The day-to-day operations of a hotel are quite different today than before the pandemic.
Consumers returned in force to travel again after more than a year of being unable to travel, driving leisure demand to new highs even beyond the typical summer months. Hoteliers, on the other hand — who were already facing a significant labor shortage before anyone had even heard of COVID-19 — had to hire and train fresh faces and avoid burnout among employees as guests complained about reduced services and amenities.
Executives from hotel management companies across the industry reflected on the most significant changes to their business models in 2021, even changes that became so second-nature they could be permanent efficiencies going forward.
Staffing Changes
Ed Robison, senior vice president of owner relations and development at management company HP Hotels, said his company has made flexible scheduling a priority, adding "staffing a hotel just looks different."
"We are more flexible in our hiring as well as our staff scheduling so that we can meet the demands of today’s team members as well as today’s traveler," Robison said via email. "The traditional eight-hour shift in our industry is 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. and 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. We have shifted those hours somewhat to accommodate for the business levels and activity in a given hotel as well as the availability of the staff."
He said flexible staffing isn't something that's likely to change anytime soon across the hotel industry, especially if it's an incentive to attract new employees.
"The latter aspect is two-fold. In some cases, we are doing a better job of accommodating staff needs, but, in other cases, we just can’t hire enough people to staff in the traditional way," Robison said.
In a lot of ways, guest demands have necessitated the shift to flexible staff scheduling, said Gregg Forde, chief operating officer and executive vice president at Island Hospitality Management.
"The guest demands change a little bit, and as you have more of a leisure component, that check-out time moved later, so that changed the hours that you may need those associates in those hotels," Forde said.
He added cross-training has been a huge benefit to Island Hospitality Management's employees and the hotels where they work.
"As a result, employees were able to be exposed to new parts of a hotel, and we've benefited from having talented people gain a bigger skill set," Forde said. "Those are probably the biggest changes that we saw this year, and I think those things are likely to stick around as well. As things get back to more normal occupancy levels, I can see that type of accommodation and that flexibility, those changes continuing, which I think is a win for us and a win for the industry."
Daniel del Olmo, president and chief operating officer of Sage Hotel Management, part of Sage Hospitality Group, said that at his company — which manages 60 hotels including upscale, luxury, branded and independent properties — recruitment is one of its biggest obstacles.
"With currently about 900 open positions, which accounts for about 15% of our total workforce, recruiting associates continues to be one of our greatest challenges," del Olmo said via email. "This shortage has been a major catalyst to be as creative as possible. Cross-training has always been a best practice, but during the last 20-plus months, it has become a standard practice. We are now hiring with cross-training as an integral component of virtually every role profile."
Sage is also testing different employment strategies to keep employees satisfied and engaged once they're hired, including tiered wages and a four-day workweek.
"If someone gets hired as a front-desk clerk, they’ll first receive a starting wage. Once they move to another department and become proficient in that new position, they may be eligible for a wage increase," del Olmo said. "Suddenly, these associates can now be on the schedule for both departments. If they are inclined, those associates can then train in a third department, and may be eligible for yet another wage increase while being available to be scheduled in a third department."
So far, Sage's trial of a four-day workweek for hourly employees has been a huge hit, del Olmo said. Hotel front-desk agents, engineers, accountants, housekeeping inspectors and housekeeping supervisors are all eligible.
"It has been received with tremendous success and feedback both from a productivity standpoint as well as a mental health and recruiting standpoint," del Olmo said. "We intend to explore this further with salaried managers in 2022 and have a four-day workweek every other week. If that proves successful, we may extend a four-day workweek to our on-property executive committee, even if only for one week a month."
Davidson Hospitality Group Chief Operating Officer Pete Sams said the theme of 2021 was trying to do more with less. While the hotel business will continue to wrestle with wage pressure in 2022, the bright side is that operators have a better sense of how to operate amid a pandemic and in a tight labor market.
"The reality of the industry is that efficiency in hours worked is being offset by wage pressure. ... There's a substantial challenge to getting people back to work, back to the industry," Sams said. "... But at the height of the reduction in volume, a lot of our management teams were covering some of the line-level opportunities just as we were down to skeleton crews at the height of the pandemic. We've distanced ourselves from that with each passing month as we continue to rebuild staff at our respective hotels."
Guest-Facing Operations
As hotels stayed open for business with leaner staffing models, traditional hotel services such as daily housekeeping looked much different in 2021. Sams said Davidson followed the brands' lead on how to safely clean rooms and now uses an opt-in model where guests can request daily housekeeping in their rooms.
"We had to retool the way we make guests comfortable, how we clean a room at check-out between guest stays," Sams said. "The general tenor [early in the pandemic] was to just stay out of the room as often as possible over the course of the stay and then really emphasize new practices and procedures for a deeper clean in between stays.
"So on average, a typical guestroom clean was a 20% increase in the amount of time spent in the room in between stays. But we were spending obviously a lot less time cleaning during the stay."
As travelers have returned to hotels, including leisure guests who don't travel often, cleanliness has been a sticking point and a constant refrain in bad reviews posted online. Taking a proactive approach in communicating COVID-19-related changes that could affect a guest's stay has always been a priority, del Olmo said.
"We have been communicating any changes to our housekeeping service via pre-arrival emails and upon check-in," he said. "In most of our hotels, housekeeping is now being offered upon request for guests staying less than three days. Most guests truly appreciate the flexibility to opt-in to housekeeping services and applaud the additional measures we have taken to limit housekeeping staff entering the guest rooms."
HP Hotels similarly communicates to guests changes to cleaning schedules, pauses in offering room service or reduced restaurant hours. Robison said honesty with guests still demonstrates that hoteliers are doing their best to deliver a hospitable experience.
"Our guests know what they want and love. It’s our job to provide that," he said. "Consistency of the guest experience is essential; it’s what keeps guests returning, even when we must adjust the delivery method. As a result, I think our hotels and restaurants struck an excellent balance between adapting to constraints imposed by the pandemic and providing a consistent, favorable guest experience.
"Going forward, if we communicate the situation honestly to our guests, I know that they will understand and reward us with their loyalty."