hire conversion costs, which makes short-term and recurring shift use highly cost-predictable.
• Rapid access within its markets, with a streamlined app experience that reflects the platform's single-vertical focus. It comes with less operational noise than multi-industry alternatives.

Limitations:

• Qwick operates in around 30–40 U.S. cities, primarily on the East Coast and Midwest. Making it more limited than other alternatives. 
• Operates largely on an honor system without a native clock-in/clock-out feature. This oversight can complicate accurate timekeeping, payroll reconciliation, and accountability for multi-shift deployments.

What to ask on a demo:

• Which specific markets do you currently operate in, and what is your average time-to-fill and fill rate for the hospitality roles most relevant to our venues (e.g., catering servers, event bartenders)?
• How do you handle timekeeping and proof of attendance without a built-in clock-in/clock-out system?

Indeed Flex 

Indeed Flex is another hospitality-centric platform to find temp staff. Backed by the larger Indeed jobs board. 

Best for: Mid-to-large hospitality employers who want a workforce management platform; not just a shift-fill app.

Strengths:

• Goes beyond basic shift-filling with a full suite of workforce management features, including automated timesheets, attendance tracking, and reporting and analytics.
• Smart job-matching algorithm connects shifts to the most qualified and experienced workers in the marketplace.
• Backed by the Indeed brand, giving it strong worker awareness and recruitment reach, plus a growing U.S. presence with hospitality-specific roles, including bartender.

Limitations:

• U.S. footprint is still relatively limited compared to Instawork or Wonolo.
• The worker pool is capped at those registered on the Indeed Flex platform (around 165,000 pre-qualified job seekers in the U.S.), so the total accessible talent volume is smaller than Indeed's main job board.

What to ask on a demo:

• Which U.S. markets are you currently active in for hospitality? 
• How does the Flex Plus workforce management layer work — can we use it to schedule our own permanent staff alongside flex workers?

Wonolo

Wonolo is an on-demand platform in 500 markets with a talent pool of 3 million, but it isn’t hospitality-centric.

Best for: Operators seeking on-demand staffing with potential temp-to-perm pathways.

Strengths:

• On-demand shift marketplace with a focus on reliability.
• Markets a high show-rate claim (often cited around 90%+, depending on role/market)
• Supports temp-to-perm transitions for longer-term hiring.

Limitations:

• Broader industry coverage means hospitality depth can vary.
• Quality may depend heavily on location and role type.

What to ask on a demo:

• What are your actual show rates in hospitality roles in my city?
• How does your temp-to-perm conversion process work, and what are the associated fees?

Snagajob

Snagajob has a talent pool of over 1 million, and at least 50% of them have hospitality experience. It’s used by the top 3 US hotel groups.

Best for: Hospitality employers focused on recruiting hourly employees rather than filling one-off shifts.

Strengths:

• Strong brand in hourly recruiting, especially in the restaurant and hospitality sector 
• Employer-branded pages and job advertising tools.
• Built for ongoing hiring rather than short-term gigs.

Limitations:

• Not an on-demand shift marketplace.
• Time-to-hire may be longer compared to gig apps.

What to ask on a demo:

• How do you help hospitality employers reduce time-to-hire?
• What tools exist for applicant screening and interview scheduling?

Bluecrew

Bluecrew is in 100 US markets but isn’t hospitality-focused, nor do they say how many are in their talent pool.

Best for: Hospitality businesses that want W-2 workers without managing payroll and compliance directly.

Strengths:

• W-2 employment model (workers are employees of Bluecrew, not independent contractors)
• Handles payroll, taxes, and compliance
• Positioned more like a modern staffing agency with tech-enabled matching

Limitations:

• Less flexible than pure gig marketplaces
• Potentially higher costs due to W-2 structure and benefits overhead

What to ask on a demo:

• How does your W-2 model impact total bill rates compared to gig platforms?
• What compliance protections and insurance coverage are included?

Now, let’s see how they compare alongside one another. 

A Side-by-Side Comparison Table: 8 Hospitality Staffing Platforms

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Hospitality Hiring Platforms: Key Takeaways 

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• For broad coverage across industries: Instawork or GigSmart.
• For one-time or emergency shifts: Qwick.
• For hospitality businesses seeking locally vetted, reliable staff: shiftNOW.

If you’re a hospitality operator prioritizing vetted, reliable, and staff with hospitality experience, shiftNOW is typically the best fit.

Sign up for shiftNOW today and experience hassle-free staffing for your hospitality business.

Request a Demo

See the shiftNOW platform in action and understand all of the benefits it has to offer your hospitality business.

On-Demand Hospitality Staffing: FAQs for Operators

What's the difference between a Staffing App Vs. a Job Board vs. an ATS?

A staffing app like Instawork or Qwick is designed for speed. You can have someone fill a shift in a matter of hours. 

A job board like Snagajob or Indeed is better suited to building your permanent or recurring hourly workforce. You post a job, candidates apply, and you manage the hiring process yourself over days or weeks. 

An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) sits behind the scenes, helping you track, screen, and manage applicants.

Do these platforms provide W-2 workers or independent contractors?

In most cases, yes. But this varies by platform and matters significantly from a compliance and liability standpoint. Most gig staffing apps, including Instawork and Wonolo, employ workers as W-2 employees of the platform.

In this case, the platform handles payroll taxes, workers' compensation, and employment law obligations. In other words, the platform (or a staffing agency) is the “Employer of Record” with the IRS and other relevant agencies. 

Doing this reduces your co-employer risk considerably. Bluecrew makes this its central value proposition. 

On the other hand, some marketplace-style platforms use a 1099 contractor model. You must ensure that freelance/contractor workers are freelance; misclassifying someone, intentionally or not, could cause legal and financial problems. 

How do I reduce no-shows?

Start by choosing platforms that weigh reliability data heavily in their matching algorithms. You need reliable staff, whether it’s for one shift or a whole busy season.

On your end, posting shifts with clear role descriptions, accurate venue details, and competitive pay reduces ambiguity that can cause last-minute cancellations. On platforms like shiftNOW, you can pick favorites, and so can gig workers, so that your most reliable temps can keep coming back. 

For high-stakes events or peak periods, building in a buffer by requesting one or two more workers than you strictly need is a practical safeguard that experienced operators use to keep staffing levels correct at all times. 

What roles can I fill fastest?

Entry-level, high-volume positions with broad worker pools — bar tenders, event setup and breakdown crew, and waiting staff — consistently fill the fastest across most platforms

This often happens within an hour or two of posting. Skilled FOH and BOH roles like sous chefs, line cooks, and event managers take longer because the platform needs to match workers with verified experience in the available talent pool, which is naturally smaller. 

How far in advance should I post shifts?

For standard shifts in well-served markets, 24 to 48 hours is typically enough lead time to secure a reliable fill

But for specialized roles, large events, or geographies outside major metro areas, posting 5 to 7 days out gives the right people time to see your job post and apply. 

Most platforms are engineered for short-notice flexibility, but that capability works best as a backup, not a primary staffing strategy. Restaurant operators who consistently post last-minute jobs tend to see lower fill rates and higher variability in worker quality. 

Treat on-demand platforms like a well-stocked resource: the more consistently you engage with them and build preferred worker-relationships, the more responsive and reliable they become when you actually need them at speed.