Hotels are turning to automation to combat labor shortages

Shawn Knight

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In a nutshell: Hotels are increasingly turning to robots to fill jobs previously held by humans. The Garden City Hotel in Long Island invested in a pair of 66-pound, industrial-grade robot vacuums last year at about $30,000 each. That's an eye-watering amount compared to consumer-grade robot vacs like those from iRobot's Roomba line but they've already paid for themselves multiple times over.

Garden City Hotel managing director Grady Colin said that if they vacuum every floor with a robot, it saves one entire shift. That translates to one person each day that can be reassigned to do other tasks or in this environment, one less employee they have to struggle to hire.

Merle Ayers, the hotel's director of banquets, said all they have to do is change the vacuum bags periodically and keep the batteries charged.

The hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic and although travelers have returned to hotels, workers haven't. According to data from the Labor Department, there are 350,000 fewer people working in hotels today compared to in February 2020 just before the pandemic.

On average, hotels have raised wages by 25 percent and now offer greater flexibility with regard to scheduling. Still, labor is hard to come by. At the Garden City Hotel, roughly 15 percent to 20 percent of staff positions remain open. Colin, who has been in the hotel business "for a long time," said he's never seen anything like it.

Anticipating a busy 2023, the hotel is considering what other tasks can be automated through the use of robots.

It's a similar story at the Country Inn and Suites just outside Baltimore where owners Deepak and Deepa Patel can't seem to find employees to help staff their 81-room hotel. Before Covid, it wasn't uncommon to have up to 30 people on payroll. Now they have just 14 employees, despite raising starting wages by 60 percent. Their two daughters come in after school to lend a helping hand.

"Before the pandemic, we had a lot of people just walking through the door, filling out an application, but since then, we had nobody," said Deepak Patel. "Nobody wants to work, actually. We're still surprised."

The Patels are also weighing automation options, and have considered leasing a robot vacuum and contemplated installing a high-tech check-in kiosk at the front door.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Why should people work when they can suck at Sam's you know what. Dummies
Democrat's cured the pandemic, and yet there are still no employees, jobless-benefits have been cut off and there are still no employees, rent freezes and been lifted and there are still no employees, cost of gas has gone down and there are still no employees, no more free food and there are still no employees, alt-republikan run states cur off all wellfare and free housing but they don't have employees either..

reds :: "wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh we ere wrong and we do not understand why our karen snowflake over spoiled kids wont work...." lolololol .... suck that
 
You know what gets even more people interested in working?
NOT having the government pay them for sitting on their butts!
More and more "minimum wage/entry level" jobs are going to be
automated because people are LAZY.
If you are in your mid 20's to 30's and a MINIMUM wage job is all
you are "qualified" for, then you WASTED the opportunities this
nation (America) gives you by being a citizen of this nation.
 
You know what gets even more people interested in working?
NOT having the government pay them for sitting on their butts!
More and more "minimum wage/entry level" jobs are going to be
automated because people are LAZY.
If you are in your mid 20's to 30's and a MINIMUM wage job is all
you are "qualified" for, then you WASTED the opportunities this
nation (America) gives you by being a citizen of this nation.

Sounds like another potential massive voter block ripe to have dems pander to them
 
There was a time when people complained about immigrants taking jobs but these were jobs that nobody wanted to do and it looks like the robots will be the new immigrants on the block.
 
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Democrat's cured the pandemic, and yet there are still no employees, jobless-benefits have been cut off and there are still no employees, rent freezes and been lifted and there are still no employees, cost of gas has gone down and there are still no employees, no more free food and there are still no employees, alt-republikan run states cur off all wellfare and free housing but they don't have employees either..

reds :: "wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh we ere wrong and we do not understand why our karen snowflake over spoiled kids wont work...." lolololol .... suck that
I don't understand your post. There are legions of programs designed to help the "unfortunate".
 
I would not be interested in an undesirable job that does not pay well.
I wish there were mor People who paid their employees decent wages.
I know, small places cant afford anything better than minimum.
But some businesses are very profitable. Why would they not allow
someone who did not get a chance to study or find a better job to have
a good life?
Shame...
 
It is not because people are not interested in the job. Despite the increase in pay, the wages is probably still lower than what others are paying, be it in the same or different sector. You can use a machine to replace "warm bodies", but there's limitation on what can be done and replaced.

While not the same as this article, but companies are increasingly using "automated"/ robotics solution to replace human labor to save money. I cannot help but feel that it is a short sighted decision because if people don't have a job, they will be able to spend. And it is going to come a full circle and hit you back with poor demand at some point in time. So yes, cost is lower, but your revenue is also shrinking.
 
"Before the pandemic, we had a lot of people just walking through the door, filling out an application, but since then, we had nobody," said Deepak Patel. "Nobody wants to work, actually. We're still surprised."

Maybe don't pay people to sit at home doing nothing. Maybe stop giving people an extra 200 bucks a month in food stamps (yes, this is still going on across the US). This is why your BK Whopper costs $10 now and the entitled nosering crowd is still crying about how there are no "good" jobs when that same BK is paying $13 an hour.
 
How is it possible that after so many immigrants were received, to allegedly fill such job positions, very few of them are really working? Maybe because welfare is too high? And drug dealing is welcomed and advertised by the media. So, why would one do a honest job, right?
 
If hotels paid better wages, they wouldn't have these problems. But whatever, profit is king... :rolleyes:
 
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