UK/INTERNATIONAL
A report on Boutique Hotelier website (27 July) by its editor Zoe Monk claims thousands of hotel jobs could be at risk as big brand names Marriott, Millenium and IHG look to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. This has a knock-on effect for on premise laundries (OPL) and external hospitality laundry service providers.
Monk wrote: “Around 1,000 jobs at Marriott hotels could be cut, with the brand currently entering a consultancy process at its 60 properties in Britain as well as its head offices. The group employs around 5,500 people in the UK and currently has 26 of its 60 hotels and operating. It has a similar number of hotels trading through franchises, where it will be down to each manager to decide about job cuts.”
She added that Millennium, which operates around 100 hotels around the world across seven brands, has also started a redundancy consultancy period with staff and that Hilton has recently announced plans to cut 2,100 jobs globally while InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is looking to cut costs which could see job losses at its brands such as Holiday Inn. Whitbread, owner of Premier Inn, announced that up to 250 jobs were at risk out of 1,300 at its central support centre.
UK Hospitality, the trade association for the hospitality sector had earlier warned that hotels in the luxury sector and conferencing and banqueting sector had been among the worst hit in the pandemic, with 20% of jobs at the larger chains at risk.
