PHOENIX — If you ask Douglas Dreher, president and CEO of The Hotel Group, about the state of the labor environment for hotels, he'll tell you it's better than it was at its worst point — but not by much.
"Pre-COVID, it was a crisis," he said, during the Lodging Industry Investment Council meeting during the 2022 Lodging Conference. "Then with COVID, it was catastrophic. Now, it's kind of back to being a crisis again."
Dreher said if anything the problematic spots have shifted, with the housekeeping position being the most difficult to deal with in the immediate ramp-up from the downturn. The pain is now felt more acutely for food and beverage or for more specialized positions such as maintenance.
"Just try to find a mixologist for your great bar, those kind of things," he said. "Breakfast is hard. And maintenance — we have a big hotel in downtown Kansas City, and we've not had a chief engineer throughout COVID. I'm the chief engineer when I got there. I'll be checking the PTACs and changing the filter."
David Duncan, president and CEO of First Hospitality, agreed, and acknowledged he doesn't see a path to things getting demonstrably better.
"We need to understand it's a misperception that the labor challenge is a short-term problem," he said. "It's a little less worse than it was before, but if you study the demographics, the retirement of the baby boomers, the low birth rates, the immigration challenges, the problem is going to be here for years. We're kind of just waking up. During COVID [the industry] was like, 'Oh, it's a really big problem.' Well, news flash, it's been a problem for 15 years."
Mitra Van, managing director for Prism Hotels & Resorts, said the demographic issues are exacerbated by higher competition for the existing labor pool and negative perceptions of working in the hotel industry.
"We lost so many of our employees during the pandemic and right after the pandemic because of how burned out they all are," she said. "The hotel business is not sexy anymore. It used to be sexy because of all the perks, but during the pandemic, [employees] all got so burned out, and we lost them to tech companies. We lost them to Amazon because of [higher pay] and more flexibility."
Hoteliers said there are several things they can do to ease the pain. High among them is a greater and more holistic adoption of technology to operate more efficiently.
Dreher said one way technology needs to improve quickly within the industry is for brands' apps to offer tipping for housekeepers.
"Why is that not done?" he asked. "I know it's in the pipeline, but little things like that really help. It's a win-win-win. It's a win for the owners, a win for the associates and win for the guests."
Duncan said companies like his have also had to streamline their recruitment efforts.
"We used to recruit, then screen, then send you a note later to tell you if you had the job," he said. "Now it's instant acceptance. Saying 'Please come back the next day,' is a thing."
Jonathan Bogatay, CEO of NCG Hospitality, said the industry has had to adopt a greater degree of employment flexibility to lure new hires, which is a work in progress.
"Now we have team members build their own schedules ... and it's really changed the dynamic," he said. "We've looked at the Chick-fil-A model, which is interesting. They have a technology piece that allows each of their team members to select a block of time that works for them. We're exploring that and seeing how we can apply that in hospitality."
But LIIC members seemed in almost unanimous agreement that the true solution to the problem will require governmental intervention, specifically by tackling the immigration problems the country has faced for decades.
"It's all about immigration reform," Bogatay said. "If we could put that on the table and make some meaningful progress, it would be incredibly helpful."