BBC
Alex Barry says he sometimes has to run a rural pub and hotel alone
Closing entire floors of hotel rooms and offering a £500 reward to new hires are just some of the ways hotel owners in rural areas say they have had to deal with a ” recruitment crisis.
Hotel and restaurant owners said that despite the slowdown in recent months, they still regularly struggled to find enough staff, leading to reduced opening hours or even the temporary closure of some services.
Alex Barry, 21, who runs the Red Lion pub and hotel in Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, said he sometimes worked alone for a whole weekend because there was no other staff to help him.
The Welsh Government said it was working closely with industry to help “recruit and retain staff”.
Mr Barry said understaffing meant he had to take on all the hotel's functions at the same time, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests and then running the bar.
“It’s very difficult to find people,” he said.
“It's unreal right now. I posted a job a few weeks ago and it took me two weeks to find just one candidate. I tried advertising on Facebook, I We had posters in the window.
“A few years ago, I had a poster in the window and about six applicants would come in. It’s so different.”
Mr Barry said the rural location and “unsociable hours” made it more difficult for some people, but said he “loves coming to work” and meeting customers.
Samantha Harper, managing director of Red Dragon Pubs, which owns the pub where Mr Barry works, said she felt the industry was in “permanent crisis” since Covid.
Samantha Harper says she tried to offer staff £500 if they could find her a boss
Ms Harper said that at the height of the staffing difficulties she offered £500 to any member of staff at her seven pubs who could find her a chef.
“We had no staff and we just couldn’t find any,” she said.
“We did it (the £500 reward) for a year. In that time we only had one person. They only lasted 12 weeks and then they left.”
Ms Harper said her channel also tried to pay for a month's ad in The Caterer, but had only one applicant, who would have had to relocate from Bangladesh.
“We are short of people wanting to clean the rooms”
“You only have to look out on the street to see how difficult it is,” she said.
“When we bought the Red Lion four years ago there were four pubs here. Now it's just us, that's how difficult it is.”
She said they relied on their existing “fantastic” staff but wanted more people to give hospitality work a chance.
A North Wales hotel owner – who asked to remain anonymous – said he had been forced to mothball entire floors of rooms in his hotels, sometimes for weeks, because he couldn't There weren't enough staff to maintain them.
The owner, who feared his hotels would hurt his business, said he had also had to reduce the opening hours of his bars and restaurants, sometimes serving only cold dishes.
He described the measures as a “last resort” and said that despite his reluctance to admit problems in the industry, he was sure many were affected.
David Chapman says he's heard of some hotels having to close rooms
David Chapman, executive director of UK Hospitality Cymru, said having to put rooms on hold was not uncommon.
“I'm experiencing floor closures, rooms being closed. We've had a shortage of people wanting to clean rooms. We've had a shortage of chefs. We're really adaptive as an industry and people are finding these solutions, but I think it’s stabilized now.”
Mr Chapman said he believed the industry was struggling with “myths” about poor pay and long working hours.
“We had to encourage people to join us,” he said.
“Wages have increased about 50% in the last four years. Obviously it's difficult in our industry where you have to serve people on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays when people want to go out.”
Mr Chapman said many hotels and restaurants he knew were working hard to make their work more flexible and he wanted more people to view hospitality as a “career” rather than a short-term job.
He said he hoped Wales' new tourist tax could be an opportunity to reinvest money into the industry and wanted the revenue to go towards tenders for large events or concerts organized here.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said it was working with businesses to help them “access training funding and secure more permanent, quality jobs throughout the year”.
“We are investing a further £78 million to provide a sixth consecutive year of support to retail, leisure and hospitality businesses with their non-domestic rates bills,” they said.
