NEW YORK — While the labor market has shifted since the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, staffing hotel operations continues to be an acute problem, according to PM Hotel Group President and CEO Joseph Bojanowski.
On the Hotel News Now podcast, Bojanowski said having a portfolio of roughly 70 hotels helps somewhat with the employment crunch, as has a willingness to "look at how we deliver service that the customer values." But it's still a challenge, particularly for positions in hotel food and beverage.
"There was an — and arguably rightfully — an exodus from when we essentially closed every restaurant in the entire country," he said. "That causes people to go find other jobs and careers, and they haven't come back. So that's a problem across the board."
Bojanowski said another key driver of the employee shortage is "immigration policy or the lack of immigration policy."
"It seems counterintuitive that you would have asylum seekers that are legally in the country that aren't allowed to work and pay taxes and contribute," he said. "That's a good source of employment for us, and we think that's maybe a good opportunity to find entry-level candidates for our positions."
In terms of hotel demand, Bojanowski said he's concerned about the pressures currently on consumers and — by extension — the lower segments of the hotel industry. But he added there are still "paths to success" for hotel operators.
"You've got to drive market share. You've got to aggressively go after the middle of the [profit-and-loss statement] to drive efficiencies and lower cost per occupied room and drive [average daily rate] and [gross operating profit] margins," he said. "Good operators are able to do that."
For more from HNN's conversation with PM Hotel Group's Joseph Bojanowski, listen to the podcast above. Subscribe to the Hotel News Now podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts.