Hotels innovate in recruitment to cope with soaring bookings

Hospitality expert says hotels are very busy, but their staff shortages are putting pressure on their quality of service

John O'Grady, managing director of Perfect Reception, with Jim McCoy, CEO of Complete Outsource Solutions and executive chairman of Perfect Reception. Picture: Brian Lougheed

Hotels are innovating in their approach to recruitment to ensure they continue to deliver quality service to their guests, says one leading hospitality expert.

John O’Grady, MD of Cork-based Perfect Reception, a specialist call centre for hotels in Ireland, UK and France, says he is not surprised to see hotels quickly resolving the imbalance between soaring demand for hotel nights with the reduced staff numbers in the wake of the pandemic. He says hospitality service providers have always been quick to react to challenges.

“Hotels are very busy right now and they’re going to have a good summer,” says Mr O’Grady. “Their big challenge is staffing. For most hotels, their recruitment drives haven’t solved the problem.

“Traditionally, hotels would employ a lot of students for the summer months, but far more students than usual have decided to go abroad for work this summer. On top of that, hotels lost a lot of staff during Covid lockdowns.

“Still, guests in four-star and five-star hotels expect personal attention. Hotel owners want to ensure that their guests get the level of service that they rightly expect. To look after their product, hotels are now rapidly adapting, and this is where some outsourcing comes in.” 

 Mr O’Grady’s views are backed up by his 32 years working in hospitality, notably in senior roles with PREM Group, Dalata Group and a suite of leading Irish hotels. He also worked with Mövenpick Hotels in Switzerland, Forte Group (Trusthouse Forte) in London and other hotels in the UK and in the Caribbean.

John also worked with Complete Outsourcing Solutions, working closely with Jim McCoy, CEO of Complete Outsource Solutions and executive chairman of Perfect Reception. 

Hotels that John is currently working with to optimise human resources include Radisson Group, iNua Collection, Choice Hotels, PREM Group and  Winward Hotels among others. 

John says hotel owners are keenly aware of the potential impacts that staff shortages could have on the customer experience as well as on their brand value.

“Hotels must look after their customers first,” he says. “When I sit in front of people in hotels, I know exactly what they are talking about. With 90% occupancy this summer and a surge in weddings and other events that were backed up due to Covid.

“One area that hotels can outsource is in using call centre support for their reception. Around 30-40% of the calls received are for bookings, so hotels need to protect that revenue. Guests also often phone looking for directions, or with questions about services in their room.

“Our phone agents are fully geared up to empathise with these guests. We spend a lot of time and money on training our agents, personalising the service for each hotel brand; our agents are ambassadors for that brand.

“We do weekly quizzes and our agents have to reach a target of knowledge about each hotel. With quality hotels, we have to exceed the expectations of our customers and their guests.” 

All of Perfect Reception’s agents are bilingual, with a mix of English, Spanish, French and Italian. Some of the agents are based in France, but most are based in Cork.

While some agents telework, most of its 130 or so agents work in the company’s call centre in Douglas, Cork, in shifts across 8am to 10pm, offering hotels reception cover 14 hours a day, seven days a week.

On average, most hotels will receive 30,000 to 35,000 calls per month, rising to 70,000 calls in a busy month. Without backup, hotels miss 40 calls a day, with many of these effectively being lost bookings.

When they are out, around 70% of hotel guests use their mobile phones to book food, drinks and room services. Perfect Reception’s also deal with these mobile order and pay services, along with telemarketing and other tech-driven interactive services.

Breaffy House Resort, a stunning Victorian manor in County Mayo.

Wilson Bird, general manager of Breaffy Hotel & Resort, set on 101 acres in Castlebar, Co Mayo, is a customer of Perfect Reception. Breaffy Hotel, its sister hotel Breaffy Woods and their self-catering apartments are all seeing a surge in international and Irish-based holidaymakers. Wedding bookings are particularly strong.

“We’re lucky in that we managed to retain most of our staff as we also acted as a vaccine centre and as a testing centre during the pandemic,” said Mr Bird. “Nonetheless, staffing is a real challenge at the moment, which is why Perfect Reception is a real godsend for us.

“It’s Sod’s Law that a run of guests will arrive in together at 3pm or 5pm, so having the reception calls covered is a blessing for the business. Missed calls mean missed bookings.

“We also see that a rush of bookings can come in the TV ad breaks, say during the 6pm or 9pm TV news. When we do a radio ad campaign, we’d also tend to get a surge in phone calls. Our reception simply couldn’t handle those surges while also dealing with requests from our guests.” 

 The Breaffy hotels also saw a surge in home holiday market bookings after media coverage of the chaos for passengers in Dublin Airport. Bookings for weddings, deferred during Covid, are now soaring.

Wilson Bird, general mManager of Breaffy House Resort, says: “We often see a rush of bookings in the TV ad breaks, say during the 6pm or 9pm TV news."

The Breaffy hotels employ around 230 staff. They take on another 70 or so seasonal staff, many of those aged 17 or younger. They expect to take on another 20 people above the usual summer surge.

“We have three weddings waiting in the hope of a Friday or Saturday becoming available, but we’re also seeing people having their weddings on a Tuesday or Wednesday, which is something we’ve never seen before,” said Mr Bird.

“People have been adapting. We have hosted hen nights where the bride is already married. Due to a run of postponements, we’ve had a wedding that had a christening on the same date. So yes, demand is soaring.”