Europe’s biggest hotel chains are hiring with no experience or even resumes, and managers admit years of underpayment are now causing problems, leaving them unable to keep up with post-pandemic travel demand.
Thousands of workers left the hospitality industry when international travel came to a halt during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many chose not to return, finding higher-paying jobs elsewhere, leaving hoteliers to grapple with acute shortages.
Europe’s largest hotel chain Accor is piloting people with no experience in the industry, CEO Sebastian Bazin told Reuters in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum last month.
Accor, which operates brands like Mercure, ibis, and Fairmont in more than 110 countries, needs 35,000 employees worldwide, he said.
“We tried out such an initiative in Lyon and Bordeaux ten days ago, and this weekend we are interviewing people with no resumes and previous work experience, and they are hired within 24 hours,” he says.
In the short term, Accor is filling jobs in France with youth and migrants while cutting back on services.
“We are talking about students, people who came from North Africa,” he says. “And closing restaurants for lunch or only opening them 5 days a week. There is no other solution.”
Recruits go through six hours of training and learn on the fly, he said.
The shortage of workers is particularly acute in Spain and Portugal, where tourism accounted for 13% and 15% of economic output, respectively, before the pandemic.
Hoteliers offer higher wages, free accommodation, and incentives such as bonuses and health insurance.
“Many employees decide to change sectors, so we are starting the industry from scratch and we have to compete for talent,” Gabriel Escarer, chief executive of the Spanish chain Melia, told reporters in Madrid.
To attract employees, his company recently provided accommodation, sometimes in hotel rooms, due to a shortage of rental accommodation near its resorts.
Small hoteliers face similar problems.
The director of operations at the Hotel Mundial – one of Lisbon’s most iconic hotels – says he is currently trying to hire 59 employees. He fears that without enough people, some hotels will cut back on the number of guests and the services they can offer.
“If we can’t hire people, we’ll have to cut services,” he says. “This is unfortunate and dramatic for an industry that has had no revenue for the past two years.”
In Spain and Portugal – two of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe – the pattern is being repeated in bars, restaurants, and hotels – a booking that was welcome but at a price that is hard to pay.
José Carlos Sacco, 52, can only open his bar in Madrid, Tabanco de Jerez, on weekends, when students in need of additional funds are out of class and available for work.
“We can’t open during the week because I don’t have hands, they’re studying,” he says, pointing to his student staff who serve tables on Saturdays.
In Madrid’s La Latina district, Angosta tavern owner Mariveni Rodriguez hired migrants during peak season.
“We empower migrants who want to work because they don’t have families or institutional support,” he says.
Spain’s catering industry is short of 200,000 workers and Portuguese hotels need at least 15,000 more to meet growing demand, according to industry associations.
“The solution is higher pay,” says José Luis Izuel of the catering association.
Efforts are also being made to bring back employees. In Spain, bars and restaurants increased employee salaries by almost 60% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, according to official figures. But the tourism industry is still the sector where workers are paid the least at around 1,150 euros a month.
In neighboring Portugal, hotel wages are expected to rise by 7% this year, according to a study by the central bank and the National Statistical Institute, but the sector’s average wage is 881 euros a month, just above the country’s minimum wage.
Bazin says that although the hotels are only 60-70% full, they can cope with the shortage of staff, but when they are fully booked there will be real pressure.
In the past, the industry has either underpaid or focused on staff development, Bazin says.