French hotel industry ‘on its knees’ due to staff shortage, CEO says

The French hotel industry is on its knees, the head of hotel group Accor said on Friday, as it cannot afford to raise wages and has trouble hiring enough staff to handle the recovery as tourists return.

Sebastien Bazin, director of the sixth largest hotel group in the world, told the French radio station RMC that Accor currently lacks at least 2,000 employees in France, as the tourism market there begins to recover and foreign visitors return, but still it remains well below pre-pandemic levels.

He said that many employees had not returned “because they thought about things during the confinement, because they moved, they changed professions, they were no longer willing to accept the sacrifice of working hours.”

The hospitality industry in many countries has complained of difficulty in rehiring and some employers are trying to attract higher paid workers.

But Bazin said that was only part of the problem.

“If I have to pay more, will it be enough? No. Am I able to do that? No. That is the problem. ”

Bazin urged the government to reduce social charges for new hires to help the sector return to full activity.

“The entire hotel industry is on its knees,” he said and needs to be able to welcome returning tourists to survive.

Bazin also said the industry has to see how it can change to make its jobs more attractive, particularly in terms of inconvenient work hours, noting that it has trouble recruiting despite full training programs.

Accor groups luxury brands such as Raffles and Sofitel, to premium Pullman hotels and cheap Ibis and F1 hotels. It employs 260,000 people in 110 countries in 5,200 hotels.

(AFP)