The Real People Challenges That Shape Hospitality
A People-Centred Truth From a Life in Hospitality
After decades working across hotels — from Sydney to Shanghai to London — one principle has stayed constant: hospitality is not shaped by buildings, systems, or brands. It is shaped by people.
Guests remember how they were made to feel:
The warmth of the welcome
The efficiency at check-in
The attention paid to their preferences
The calm confidence shown when something goes wrong
Everything begins and ends with people. Yet, despite investing heavily in design, technology, and marketing, our industry faces the same workforce challenges year after year — only now the pressure is greater.
Employee expectations have shifted. Guest feedback is instant. Regulations are tighter. Margins are thinner. As a result, the real work of HR in hospitality is meeting these challenges with honesty, discipline, and imagination.
Below are the issues I’ve seen repeatedly in hotels around the world — and where the real opportunities lie.
Retention Begins With Respect, Not Perks
High turnover is often treated as “just hospitality.” But turnover is always feedback.
In one London property, half the housekeeping team resigned within months — not because they disliked the work, but because rotas arrived too late and overtime was assigned without consultation. Parents couldn’t plan childcare. Students couldn’t study. Team members felt invisible.
The solutions were simple:
Rotas published two weeks in advance
Voluntary, fairly-paid overtime
Managers checking before adding extra shifts
Within weeks, resignations dropped. People stayed because their lives were respected.
Retention is not complicated: when time, dignity, and growth are protected, people stay.
Recruitment Improves When You Tell the Truth
At The Ritz-Carlton in Wolfsburg, we once hired multilingual front-of-house staff capable of handling late-night airline crew arrivals. The talent pool was small — but honesty helped us succeed.
We described the reality: pressure, late hours, demanding guests. No illusions, no glamour.
And because candidates understood the truth upfront, the ones who joined stayed.
Most adverts still promise a lifestyle fantasy. But recruitment improves when candidates see:
The real workload
The real environment
The real path for growth
You may receive fewer applications, but far better fits. Recruitment is not about speed — it’s about accuracy.
Performance Is Created in Daily Moments
Spreadsheets don’t capture hospitality performance. Moments do.
A genuine smile at reception
A bartender remembering a guest’s order
An engineer fixing an issue before it becomes a complaint
One GM I worked with insisted every manager spend ten minutes a day observing service and giving real-time feedback. It transformed the culture: staff felt supported, praise became specific, and corrections happened promptly.
When managers coach daily, consistency and pride naturally grow.
Scheduling Is the Weekly Test of Fairness
A rota is more than planning — it’s a signal.
A night porter once resigned after six consecutive overnights, despite having a newborn at home. He didn’t leave hospitality; he left an unfair schedule.
Technology helps, but fairness still comes from leaders who:
Check scheduling patterns
Publish rotas early
Allow swaps within guidelines
Balance personal needs and business needs
If you want to understand trust in your team, start with the rota.
Engagement Is Built in Small Daily Practices
Engagement isn’t created by annual awards or staff parties. It is built in the everyday interactions between managers and staff.
High-performing hotels share simple habits:
Effective pre-shift huddles
Leaders visible on the floor
Recognition given in the moment
People feel engaged not when they’re entertained — but when they’re supported to succeed.
Safety Is Part of Service, Not Paperwork
Hospitality carries risks — guest behaviour, technical issues, late-night incidents.
The most prepared teams weren’t those with the longest manuals, but those who practised until procedures became muscle memory.
Safety is not compliance.
Safety is service.
It reassures guests, protects staff, and strengthens operations.
Compliance Becomes Culture When the “Why” Is Clear
Regulations shift constantly — wages, hours, immigration, data privacy.
Compliance strengthens when people understand the purpose behind it. A manager once told me he followed working-time rules carefully because tired staff deliver poor service — not because he feared penalties.
When policies are:
Clear
Practical
Linked to purpose
Compliance becomes a culture, not a box-ticking exercise.
Training Works Only When It Fits Reality
The best hospitality training mirrors real service.
The most effective programmes I’ve overseen followed a simple rhythm:
Short lesson
Immediate practice
Same-shift feedback
At the Regent Shanghai, cross-training reception, housekeeping, banqueting, and kitchen teams created empathy and stronger collaboration across departments.
Training fails when it looks impressive on paper but can’t be used on the floor.
Inclusion Is a Daily Leadership Practice
Hotels are naturally diverse — but inclusion requires intention.
In one London hotel, leadership roles were dominated by a single nationality despite a workforce of over twenty. We changed that by:
Creating transparent promotion criteria
Introducing mentoring
Identifying talent from every background
Within a year, the leadership team reflected the diversity of the staff.
Inclusion isn’t a workshop. It’s the everyday act of noticing who is heard — and who isn’t.
Three Practices That Transform Culture Within 90 Days
Start with these, and change begins fast:
1. Five-minute huddle at the start of every shift
Set one priority, remove one blocker, recognise one contribution.
2. Visible progression map for every role
Show exactly how a team member becomes a supervisor.
3. Ten pieces of feedback per manager per week
Short, timely, specific — and consistent.
Small routines shape culture more than grand initiatives.
Summary: Where Hospitality HR Wins
The biggest improvements in hospitality don’t come from glossy programs. They come from consistent leadership habits:
Rotas that respect lives
Truthful recruitment
Daily coaching
Engagement in every shift
Practised safety
Purpose-driven compliance
Practical, real-world training
Inclusion by design, not chance
I’ve seen modest hotels outperform luxury competitors because they invested in their people. When staff feel supported, safe, and proud, guests feel it instantly — and performance follows.
Pride drives profit. Always has. Always will.
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