Innovative Response to Hotel Industry’s Grim Labor Shortage

The hotel industry is grappling to find talent. Alice Hancock paints a grim picture in her recent Financial Times piece, Marriott warns of ‘fight for talent’ as hotels struggle to find staff.

The article focuses on Marriott, the world’s largest hotel company and the struggle it faces daily — a tremendous staffing shortage. An issue impacting the hospitality industry especially hard since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.  Marriott alone has over 10,000 vacancies at its 600 managed hotels in the U.S.

The early response to the pandemic evoked high emotion, uncertainty and countless health related closures resulting in fewer hotel reservations and the elimination of hundreds of thousands of jobs. As the industry now begins to rebound, many of the laid off employees have found employment elsewhere, gone back to school, or made other life changes preventing them from returning to their former positions.

Hotel management is now feverishly looking for ways to attract workers. The top incentive, more money. Rather than rely completely on offering higher wages, a concurrent boost in tipping would raise interest and the more income for potential employees. The question is, how to get guests to increase the amount of their tips to staff. One hotel chain CEO, Ted Darnell suggests asking guests to pre-authorize tips at check-in. This may not be particularly palatable to every guest, as many enjoy tipping based on the quality of service received at the end of their experience. 

A more effective option is our new technology, eTip.io. eTip.io revolutionizes the custom of tipping by providing app-less, cashless and non-contact tipping. It’s easy, safe, fast and best of all, ensures hotel staff from housekeeping to valet service receive the gratuity they deserve. The guest simply uses a cell phone camera to access strategically placed QR codes, which triggers the phone to offer choices from pre-defined tip amounts or an option for a custom amount. The guest selects the amount, clicks and the tip is automatically credited to the correct staff member. The reminder of the QR code reinforces the frequency and rate of guest tipping. Another benefit is the guest can also provide feedback, in real-time for the quality of the service received. I invite you to explore eTip.io, let us help you in your quest to hire and retain staff.