Staff shortages in the hotel industry: how AI can address new challenges

Post-pandemic, the hospitality industry faced 1.2 million staff shortages as reported by the European Travel Commission. Earlier this year, HOTREC reported the sector still lacks 10-20% of its workforce in the EU compared to 2019.

This shortfall impacts hotel staff. A 2024 Axonify survey revealed that 53% of UK hospitality managers say staff shortages and burnout affect their teams. Increased workloads, higher turnover, and longer guest waiting times reduce service quality. In the USA, hoteliers have similar struggles as 76% of hotels remain understaffed, and 72% of surveyed hoteliers remain unable to fill open positions, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association survey from May 2024.

At HiJiffy, we believe AI isn’t here to replace staff but to support them. From optimising housekeeping to managing reservations and front office tasks, AI can be your reliable partner when understaffing hits hard.

This article looks at how AI can help your hotel teams run smoother during staff shortages. In particular, we will be looking at:

• Cleaning and Maintenance
• Reservations and Back Office
• Front Desk and Reception

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Cleaning and Maintenance Departments

The importance of housekeeping and maintenance departments in the hotel industry is critical, significantly impacting guest satisfaction and the hotel’s overall reputation. These departments are fundamental to the customer experience, ensuring comfort, safety and impeccable conditions during their stay. The quality of maintenance and cleanliness not only shows the hotel’s attention to detail but also influences the guest’s perception and, thus, their overall satisfaction.

In a competitive hotel market, how these departments perform is closely linked to the hotel’s prestige. Now, let’s focus on the specific challenges these departments face today and how to address them using digital communication tools and artificial intelligence to improve operational aspects, team satisfaction, the guest experience and the hotel’s reputation.

High Guest Expectations

With the boom of online reviews and social media, guest expectations have increased considerably. Positive experiences, often resulting from excellent cleanliness and maintenance, translate into favourable online reviews, strengthening the hotel’s reputation and attractiveness.

Cleaning and maintenance managers face the challenge of meeting these standards within the constraints of resources, which requires strategic planning, staff empowerment and effective communication. The most straightforward tasks to solve are the daily cleaning tasks. 

But what about resolving occasional cases?

• When the guest needs more towels or wants to change an over-soiled towel?
  
• When only cold water comes out in the shower?
  
• Or even when there are missing toiletries in the bathroom of a guest who checked in today?
  

Cleaning and maintenance teams must be prepared and trained to receive requests from guests via a centralised platform and be able to delegate someone to resolve the problem quickly. 

The capabilities of HiJiffy’s Guest Communications Hub include:

• Receiving orders from guests, without them leaving their room.
  
• Assigning team leaders to such cases automatically and quickly, based on their team’s availability.
  
• Streamlining queries into a centralised platform instead of receiving orders at the front desk.
  

This impacts the guests’ perception of the service offered, as they will have a much faster service with no more hassle than sending a message without leaving their room.

Lack of Data Adoption

Under-utilisation of data in cleaning and maintenance operations hampers efficiency and improvement efforts. Adopting technological solutions for data collection and analysis is crucial to optimise your processes. Using the HiJiffy platform will undoubtedly skyrocket your team’s productivity.

Several types of data can give you a significant advantage in optimising the performance of operational teams:

• average first response time,
• number of resolved queries,
• average query resolution time,
• guest satisfaction,
• activity maps.

This data will help your cleaning team better analyse how many queries come in daily, how often, on which days of the week, at what time and how long it takes to resolve them. 

They will also be able to prioritise their cases to be resolved more efficiently and make better decisions using inbox filters and priority statuses. Without delays and complications in the processes, guests will notice a difference in the quality and organisation of the hotel.

Low Job Satisfaction

A study conducted in 29 countries shows significant differences in job satisfaction among hotel housekeepers. Contributing factors are work-life balance, internal and external rewards, and work relationships. This department has lower levels of satisfaction compared to others in the hospitality sector.

As mentioned above, HiJiffy’s platform allows you to track, with data and metrics, the capacity and speed of response of your teams and guest satisfaction in the interactions and results of these teams. 

If the team is doing well, reward it and recognise your cleaning and maintenance teams! Or at least study their data. What for?

• To keep them motivated, as they are often the most overworked teams and the ones with the worst working conditions.
  
  
• Because an employee who is recognised and rewarded is an employee who will be loyal to you and give their all for your guests.
  
  
• And if you see that someone’s performance in the team is a bit worse, the best thing you can do is help them achieve the objectives and results with a leader who motivates them to grow.
  

How can we also help the maintenance team to overcome their challenges?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, guests expect even higher standards of hygiene. However, as discussed in the previous section, cleanliness is declining. This has made achieving optimal hygiene levels even more challenging. Once again, the maintenance department will have to take on a significant part of this work.

How can you help your Cleaning and Maintenance team during staff shortages?

Implement a maintenance management system (CMMS)

The main advantages of using a platform for hotel maintenance management are:

• To respond quickly: it allows urgent tasks to be delegated to nearby staff using mobile devices.
  
  
• To prioritise automatically: the system identifies and ranks tasks according to their importance, ensuring that the most critical tasks are carried out first.
  
  
• Task reminders: schedules and reminders of periodic tasks and checks, alerting until completion is confirmed. Your staff will be able to report problems via mobile devices, making it easy to record and manage a wide range of issues.

By integrating your CMMS with HiJiffy’s conversational AI technology, you will make the platform easier to use for both your team and your guests. An artificial intelligence-based system makes incident reporting an intuitive and simple process, increasing the likelihood that staff will report problems. 

Moreover, as it is available in several languages (more than 130), it can be adapted to users of different languages.

Your hotel’s housekeeping and maintenance departments can overcome their current challenges by implementing technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital management platforms. These solutions enable more efficient communication and quicker task resolution, significantly improving your guest’s experience and your staff’s job satisfaction. These emerging technologies are key to increasing your competitiveness and your hotel’s reputation in the marketplace by facilitating operations management and enabling effective recognition of your staff’s efforts.

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Reservations and Back Office: using AI for bookings management

What is the role and importance of the department responsible for managing hotel bookings?

Hotel Reservations Department or the Back Office is responsible for managing hotel booking requests. It plays a crucial role in maximising occupancy rates and generating revenue through direct bookings.

The staff shortage in this department needs to be addressed as it has a crucial impact on the prosperity of your hotel. Among other things, a suboptimal reservation service may result in: 

• Poor customer service, as having a small team to manage bookings may result in longer waiting times for dealing with requests or booking errors, resulting in guests’ dissatisfaction.
  
  
• A loss of revenue. Bookings that are not logged or poorly managed due to staff shortages can result in a loss of revenue for your hotel. Potential guests may be lost due to mismanagement of bookings, and sales opportunities may be missed.
  
  
• Work overload and lack of operational efficiency as employees may be overwhelmed by an additional workload caused by staff shortages. Furthermore, tasks may take longer to complete, and processes may be delayed. 
  

In short, staff shortages in your hotel’s booking service can have serious consequences, impacting the team’s operational capacity, guests’ satisfaction and your hotel’s revenue. With the increasing difficulty of recruiting skilled staff, AI is emerging as a promising solution. What benefits can it offer you? Let’s have a look. 

What are the challenges in bookings management service?

Before exploring how AI can help fill the staffing gap in the Reservations team, it is crucial to understand the challenges facing this department as a result of staff shortages: 

• Real-time booking management, especially during peak periods. It is one of the major challenges for a hotel’s Back Office team. During these periods, such as school holidays or end-of-year holidays, demand for bookings can spike significantly, increasing the pressure on staff to process requests quickly and efficiently.
  
  
• Preventing overbookings and duplicate bookings. Overbookings and double bookings are another important challenge for a hotel’s bookings department. Staff must, therefore, be able to closely monitor current bookings, update availability in real time, and quickly identify and correct booking errors.
  
  
• Customisation of offers to meet the specific needs of each guest. Each guest has unique preferences, requirements and needs when choosing accommodation. Some may seek rooms with sea views, others prefer rooms closer to the gym, while others may have special requests such as extra beds for children. Managing all these expectations efficiently and offering a personalised service can be a logistical and operational challenge for booking teams, especially during busy periods.
  
  
• Management of last-minute cancellations and booking changes. Your guests may wish to cancel or amend their booking at any time. This can be particularly difficult for bookings departments to manage, as it requires a quick and effective reaction to adjust availability and respond to guests’ requests. Of course, the aim is to minimise the loss of revenue and optimise the use of available rooms.
   

How to resolve bookings management challenges with AI?

More and more hoteliers are using technology. According to a recent study by Food Hotel Tech and Food Service Vision, 40% say they are “very interested” in integrating AI into their business. In general, back-office functions are best suited to this transformation, including maintenance management and bookings. 

Thus, once you have chosen the AI solution best suited to your needs, you can then use it to: 

• Automate and optimise the booking process. As illustrated above, one of the biggest challenges for booking teams is managing requests in real-time, especially during peak periods. Implementing an AI-based solution helps manage the influx of requests, offering personalised customer support at all times. HiJiffy’s virtual assistant is not only available 24/7, but it is able to automatically answer more than 85% of guests’ common questions in more than 130 languages. Implementing AI also helps you to analyse past booking trends, predict fluctuations in demand, and automatically adjust prices and availability based on these forecasts. Result: a better guest experience and increased revenue. 
  

• Avoid overbooking and mistakes. By integrating an AI-powered solution into bookings management, you will reduce the risk of overbooking and duplicate bookings. This translates into a smoother guest experience, a reduction in errors, and optimised revenue for your business. Ultimately, using AI in bookings management allows you to provide a quality service while at the same time maximising your profitability. Remember to check that the AI-powered solution you want to use perfectly integrates with your booking engine.
  

• Analyse customer data to offer guests a personalised service. AI-based solutions allow you to analyse guests’ data and thus better understand their needs and preferences. For example, AI can recommend rooms with specific features based on a guest’s past preferences, or even suggest complementary activities or services that suit their interests. This makes it possible to offer a more personalised service and thus improve guests’ satisfaction, at the same time boosting your revenue with upselling opportunities. 
  

• Manage booking changes and cancellations efficiently. Being available 24 hours a day, an AI-powered virtual assistant can be used to manage requests to change bookings, providing fast and efficient support to guests to meet their needs.

Integrating AI into your hotel’s bookings department is an effective solution to overcome staff shortages in hospitality while at the same time improving guest satisfaction. This technology also enables trend analysis to enable accurate financial forecasting. In addition, it identifies periods of low and high demand, allowing the marketing department to develop targeted strategies to attract guests during these periods and the bookings department to prepare effectively to manage peak seasons.

Implement an AI-powered solution to boost direct bookings

In short, integrating an AI-powered solution for guest communications like HiJiffy is an effective response to the challenges facing booking management services. By adopting these technologies now, your facility can not only address staff shortages but also offer excellent customer service. The result? Reinforced guest loyalty and better competitiveness!

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Supporting Hotel Front Desk and Reception with AI

The hotel industry has proven to be resilient despite the challenges it had to overcome during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the industry has recovered from the effects of the crisis, the shortage of skilled workers remains an intractable problem that continues to affect many hotels. 

How does the staffing shortage affect the front office and reception, what are the associated challenges, and how can hotels address those challenges? After all, reception is not only the first point of contact for guests but also an important part of the guest experience that contributes significantly to their satisfaction. Let’s explore how AI can help your reception staff.

How to extend a warm welcome to guests at your hotel even when you are experiencing a shortage of staff

Despite staff shortages in hospitality, it is essential that guests receive a warm welcome at your hotel. Reception is central to the guest experience as it is the first point of contact. Not only does it deal with check-ins and check-outs, but it also offers personal attention by answering guest inquiries and solving problems. Friendly and efficient service is crucial to making sure guests feel comfortable and valued from the moment they arrive until they leave.

The front desk faces significant challenges due to staff shortages, which can affect the team as well as guest satisfaction. Given the mounting difficulty of attracting qualified personnel, AI technology offers a promising, supportive solution that increases efficiency.

What challenges does a hotel reception face?

A hotel’s front desk is confronted with many and varied challenges that can have a significant impact on the guest experience and team efficiency, such as

• Extended waiting times: if there are not enough staff available, there may be longer wait times when checking in and out. This can lead to dissatisfaction and frustration among guests.
  

• Decreased quality of service: an overworked reception team can struggle to maintain high standards of service. This can lead to an overall deterioration in the quality of service, including slower responses to guest inquiries and complaints.
  

• Language barriers: in an international hotel environment, the lack of multilingual staff can lead to communication problems, especially if the available staff do not speak the languages of the guests.
  

• Delays in resolving issues: Staffing shortages can lead to guest complaints and issues not being resolved in a timely or effective manner, which in turn can affect guest satisfaction.
  

• Susceptibility to errors: staff shortages often affect the accuracy and care with which tasks are performed. This can lead to errors in bookings, billing, and other administrative tasks.
  

These challenges can significantly impact a hotel’s guest experience and reputation. However, technologies such as AI and automation can help alleviate some of these problems by automating standard processes and deploying the remaining staff more efficiently.

How AI can effectively solve challenges caused by staff shortages at hotel receptions.

As digitalisation and the use of AI advances, new opportunities are opening up to improve guest service while addressing staffing shortages.

Efficient online check-in and check-out 

• Implementing online forms for pre-registration and check-out allows guests to provide their details in advance, significantly reducing waiting times at reception. The HiJiffy solution uses WhatsApp to automate these processes, with about 60% of check-ins being handled digitally, significantly reducing queues.

24/7 contact with AI

• AI-supported systems can provide a contact for guests around the clock. Even in the event of staff shortages, this ensures that guest requests are received and processed at all times, ensuring a continuous and high-quality guest experience.

Language barrier lifted

• Language barriers are a major challenge at the front desk, where clear communication is vital. AI-powered technologies such as HiJiffy’s digital concierge, which is available in over 130 languages, make it much easier to interact with international guests.

Automated upselling and cross-selling

• Automated campaigns allow the digital concierge to offer additional services to guests during their stay. The virtual concierge not only supports the booking of additional services but also offers personalised recommendations, which helps to increase sales.

Automated complaint handling and satisfaction surveys 

• AI-powered chatbots automatically detect guest complaints and forward them to the right person for quick resolution. Additionally, satisfaction surveys can be sent automatically during the stay to collect direct feedback and continuously improve the quality of service.

Integrating AI into the front office not only provides an effective solution to staff shortages, but also increases customer satisfaction by automating repetitive tasks and reducing the burden on employees. This allows your team members to focus on what matters most to create an outstanding guest experience.

By using AI technologies, your hotel can not only overcome operational challenges but also sustainably improve service quality and stand out from the competition. AI-powered chatbots are also a convenient alternative to hotel mobile apps, as guest do not need to download anything on their devices.

HiJiffy’s conversational AI as the key to overcoming staffing shortages

If your hotel is currently facing staff shortages at the front desk, using AI technologies offers a promising solution. These innovative tools not only improve communication and customer service, but also reduce your staff’s workload by taking on repetitive tasks and handling guest inquiries efficiently. The integration of HiJiffy’s conversational AI increases efficiency and allows staff to focus on delivering a first-class guest experience. Investing in AI-powered solutions is, therefore, not only a response to current challenges but also a strategic decision for the future of your hotel.

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