Marriott warns of ‘fight for talent’ as hotels struggle to find staff
Marriott’s chief executive has warned that the company is in a “fight for talent” as it tries to recruit 10,000 staff to its US hotels to keep pace with a sharp rebound in bookings. Tony Capuano, who took over after the death in February of his predecessor Arne Sorenson, said pandemic redundancies had “rattled” workers’ confidence in the travel and tourism sector, prompting acute staff shortages. “We’ve got to do a consistent job of sharing the narrative that it is in fact an industry segment where incredible careers can be built,” he told the Financial Times. “The ability to tell that story around the globe is more important in the face of this fight for talent than it has ever been.” Marriott, the world’s largest hotel company, has about 10,000 vacancies at its 600 managed hotels across the US. Capuano said the challenge was “particularly acute” in states such as Florida, one of the markets that has bounced back fastest from the pandemic thanks to soaring demand for resort holidays. Covid-19 infections have surged in the state during the peak summer months of July and August. At the end of August Florida’s seven-day rolling average was more than 20,900 new cases per day.