With the opening of borders and the easing of the pandemic situation, the labor shortage issue in hotels has surfaced. The Ministry of Labor held a joint recruitment event for tourist hotels in Hengchun, Pingtung.
The four major local hotels, such as Fulong Resort Kenting, Chateau Beach Resort, Caeasar Park Kenting and Howard Beach Resort, released over 120 job openings, but only twenty people showed up to apply, leaving the managers sighing in frustration about the difficulty of hiring.
Previously, they faced a downturn in business due to the pandemic, and now that the situation has improved, they face the challenge of insufficient manpower and a labor shortage in the hotel industry.
With the easing of the pandemic and the surge in tourist arrivals, especially in Hengchun Peninsula, which is a popular destination for many travelers, the hotels are facing a shortage of staff.
How can they provide service to a large number of tourists? The Ministry of Labor organized a joint recruitment event, and the four major local hotels released over 120 job openings.
However, it was surprising to see that only around twenty people applied for the positions, highlighting the significant labor shortage.
General manager of Chateau Beach Resort said that:
The receptionists and service staff, as well as the restaurant service personnel, will be extremely busy, and there will be manpower issues during the holiday season. We will also arrange for logistics personnel to be deployed to the front desk to provide support.
He also said that: “With the upcoming Qingming Festival, hotel bookings are nearly complete, but we don’t have enough manpower. We can only temporarily rely on support from the back-end staff. However, this is not a sustainable solution.
To hire people, we may have to increase wages, such as offering a monthly salary of up to 50,000 for entry-level housekeeping staff with overtime pay.
The starting salary for restaurant servers and maintenance technicians is 30,000. As for receptionists and other positions, the starting salary is around 27,000. However, even with slight adjustments to salaries, we still can’t attract people. The root cause is probably not just about the wages.”
It’s not just difficult to recruit regular employees, but it’s also difficult to recruit for accommodations. When it comes to employees in the service industry, many of them choose to switch to other career paths, and it’s challenging to bring them back to this industry. However, with the booming modern delivery industry, it adds to the difficulty.
Cleaners cleaning up room in Chateau Beach Resort in Kenting
Young people prefer freedom and dislike being constrained. The travel and hospitality industry has long working hours, and they would rather choose to work as delivery drivers than in hotels.
At one point, homestay and hotel owners in Kernting were worried about not having enough business, but now they are frustrated because they don’t have enough manpower to solve the labor shortage issue, which has become a major challenge for hotel owners.