REPORT FROM THE U.S.—As U.S. hotel average occupancy moves closer to 50%, the U.S. hotel workforce continues to recover jobs. As of this past week, 44% of the pre-COVID19 hotel employees have resumed work, according to labor-management data from Hotel Effectiveness.
Upon return, many workers are finding their jobs have changed, with new processes that take more time and increase costs for owners. A study by asset management firm HotelAVE showed that the new housekeeping cleaning standards have increased the time it takes to turn over a room after checkout by six to eight minutes.
Each minute per room of clean time can translate to $35,000 to $50,000 of annual operating costs for a typical hotel, according to a separate analysis by Hotel Effectiveness.
Faced with a potential $400,000 increase in labor costs, managers are replacing old staffing models with labor plans that are directly connected to fluctuating occupancy and other business drivers.
“Using labor standards that connect PMS data with scheduling systems can reduce payroll expenses by 10% to 15% per year,” said Mike Martin, CEO of Hotel Effectiveness. “In today’s market, this can be a critical difference between breaking even or losing money every day. Excess labor costs are preventable, but overspending on labor cannot be recovered.”
The data and chart above represent a sample of more than 3,300 same-store hotels and excludes hotels that have been closed during the analyzed period.
Del Ross is chief revenue officer for Hotel Effectiveness.
The assertions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or its parent company, STR and its affiliated companies. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.