Fallout From Marriott and Hilton’s Staggering Layoffs Isn’t Easily Fixed
Photo Credit: Hotel companies like Marriott and Hilton caution labor shortages exacerbated by the pandemic are impacting business and the ability to fully recover. Wikimedia / InvadingInvader
Skift Take
Major hotel companies are recognizing that trust issues lingering from pandemic furloughs and layoffs play a major part in the industry’s labor shortage crisis.
Two of the world’s largest hotel companies laid off tens of thousands of employees apiece during the pandemic, and the recovery won’t provide a rapid re-staffing solution.
Marriott dropped from roughly 174,000 employees at the end of 2019 to about 120,000 at the end of last year, according to the company’s most recent annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A vast majority of the employee count comes from the U.S. and those working at call centers, corporate offices, and certain hotels that Marriott manages.
Hilton’s headcount plummet was a little less severe but still went from 173,000 employees at the end of 2019 to 142,000 at the end of last year across the company's owned, managed, and leased hotels as well as its corporate offices.
The drop in employment obviously wasn’t without motive: Hotels hit record-low vacancy rates amid government-ordered lockdowns. An uncertain outlook on when travel would rev
