No experience, no resume and you're hired! Hotels fight for staff

Top European hotel chains are hiring workers without experience or even a resume as executives admit years of underpaying staff have come back to bite. Thousands of workers left the hospitality industry when international travel shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many chose not to return, finding better paid employment elsewhere.

Europe’s largest hotelier Accor is running trial initiatives to recruit people who haven't previously worked in the industry, chief executive Sebastien Bazin said in an interview with Reuters at the Qatar Economic Forum last month. Accor, which operates in over 110 countries, needs 35,000 workers globally, he said. “We’re having people interviewed with no resume, no prior job experience and they are hired within 24 hours,” Bazin said. 

In the short term, Accor is filling roles in France with young people and migrants while also limiting services.

Staff shortages are particularly pressing in Spain and Portugal, where tourism accounted for 13 per cent and 15 per cent of economic output, respectively, before the pandemic. Hoteliers there are offering higher pay, free accommodation and perks like bonuses and health insurance.

Gabriel Escarrer, CEO of Spanish hotel chain Melia. said to attract staff, his company recently provided accommodation due to a shortage of rental housing near its resorts.

The operations director of Hotel Mundial said it was currently trying to recruit 59 workers. “If we cannot recruit, we will have to cut services,” he said. “This is regrettable and dramatic for an industry that has had no revenue for the last two years.”

Jose Carlos, 52, can only open his Madrid bar, Tabanco de Jerez, during the weekend. “During the week we can't open because we have no hands, they are studying,” he said, gesturing to his student workforce setting up tables on a Saturday.

At Madrid’s vibey La Latina district, the Angosta Tavern owner, Mariveni Rodriguez said, “We give the opportunity to migrants who come with a desire to work as they have no family or institutional support,” she said. Spain’s catering industry is 200,000 workers short and Portuguese hotels need at least 15,000 more people to meet growing demand, according to national hospitality associations.

“The solution will surely be to pay more,” said Jose Luis Yzuel, from the catering services sector association.

In Spain, bars and restaurants increased workers’ wages by nearly 60 per cent in the first quarter compared to previous year according to official data. But the industry still pays employees the least, around ^1,150 per month. In neighbouring Portugal the average wage in the sector is ^881 per month, above the minimum wage of ^705.