Several job openings across hotel departments remain unfilled as U.S. hoteliers prepare for a busy summer travel season.
Kevin Loughran, director of talent acquisition at Sonesta Hotels, said via email the company set a goal to hire 2,000 associates for both full-time and part-time positions over a six-week period beginning this month.
Roles that still need filled include nearly 400 housekeeping positions, more than 200 for guest services/front desk, nearly 100 for night audit and nearly 100 maintenance technicians.
Loughran said referrals are one of the company's top sources for hiring. With Sonesta's recent growth in both managed and franchise portfolios, his team thought it would be beneficial to provide a "recruiting tool kit" for managers.
"We're currently doubling the award to associates for successfully [referring] candidates," he said.
The tool kits include "internal tools to drive recruiting awareness and external tools to attract candidates," he added, noting this is Sonesta's first nationwide effort of this kind. The tool kits contain all materials needed for recruiting, such as marketing programs, training processes and outreach guides.
"We're really eager to be creating a formal recruiting culture now and for the future," he said, noting that Sonesta is also working "to quickly screen/interview applicants, making contingent offers based on passing background check with efficient start dates."
At some properties where local hiring is difficult, some success has come through hiring H-2B visa workers. Sonesta is looking to potentially expand the H-2B program to other properties, Loughran said.
The Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California, has job openings across departments, and the total number of open positions to be filled is on par with a typical peak season, Laurie West, the hotel's talent acquisition specialist, said via email.
She said her team is currently testing a variety of advertising tactics to get in front of the best candidates. Strategies include neighborhood billboards as well as other digital and radio ads. The property held a summer job fair on April 19, which "attracted a large audience" and her team exceeded their job offer target by more than 65%.
"In order to be more nimble and shorten the hiring timeline, we made job offers on the spot, expediting paperwork to get new hires into training within a matter of days. Our management team also collaborated across departments, coaching applicants to help them discover the very best fit for their career aspirations," West said, adding her property has also hired 30 J-1 visa students for June through September.
Because the hotel is part of Hilton's Curio Collection, it's been able to hold onto employee benefits at a time when some companies have had to reduce them.
Recruiting efforts include re-emphasizing some existing benefits such as free public transportation for team members on the local bus system or trolley, which resonates with candidates as gas prices have spiked. Additionally, on May 1, the property launched "DailyPay," which allows participating team members to access their pay on the day they work, she said.
The Hotel del Coronado is accustomed to staffing up for busy periods, West said, and recruitment efforts and resources are constantly reassessed. One example includes taking the hotel's traditional lobby concierge role and blending it with a call center role to form a "mobile concierge team that gets out from behind the desk and roams the resort's grounds with an iPad to help guests build compelling activity itineraries," she said.
At Indigo Road Hospitality, which has three open and operating boutique properties in its portfolio — The Skyline Lodge, The Historic Park Inn Hotel and The Alexander Hotel — leaders aren't letting their hotels fall victim to the staffing shortage.
"We know we're going to throw open our doors and be understaffed; it's an inevitability right now. Our teams are really focused on problem-solving in that climate rather than being a victim of understaffing," said Scott Neslage, director of lodging operations at Indigo Road. "We're done saying 'Oh, we can't because we're understaffed.' That is not in our vocabulary anymore."
However, it's important to set guests' expectations before they even arrive, he said. To do so, his team has streamlined its marketing.
"The staff is well-supported and prepared to deliver on what the guest is expecting. We're not over-promising or promising something that's from three years ago that we haven't updated yet, just to make sure that everybody is putting the staff in the best possible place," he added.
Indigo Road's operations team is still prioritizing cross-training for staff to take on multiple roles, but it's also clear that some specific positions can't remain unfilled.
"We have openings pretty much everywhere," he said. "We're not really thinking about seasonal versus non-seasonal because of the staffing levels overall, combined with the natural rate of attrition in the industry right now. We're just hiring," he said.
So far, Indigo Road has had success in hiring leadership roles and other salary positions but is still looking to bolster its roster of front-line employees.
"We're always in need of housekeepers, line cooks, front-desk agents. Those are the types of positions we are looking for now," he said.
One creative solution Indigo Road implemented at its Historic Park Inn Hotel in Mason City, Iowa, is a free cocktail workshop to attract bartenders. The program, led by Indigo Road's bar director, is focused on helping bartenders build their skill sets.
"The [goal] is to gain some exposure around our open positions in the market but also give something valuable back to the local bar community," he said.
Neslage said Indigo Road's general hiring philosophy is to hire based on emotional qualities not solely technical skills, realizing that people who possess the right emotional qualities can be trained.
As he has been interviewing several people over the past few months, he always makes a point to ask candidates, "What are you looking for in an employer and what are you looking for in a job?"
"Of course everyone's seeking employment because they're looking for a paycheck, but what surprised me, and I'm not quite sure what to make of this yet, the most common answer I get back is something around 'Clear communication from management, clear expectations of the role and wanting feedback on how they're doing,'" he said.
His theory for that response is that many people have lost jobs in the past few years or suddenly were expected to take on additional responsibilities while not necessarily getting compensated for it.
"We try to be clear on expectations — we set the expectation from day one [in the interview setting] that everyone is in charge of every aspect of the guest experience," he said.