Hotels lack staff, airline cancels fast lanes - More and more service shortcomings on vacation

Rooms not ready for occupancy, food came too late – these are buzzwords that vacationers are currently writing about their most recent trip.

Hotels lack staff, airline cancels fast lanes - More and more service shortcomings on vacation

Rooms not ready for occupancy, food came too late – these are buzzwords that vacationers are currently writing about their most recent trip. While consumers have already paid significantly more for flights and hotels this summer, they now have to cut corners when it comes to on-site service. Because the tourism industry is massively lacking in personnel almost everywhere.

A survey by the rating portal HolidayCheck, which is available to WELT, now shows how great the service lull is. Accordingly, the number of hotel reviews in which the staff shortage is explicitly mentioned has quintupled compared to the pre-Corona period. According to the portal, the proportion has increased significantly in the past three years. In the reviews, vacationers mainly name a general lack of staff, but also waiting times at room check-in and in the catering trade.

"Many hotels in the holiday destinations, but also in Germany, are understaffed and have difficulties finding new employees," explains Georg Ziegler, Brand Manager at HolidayCheck. Holidaymakers would now also see more clearly that hotels must try with all available forces to compensate for the thin staffing levels.

The good news for organizers and hotels: the guests still seem to have a lot of patience. Between January and July of this year, those who explicitly named staff shortages in their rating still gave an average of 4.4 out of 6 points for the service experienced. That is 0.5 points more than in the same period in 2019.

The cut has even improved slightly. According to HolidayCheck, one possible explanation is that after two years of Corona, holidaymakers are more understanding of the situation in hotels and staff. "However, one can also read in many of the reviews that the employees make a special effort and try to ensure that the travelers have a pleasant stay," explains brand boss Ziegler.

That seems important. After all, German holidaymakers attach great importance to good value for money. For a narrow majority of 54 percent, this is crucial, as a recent survey by the Foundation for Future Questions showed. Only then do criteria such as a beautiful landscape and good dining options follow.

For the remaining employees, however, this means in case of doubt: additional workload and overtime. In Germany alone, more than one in four (27 percent) employees subject to social security contributions decided to leave the industry during Corona. This was the result of a recent survey by the employer-related Institute of the German Economy (IW).

More than 215,000 people were looking for other jobs. According to the IW, after deducting the new hires, there is a negative balance of almost 100,000 employees. No other occupational area has lost so many employees in relative terms.

And so the industry itself has to admit problems with service. "More and more companies are currently no longer able to meet the pleasingly increasing demand to the usual extent due to the lack of staff," explains Markus Luthe, General Manager of the German Hotel Association (IHA). "As a result, opening hours are often reduced, offers restricted or events not accepted."

But holidaymakers also have to do without service at airports. Suitcases are sometimes left behind at the departure point, and the queues at the check-in counters and security checks are long. Specifically, Lufthansa customers have recently had to do without the so-called "fast lanes" at some airports. As a result, frequent flyers can no longer get through security checks faster than regular passengers.

Others, in turn, try to improve the previous processes. The organizer FTI explains that they have set up new service programs. This includes daily briefings for employees and a new service code. "In addition, we have introduced a service protocol that is used in the event of complaints or challenging guest concerns in order to immediately remedy any service deficits that have arisen," says Sabine Dorn-Aglagul, Managing Director Hotels at FTI.

And some hotels apparently rely on their customers to do so voluntarily: holidaymakers report in reviews that hotels ask whether the rooms really need to be cleaned every day.

In order for travelers to get more for their holiday money again, it will probably need more staff in the end. In any case, the hotel industry in Germany emphasizes providing job incentives. For example, collective wage agreements with wage increases in the double-digit percentage range, well above the inflation rate, have recently been concluded.

"The training allowances also increased enormously," emphasizes IHA Managing Director Luthe. The hotel industry also sees responsibility in politics. According to Luthe, there is a need for practical immigration regulations through unbureaucratic and more efficient recognition procedures and also for refugees to be successfully integrated into the labor market.

Until then, the companies must continue to hope for the goodwill of their guests. However, they remain friendly, as the HolidayCheck ratings show. "Of course you can tell that the staff is scarce," writes one holidaymaker. But: "Those who are there are friendly and helpful."

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