We hear about labor shortages throughout the hotel industry these days, but there is another drag on performance that deserves attention as well – staff onboarding and training. One of the key benefits of hotel software automation is its ability to support short-staffed teams and streamline processes. Less often advertised is how it can also reduce the amount of time needed for employee training – saving money in the process.

Employee Turnover: The high cost of knowledge lost

The hospitality industry is one of the largest employers in the world. It is also an industry well-known for its extraordinarily high employee turnover rate. In 2020, the industry had a pandemic-induced high turnover rate of 130%, but in 2017, the hospitality sector had an average turnover rate of 72.4% (Bureau of Labour Statistics Job Openings and Labour Turnover report). More recent figures show that the industry’s current turnover rate is sitting around 73.8% - significantly above than the national average employee turnover rate across all industries of 12-15%.

Employee turnover has a direct impact on business revenue and profitability. When it comes to the hotel industry, its exceptionally high employee turnover rate is a driver of operating costs. While figures can vary depending on an employee's position and wage, according to Gallup, the average cost of replacing an employee can range from one-half to two times an employee’s annual salary. In numbers, a 100-person organization that provides an average salary of $50,000 could have turnover and replacement costs of approximately $660,000 to $2.6 million per year – a hefty price to pay. This high sum includes hiring expenses, lost sales, productivity and employee training costs – because once you hire someone, you also need to train that person.

Employee Training and Hotel Technology: Essential but no simple task

Training is an essential part of any job particularly in such a consumer-facing industry like hotels. It is important to get it right because when an employee feels confident in their skills and abilities, they tend to complete assignments more quickly, efficiently and successfully. Without the right training, not only do hoteliers risk hurting the guest relationship with poor employee knowledge and communication, but also lose revenue opportunities.

And it doesn't just stop at new hires; seasoned professionals and existing employees all need upskilling or training at some point. It’s not a one-off exercise, but an ongoing strategy to ensure everyone across your hotel keeps their knowledge and skills up-to-date.

Often, one of the biggest hurdles’ hotels must overcome is training employees to use technology properly. It is one of the most poorly executed tasks, which is ironic, because without the right training hoteliers cannot leverage their latest tech investments to their potential.

On average, across all industries, an organization with 100 – 10,000 can spend anywhere from $581 to $1,678 per employee on training. A figure that is even more weighty in an industry with a high turnover rate – investing time, resources and dollars, only to watch it walk out the door a few months later – and then, repeat.

In short, training is a drag. It’s a drag for the people who have to do it and a drag for the business who has to pay for it. It can be extremely demanding on a business and it is difficult for any party to get legitimately excited about it. But imagine a world where training was easy, not arduous, even cost effective – perhaps no cost at all.

Automation: The currency that buys time – and money

By now, it’s well known that automation increases productivity by automating tedious processes. It frees up human workers' valuable time to focus on more important, dynamic work.

As such, automation has a direct impact on the time needed for employee training. A skill, such as upselling, usually requires in-depth training, incentivization, quality monitoring and ongoing schooling. Get a new front staff member and repeat the process. But with an automated upselling solution such as ROOMDEX, the time and associated cost required is substantially reduced, if not eliminated. Why? Because the system doesn’t need to be trained, re-trained or incentivized. It is a cash machine that keeps working consistently.

"We’ve always kind of worked with some kind of tool for upselling– from human resources-based upselling where you have training and upsell on property, to half-automated systems where you either upsell at the end of the booking engine journey, or as an email. And, of course, they all required some human input...But ROOMDEX Upsell Automation is a set-it-and-forget-it solution that delivers the lowest cost revenue a hotel can generate". Jens Egemalm, Distribution Director, Pandox Operations.

“ROOMDEX is on the top of my list! The front desk does not have to spend an extra second upselling". Georgios Rouvelas, General Manager, Hotel Juliani, Malta.

Hotels are working with fewer resources; turnover remains at an all-time high and training budgets are tight. A training-intensive task such as upselling is no longer manageable or practical with fewer resources. As upsell automation removes the need for training, it gives hoteliers back much needed time to provide guest service and capitalize on other revenue opportunities.

About ROOMDEX, INC

ROOMDEX is the technology leader in the hotel upselling software space. Its hotel upsell software automates, monetizes and ultimately simplifies the hotel room upgrade process by putting the power of choice in the hotel guest's hands.

ROOMDEX Upsell Automation uses hotel reservation, guest data and its proprietary True AvailabilityTM and Dynamic Pricing algorithms to deliver personalized digital offers, greatly enhancing the guest experience. The hotel upsell tool relieves hoteliers of the labor time required by other upselling solutions while delivering high margin revenue and a substantial ROI.

ROOMDEX is now the exclusive provider of ABS Upselling. Attribute-based selling re-imagines hotel inventory merchandising, delivering a unique and improved guest satisfaction and increased hotel revenue.

ROOMDEX leverages hotel operational and software experience gained by our team members while in leadership roles at companies such as MICROS (now Oracle Hospitality), Nor1, Duetto, StayNTouch and Shiji to develop our innovations in hotel automation, dynamic pricing, operational availability and attribute-based selling. Since founding in spring of 2020, ROOMDEX has signed hundreds of hotels across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Website https://www.roomdex.io
Twitter: @ROOMDEX
Facebook: facebook.com/roomdexinc
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/roomdex
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Paul Peddrick
ROOMDEX, Inc.