Hotelier legend Wyrsch complains: “The hotel industry is like the football transfer market.”

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The most important topic of coffee breaks after the summer holiday is: Where did the Swiss go? Active rest on the beaches of Dolce Vita or in the Swiss mountains. For hotel employees, the satisfaction of their guests requires tiring work and a few days of rest during the busy season. And fewer and fewer people are willing to do this. Companies face a serious shortage of qualified personnel.

That’s why hotels are using creative and increasingly less sensitive ways to fill their most important positions with top people. “There are now conditions similar to football in the hotel industry. It goes back and forth like the transfer market,” says Ernst “Aschi” Wyrsch, 61, President of Hotelleriesuisse Graubeğen.

Almost 8 percent of positions are open

What does he mean by this? “Companies are poaching their senior employees from each other in the bakery or the kitchen,” he explains. Hotels attract chefs and sous chefs with high salaries, four-day weeks and attractive benefits. Everyone who participates in the competition will have, for example, a ski subscription or a discounted rental apartment.

A recent survey by Hotelleriesuisse Graubsunu shows just how big the problem is for hotels. According to feedback, 7.5 percent of positions are vacant. “This is the biggest concern for hoteliers right now,” says Wyrsch. This is a problem that companies also experience, as hotel associations in the Bernese Oberland and Valais confirm.

“Transfers” increase prices

Guests barely notice this. The hotelier’s president said this all happened behind the scenes. But you can feel the transfer market in your wallet. “This increase in transfers increases prices,” says Wyrsch.

Potential workers rarely had more power in negotiations. The hotelier says this is evident in all areas. A service worker can earn between 5,000 and 8,000 francs including tips, depending on language skills and experience. “Employees set wages,” says Wyrsch. In addition, purchase prices and electricity prices are also high. Result: The mountain hotel industry adjusted its prices upward. In Graubinden, guests pay 3.5 percent more than the previous year.

This is how hotels react to staff shortages

Tourism has long suffered from a shortage of skilled workers: For this reason, some companies have reduced their menus or restricted the opening hours of hotel restaurants. “Although, of course, there is a lot left in the current squad. The worst option is for a hotel to lose its quality,” says the president of the hotel operator.

The industry is working at full speed to find a solution to the personnel shortage; There is no quick solution. Because the work is very hard and the working hours are not attractive for many people. “Young people, especially, often don’t want to take it on,” says Wyrsch. But he believes in a comeback. «We can make people happy by working in the hospitality industry. “We must convey this better through good storytelling.”

Source :Blick