It’s no secret the hospitality industry in America is in dire need of skilled employees. Many hotel owners and operators continually seek ways to attract and keep talent.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the hospitality industry has a turnover rate of nearly 75 percent per year, compared to a healthy rate of 10 to 15 percent.
Turnover costs money, not only in lost productivity, but also in the company’s investment in each worker … and the cost to train a replacement.
The greater the job responsibility, the higher the cost of replacement – from about $3,000 for an entry-level employee to $8,000 for a manager, reports Daily Pay.
In a search for ways to train and retain hospitality leaders, companies have turned to the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
Last year, a group of hotel management businesses and the association’s educational foundation teamed up to create a lodging manager apprenticeship program.
Several hundred apprentices signed on to learn the different aspects of running a hotel through hands-on training, online courses and one-to-one mentorship.
In this episode, we hear from Rosanna Maietta, president of the American Hotel Lodging Educational Foundation, and apprentice Daniel Ovichegan, who came to the U.S. from Mumbai, India, to pursue his dream career in hospitality.
Lodging Econometrics has tracked the hotel industry since 1998. Its global database includes new-hotel pipelines as well as renovations and brand conversions. Hotel franchisers once eager to launch new brands are focused on converting existing hotels because it’s a faster way to recover revenue lost to the COVID-19 pandemic than through new construction. In Episode 346, Lodging Leaders explores the increasing number of conversions in the U.S. hotel industry and what owners and operators need to consider before repositioning an asset.
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., financiers anticipated a swell of distressed hotel businesses. Some raised rescue funds to respond to what they thought was a pending crisis. Though there are financial rescues taking place, the level of such activity is far below what industry advisers and fund managers expected. Commercial real estate investors positioned to act in the early days of the pandemic held off and are now just beginning to unleash their cash hoards totaling billions of dollars. Episode 345 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores the state of capital investment in the hotel industry.