But with a persistent shortage of staff which has afflicted hospitality since the Covid pandemic, hotels are wondering how they’re going to cope: simply how do hotel businesses manage with growing demand from customers but a skeleton workforce?
One major part of the solution could lie in embracing new technology of the robotic kind…
The ‘Great Resignation’ - also known as the ‘Big Quit’ and the ‘Great Reshuffle’ - has affected countries the world over in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Employees have been voluntarily resigning from their jobs en masse since early 2021, citing reasons like wage stagnation amid the rising cost of living, limited opportunities for career advancement, lack of benefits, inflexible remote-working policies, and job dissatisfaction.
Amongst those most likely to quit have been workers in hospitality, healthcare, and education.
In April 2021 a record 4 million Americans quit their jobs, while in October 2021 the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that food service workers' quit rates rose to 6.8%, well above the industry average of 4.1% over the last 20 years.
A survey by HR company SD Worx of 5,000 people in Belgium, France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, found that Germany was hit hardest by the Great Resignation, with 6% of workers leaving their jobs.
This was followed by the UK with 4.7%, the Netherlands with 2.9%, and France with 2.3%.
While most countries have largely recovered (Germany and the Netherlands, for example, are now enjoying some of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU), others like the UK and France are still facing high job vacancy rates.
In the UK, where Brexit has also led thousands of EU workers to return to their home countries, the situation is particularly dire, with many industries struggling to recruit: 60% of Britain’s businesses are trying to fill vacancies according to the latest survey from the British Chambers of Commerce.
Businesses in hospitality and manufacturing are struggling the most, with 83% of respondents in those industries reporting hiring troubles, while for hospitality companies the greatest difficulties being experienced are in recruiting unskilled workers.
Trade body UKHospitality has warned that businesses face a “summer slump” after the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed the vacancy rate for the sector remains at around 140,000, as it has for five months.
UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “Hospitality businesses are now entering the busy summer season but what should be a time of optimism has become one of despair. Staff shortages have plagued the sector for years and the labour market now appears to have stagnated at the worst time for hospitality, with vacancies 48% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
“There is no doubt that the sector will be going into the summer understaffed, with significant knock-on impacts for consumers.”
Against this backdrop, hotels in the UK are expecting to be particularly busy in the coming months, with three-quarters of Brits planning at least one UK break this year, according to a recent poll.
Add to that visitors holidaying in the UK from overseas, and the country’s understaffed hotels are clearly going to struggle.
So what is the answer to the recruitment headache for hospitality? How about making a robot your newest recruit?
In a hotel setting robots - or “cobots” to give them their more apt moniker due to their collaborative work alongside humans - can perform a range of manual, time-consuming tasks, from vacuuming floors to delivering room service trays and carrying dishes to tables.
As the name “cobot” suggests, their purpose is not to replace humans but to make life easier for staff and to free team members up so they can give better customer service.
As for how staff might take to the idea of working alongside robots, a survey of hospitality employees carried out in the UK last year by CGA may give some indication: three in ten workers said the technology available to staff was not at all advanced, while 88% wanted to see technology in the hospitality sector improve.
What’s more, embracing new technology like cobots could make all the difference when it comes to attracting tech-loving Gen Z jobseekers to join the hospitality workforce.
Softbank Robotics general manager Stefano Bensi says: “With a cobot on hand, menial and time-consuming tasks are taken care of autonomously. Staff have more time to concentrate on higher-value, more intricate jobs like touchpoint cleaning (in the case of a robotic vacuum cleaner) or spending more time with customers (in the case of tray delivery robots).
“We know that in the hospitality industry it is a real struggle to recruit and retain staff, and this means that robots can help add additional support to existing teams, plug labour gaps and shortages, and work when necessary to improve processes.”
Softbank’s cleaning robot Whiz can memorise up to 600 cleaning routes, vacuum 1,500 sqm of carpet on a single charge, and provide reports on its performance.
It is equipped with a 3D camera and a lidar (light detection and ranging) system.
"These are typically the types of components used in self-drive cars," explains Bensi.
"Its compact size is extremely convenient because it can clean in narrow corridors, and it is very easy and intuitive to use which means cleaners can quickly pick up how it operates."
It can also be programmed to clean at any time of day, and it’s much more efficient than manual vacuuming, according to Bensi.
"When people vacuum manually they tend to go backwards and forwards over the same spot which means each metre is vacuumed around 1.7 times. The Whiz will only do it once," he adds.
Softbank’s tray delivery robots use similar technology and come into their own in a situation where staff have to carry heavy trays of dishes a long distance from the kitchen, and where communication between front- and back-of-house is difficult.
For hotels offering room service, Softbank’s W3 robots can be programmed to integrate with the lifts and will call the guest to alert them once their order is outside their door.
It’s true to say that many hotels adopted technological aids to help them through the pandemic, with hoteliers forced to adopt automated methods to keep guests and staff safe.
Could it be that the time has come for hotel operators to recognise that technology isn’t limited to helping with bookings, ordering and payments? Perhaps it could also provide hotels with new team members - and quite possibly help them stand out from the competition too.
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