Double Whammy hits the hotel industry
Our hotel industry is facing a double whammy. (A double whammy is when two potent and usually unpleasant things exist at the same time). There is not a single property in the city – country that can say it has no labour challenges. Despite job opportunities outpacing available labour, most of the lower paying service jobs remain unfilled or get plugged eventually - with round pegs in square holes. Worsening the situation is the industry’s problem of been unable to raise average wage rates in a bid to attract more and better workers - especially after the 21st April 2019 setback.
Hotels by and large, with ever-shrinking staffing levels are continuously battling to meet guest expectations. Some have given up, while many others don’t really care and somehow remain in business by attracting an audience that finds mediocrity acceptable. Think about it. A good many people have replaced ‘good’ with ‘good enough’ – which by default can also mean ‘it could have been worse’. So, good enough is a way to justify better than bad…and when we encounter good enough regularly, we become conditioned to accept it as normal.
The better run hotels however, despite hitting limits on finding enough employees who can maintain their standards and culture are constantly re-thinking how service can be delivered without compromising on quality or expectations. It is here that some ingenuity is called for.
For decades, restaurant operators have been cashing in on the buffet attraction. The purpose of the buffet is two-fold: to cater to a large number of people and to give them several choices. And since the self-service model is faster than the waiter - menu system, guests enter and exit much faster.
If the guest is walking through the buffet, plating their own food and basically serving themselves, you do not need a full service staff. Likewise, in the kitchen, there is no need to have an a la carte culinary team making dishes to order – just a few cooks to make items in batches and replenish is all that is required.
Now, more than ever before, hotels have found that one sure way of addressing the labour shortage is to migrate to a totally self-service environment. So, it’s buffet in the morning, buffet in the afternoon and buffet at suppertime.
There are other self-service operations that shift more responsibility to the customers and reduce the need for frontline staff. Already we are seeing technology-enabled changes at the front desk, from automated check-in to keyless room entry.
At some point, as self-service becomes more prevalent in the industry and travelers find themselves with no real alternative, the impact on the customer experience will essentially no longer matter as expectations will adjust from ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’, to the new norms- The ‘good, good enough and it-could-have-been-worse’.
Ilzaf Keefahs - - writes on hospitality related matters that he is passionate about, and likes to share his views with hoteliers and customers alike.
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