Just Survival only can not be the new normal for hospitality!
Never ending supply of new rules and restrictions force hotels and restaurants to keep coming up with new ideas in order to generate just enough money not to belong to the 57% of restaurateurs who expect bankruptcy this winter alone in Germany.
Now there is a fight for survival only and governments are not helping but are rather in the way. The bankruptcy wave hits all countries. Hard as it might be we have to learn from it and not repeat the same mistakes in the future.
Not an attractive profession
The hotel and catering business is not an attractive profession when it comes to working hours and salaries. Training & education has also been neglected a long time ago and thus it became more and more of a temporary job. A pool of mini jobbers (1.2 million in the hospitality industry in Germany) and the unqualified. Even those who wanted to qualify hardly had the opportunity to learn as fewer and fewer companies offer professional education. Germany is a sad example of this, especially when it comes to hospitality.
Graph showing a drop in German Hospitality education of almost 50% in ten years
Back to normal
Plexiglass partitions, masks, distance rules and lockdowns cannot be survived for long. Fortunately, there are still positive voices like Ian Schrager (Boutique Hotel Legend) who expects a return to normal soon.
"Especially a return to the old normal not a new normal”
(Coronavirus pandemic will not be a pragmatic shift in hospitality by Jill Menze September 24, 2020)
The industry will rise again, but we shouldn't let the quality of cheap chain restaurants and hotels dictated again how we should operate. Let’s return to successful training and education and attractive professions within hospitality.
Author: Stephan Busch, Academic Director at the State University for the Humanities Moscow RGGU, Faculty of Tourism & Hospitality and the Swiss International University earned his Master Certificate in Hospitality Management from Cornell University, USA. He has a diverse experience in launching operations, business development and service training- for hotel and cruise companies in Asia, Europe, Canada and Russia.
www.itsjusthotelsservice.com, contact@itsjusthotelsservice.com