Europe’s hotels and restaurants are eager to welcome tourists - if they can find enough staff
The Hôtel Martinez is famous for a strict access policy to protect its famous guests.
People hoping to catch a glimpse of celebrities attending the film festival here this month had to wait outside, sitting on their suitcases, in the sweltering sun. Only those with reservations or on a list are allowed inside the art deco entrance.
Or those who might be able to prepare Mediterranean bluefin tuna.
“Cooks or room maids are not easy to find these days,” said Yann Gillet, the hotel’s manager, as he took a short break between welcoming stars during the festival. “It was a bit of a challenge.”
Whereas the Martinez has often been inundated with applications in the past, it now faces a post-pandemic staff shortage that has hit the entire industry and could threaten the speed of the continent’s economic recovery.
