Many hotels in the United States blame staff shortages for their inability to provide even essential services such as housekeeping or keeping F&B outlets open.
Marriott’s CEO gave an interview to Bloomberg TV this week and blamed Amazon for their difficulty hiring employees (and paying too high wages – essentially).
You can access the Bloomberg interview here.
Also, many hotels would prefer keeping employees on hand only during the busy days read weekends while not giving them any hours during weekdays.
Why associates would choose this when Amazon started to pay $15 per hour in 2018 and most recently raised this to $17 for new hires?
What Marriott pays per Payscale:
And Amazon:
Conclusion
One of the executives of a hotel company that owns and manages properties under various flags recently suggested that guests tip their employees more so that hiring would be easier.
I have a novel idea. Why are hospitality sector companies unwilling to pay a living wage to attract competent employees and give them a good career path?
The times of paying $10 to $12 per hour for employees In the United States is gone and should be.
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The guy/gal who hires the employee should pay the employee and calculate her/his retail price on that basis. Visitors should not be expected to pay; they do not have the correct competitive/local knowledge.
Competition is a bitch; if hotel execs cannot calculate a retail price that provides a competitive pay, they need to start working for amazon. I guess amazon is now the old P&G – the place up and coming execs need to work in order to become competent managers!
ps, you said
“and paying too hire wages – essentially”
maybe you actually meant
“and paying too high wages – essentially”
I couldn’t agree more. Pay people living wages and treat them well. What a novel concept!
I’ve been done with Marriot for a while now as their service has been TERRIBLE during the pandemic and during the recovery (ie now).
Who else has moved their business to world of Hyatt?
They need to start paying living wages in the US.. if they can do it in Australia…
“The average hotel salary in Australia is $62,500 per year or $32.05 per hour. Entry level positions start at $52,500 per year while most experienced workers make up to $113,500 per year.”
The cost of hotel rooms in Australia is also almost double the US as well. So those wages make sense scaled… Also that is based on corporate. Majority of the hotels owned by Marriott are franchisee groups.
Hear hear! If the salary you offer is not competitive, you can’t expect people to choose to work for you. Nobody to blame but yourselves. There’s no labor shortage, just a shortage of decent paying positions.
Typical Marriott blather….from the cheapest family in the travel industry.
You can’t attract high quality people if you are not willing to pay them competitively. Don’t go blaming Amazon after all there are not Amazon locations in every city that Marriott has hotels. There are way more hotels under the Marriott umbrella then there are Amazon warehouses.
Absolutely!!! Marriott claims to have over 7,000 hotels. How many warehouses does Amazon have??? You know they are terrible when they make such lame excuses. They expect to make big profits on the backs of their low paid employees. Well those days are gone and the Marriott leadership need to pay their employees better.
Yes over 7,000 hotel compared to maybe about 200 warehouses globally. No comparison, just a lame excuse. I wonder if he regrets making that comment.
If I’m expected to tip everyone at the hotel to do their job, why then should I pay the 4-5* Marriott rates?
It’s really sad if Amazon pay and working conditions are being held up as an example that is better than hotels.
Loved the Australian hotel workers’ salaries – but isn’t Australia hugely taxed on salaries with big required superannuation contributions? And a day to day cost of living that seems extremely high… these days it feels more expensive to me in Australia, than Switzerland
It’s not how much your salary is…it’s how much your worth is. A lavish spender who wastes $100k of his $120k salary is not as ahead as the $75k guy who spent $40k by through wise spending.
$13 @ Marriott vs $15 @ Amazon. I would opt for $13 @ Marriott owing to the better working conditions.
I don’t think Marriott is facing difficulty hiring because Amazon pays better. I think its simply because Marriott’s pay is just far too low and there are better opportunities available with similar or better working conditions and/or better pay (example: Starbucks).
I have a novel idea…put the sheets on the bed give me a travel pack on arrival (toiletries) and pay me to do the few minutes of work it takes those “high quality” individuals to prep my room. I’ll even tear down the sheets on checkout!!
I can’t make a bed … I’m hopeless with out my wife..
LOL…but you survived medical school?
Right, …. knock $25 a day off the room rate, hand me the sheets and towels, shampoo and soap and I’ll clean my own room.
….blames Amazon….I’m far from an Amazon fan but raise your minimum wage and run your hotels – daily linen changes, room cleaning and food and beverage service ! Just excuses to dumb everything down to Motel 6 and expect people to pay $200+ a night for it.
Hear hear! Couldn’t agree more.
I tip for good service, not for anything else. If I’m paying someone’s income, then that person works for me.
Hotels do not make as much money.as people think. Marriott does because they get franchise fees from each propertt but the actual owners, the ones paying the wages, have a lot of overhead. Labor is the highest cost of a hotel, even paying the lower wages.
I do agree that hourly pay needs to go up, i mean, i work in a hotel and would live better pay. But i also know it is not as straightforward as people think. The worst part as we are the ones who have to deal with the guest complaints about the lack of services. Guests can be pretty rude and clueless.
This is conflict of interest unfortunately. The employee wants job security, good conditions and the highest pay possible with the less work done. The guests on the other hand, if they could pay a dollar a night for a 5 star they would. They do not think of hotel personnel as equals but as servants.m/2nd class workers. Even though their interests are the same in relation to the working conditions. Is it human nature, capitalism, or blunt ignorance? Who knows.
I just stayed five nights at Westin Cincinnati, scant miles from one of Amazon’s busiest hubs in N KY. The ignorant employees I encountered at check-in have nothing to do with Amazon and everything to do with Marriott and its franchisees.
Well, it’s not like front desk work is the same as working at a Amazon warehouse. Front desk duty is not busy 100% of the time. You answer the phone, do a few check-in/check-out, get the security guard to deliver blankets or shampoo, run the nightly auditing report, and the rest of the time you can study. Good job for a student.
At Amazon, not hardly the same scenario. Even their delivery trucks are monitored to see how many seconds they are stopped at a certain delivery address. Why did it take you 72 seconds to deliver that package? Should only have taken 45 seconds.
Start paying more!
I manage a Marriott franchise. The charts shown contain old data. Some hotels may still be paying that, but many have shifted pay scales accordingly. At our hotel starting wage, with no experience whatsoever, and no work history, is now $15 minimum for all positions. With some experience, the wage is $16-20, and $20-25 for swing shift. It is still very difficult to get people on board, and the texting off, no shows, and ghosting is not going away anytime soon. All hotel brands are in the same boat, and every business in our city is experiencing the same thing, not just hospitality.
There are a lot of factors involved. Having owned multiple businesses in my past I know that just increasing someone’s salary is not the simple solution that some people think it is. I would love to see those people who just say raise employees salary try to operate a business profitably. It is not easy. You can not automatically raise your hotel rates to cover those expenses and remain competitive.
During the pandemic the unemployed have never received the amount of benefits like they have the past 15 months. In Texas and many other “red” states where pandemic unemployment have ended early most of the severe labor shortages have ended. Will be interesting to see if the same thing happens when other states programs end in September.
The old saying “you get what you pay for” applies not only to Marriott but to it’s paying customers. Service is practically gone in most hotels. I am a lifetime Titanium member with thousands of night and God knows how much I spent over the last 25+ years. Most hotels give you a bed and a shower and not much more. For the last 15 months I have avoided top tier hotels with higher prices and the same amenities of lower ones. Tired of grab and go carbo loaded breakfast ,no daily room attention and covid as an excuse for all problems. Even with no daily service, I still leave $3 a day for the underpaid chambermaid. Who can live on $12 an hour? Even Mcdonalds in my area pays $15. For Marriott it looks bad because it is bad.
MI reached out to me via my personal e-mail after furlough and recommended I work for Amazon, amongst other companies. It is a little late to blame them. MI would not even allow me access to my earned sick benefits during an International health crisis. Despite the rising cases and my request to quarantine.
MI reached out to me via my personal e-mail after furlough and recommended I work for Amazon, amongst other companies. It is a little late to blame them. MI would not even allow me access to my earned sick benefits during an International health crisis. Despite the rising cases and my request to quarantine.