About 100,000 Jobs Likely To Open In Hospitality Sector After Major Layoffs During Covid

Hotel recruiters up their hiring game.

16 May 2024

By Khushi Maheshwari

After mass layoffs during the Covid pandemic, hotel operators are returning to the workforce, employing thousands to support their ambitious expansion goals and cover high attrition-related vacancies.

In the next 12 to 18 months, the hotel, restaurant and tourism industries are expected to generate 200,000 new employment opportunities, according to a staffing services firm forecast from TeamLease Services. According to Balasubramanian A, Vice President and Head of Consumer, Hospitality and Ecommerce at TeamLease, about half of these will be in the hotel sector.

Due to a significant increase in both business and pleasure travel, hotels of all stripes are increasing the number of employees as they expand into new areas and add more rooms. According to Balasubramanian, they are hiring for a combination of gig, temporary and permanent positions.

The Chairman and Managing Director of mid-tier Royal Orchid Hotels, Chander K. Baljee, stated that they are looking at hiring a total of around 5,000 across levels, and are planning to add about 2,000 rooms this year across their various properties. According to staffing firms and industry officials, attrition rates are also high, ranging from 30 to 50% per month for the majority of small and mid-tier hotels. 

This has caused a spike in the employment of replacement employees. They experienced attrition of 30–35% out of 8,000 people overall, which needs to be filled, Baljee declared. Three new brands will be introduced by Royal Orchid, one of which will be an upmarket five-star brand for which it has leased a 300-room building in Mumbai.

There are currently about 100 hotels in its portfolio, totaling about 6,000 rooms. The majority of its 2,000 rooms will be in western India, with the north and east coming next.

Estimates from TeamLease indicate that the 180–200 million domestic visitors that visit India each year could increase by 10 million in the next year or two. In contrast, it is anticipated that foreign visitor arrivals will increase by 20% at that time and triple from the current level of about 10 million per year in five and six years. The hotel sector will directly benefit from this expansion.

Fortune Hotels’ managing director, Samir MC, anticipates an 8–10% increase in hiring this year over previous ones.

Over 5,000 rooms are run by Fortune Hotels in 56 cities. He said that hiring is being done for the administrative, food and beverage, housekeeping and front desk departments.

According to Chairman and Managing Director Patu Keswani, Lemon Tree, another mid-tier hotel operator, plans to add roughly 2,000 rooms and hire 3,000–4,000 employees across all levels this fiscal year. He also informed that the hiring includes the attrition refill numbers of 1,500. 

The hotel sector has rebounded from the Covid-19 outbreak, which had resulted in a large loss of jobs and a reduction in workforce numbers. Compared to last year, hotel demand has increased by 20–25%. Both new and established hotels are making these demands, according to ManpowerGroup India’s president of manpower, Alok Kumar. He added that since both leisure and business travel are increasing as a result of the removal of travel restrictions and the restoration of consumer confidence, to maintain service standards, hotels are being compelled to hire more workers due to the unprecedented demand for rooms.

Front desk agents, concierges, guest relations managers, housekeepers and maintenance personnel are among the most sought-after positions. According to Manpower, demand for certain specialised jobs, such as maintenance technicians, chefs and recreation managers, has increased by more than 35% in the previous quarter when compared to the same period last year.

According to a recent estimate by ratings company ICRA, the hotel industry is expected to achieve revenue growth of 7-9% in fiscal 2025. The general increase in both leisure and business travel has led travel platforms to increase their hiring as well.

Head of People Function at online travel company Cleartrip, Ajay Sreedhara, stated that they have continued to speed up hiring as they grow the company, especially for various senior positions. They are actively looking for talent in the business development, product and technology domains and added that they are eager to consider people with relevant travel experience, ranging from senior leaders to product developers.