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Lodging Conference: US Hoteliers Wait Out 'Economy in Transition' – CoStar

Next Six Months Will Still Be a Challenge

The U.S. hotel industry sits between a summer travel boom and a few more months of pandemic-driven unknown, but hoteliers are firmly focused on spring of 2022 as a more settled time with fewer variables to derail recovery.

Hotel executives speaking during the opening day of the Lodging Conference continued to emphasize the labor shortage as the industry’s No. 1 challenge, but also have moved past the labor shock and are finding efficient solutions, all in the name of flexibility.

“Hotels may not go back to 100% of the staffing levels they used to have; it may end up closer to 75% to 80% of that,” said Gilda Perez-Alvarado, global CEO of JLL Hotels & Hospitality.

Executives also aren’t shying away from talking about compensation as a major driver of employee recruitment and retention.

“Compensation is what has helped us [recruit] the most,” G6 Hospitality CEO Rob Palleschi said. “It’s all about housekeepers and laundry workers, and an extra dollar for them is consequential.”

Economist Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist of The Economic Outlook Group, called the U.S. economy “an economy in transition,” but encouraged hoteliers to hang in there a little while longer.

“If we simply look past this winter and fall, just beyond the next five to six months, we’re going to be having a much more normal economic cycle for much of 2022 and into 2023. We see far more positive forces acting on the economy than negative forces when we look at the second half of this year.”

With vaccination rates continuing to inch up, and talk of international borders opening, hoteliers here are optimistic that barring any additional virus waves or governmental catastrophes, they’ll be able to operate their hotels with adequate staffing to manage new inbound travel.

“We have to push through this. We have to get our employees safe and keep our guests safe,” Aimbridge Hospitality President and CEO Mike Deitemeyer said about the importance of vaccines. “Vaccines are the quickest and easiest answer to pushing through this.”

“For those who doubt, let’s remind them to never underestimate the strength of a woman,” Perez-Alvarado said in her acceptance remarks.

Click here to read complete article at CoStar.

Posted by on September 29, 2021.

Categories: Other

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