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Why hospitality employees leave and how to understand why
Hotel, restaurant and banquet staff leave for reasons that vary by department and season. How to ask what sits behind the first answer and act on it.
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Hotels & Resorts · Hotel chains
HR for Hotel Chains: One Standard Across Many Properties and General Managers
A hotel chain has to deliver the same stay in cities with different labour markets. The pressure is in moving people between properties, keeping policies the same and growing general managers fast enough for each new opening.
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Share your requirementsA hotel chain owns or manages several properties under one name, from three or four hotels run by a family group to a national brand with dozens. Each property has its own front office, housekeeping, kitchen, banquets and engineering, led by a general manager and department heads. The corporate office sets standards for service, brand and costs, but the day-to-day people decisions sit with each hotel. Properties differ in size, city and season, yet guests expect the same welcome. New hotels open on a timetable and need a full team before the first booking. Read the hospitality sector page and the hotels and resorts hub for what all lodging businesses share.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in hotel chains, you may see
- Every property runs its own rules
- General managers are the bottleneck
- Pre-opening needs a full team at once
- Transfers between properties are handled ad hoc
- Corporate and property HR pull different ways
- Service standards fade between audits
- Department heads are promoted for skill, not for leading
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in hotel chains
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Corporate HR head and regional HR managers
- General managers
- Heads of front office, housekeeping, food and beverage and engineering
- Executive chefs and sous chefs
- Banquet and events managers
- Guest-facing teams at each property
- Hotel-level HR and training coordinators
- Pre-opening task force members
Where HR strains in hotel chains
Every property runs its own rules
Leave, overtime and service charge sharing differ by hotel, and staff compare notes when they move or talk to colleagues at another site.
General managers are the bottleneck
A strong GM raises a property, a weak one drains it, and there are never enough ready to take over a new hotel.
Pre-opening needs a full team at once
Department heads, chefs and line staff must be found, trained and rostered weeks before the doors open, then settle into steady work.
Transfers between properties are handled ad hoc
A supervisor moved to another city meets a new boss, new pay bands and no clear terms, and the move is remembered as a problem.
Corporate and property HR pull different ways
Head office wants consistency while the hotel needs speed, and a department head gets two answers to the same request.
Service standards fade between audits
The training given at the opening is not repeated, and by the next year each property has its own version of the brand.
Department heads are promoted for skill, not for leading
A very good chef or front office manager is given a team with no support in people management, and attrition below follows.
HR topics for hotel chains
Start with the topics that matter most here: Career and Succession Management; Policies, Compliance and Governance; Organisation Design. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for hospitality, not in general.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a hotel chains business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Set common policies with room for local variation
One base set for leave, overtime, conduct and service charge rules, with local additions agreed centrally.
What this coversHide
Set common policies with room for local variation
One base set for leave, overtime, conduct and service charge rules, with local additions agreed centrally.
What this coversHideOne base set for leave, overtime, conduct and service charge rules, with local additions agreed centrally. See HR policies and governance.
Build a general manager bench
Name possible successors for each property, record their gaps and plan stretch postings.
What this coversHide
Build a general manager bench
Name possible successors for each property, record their gaps and plan stretch postings.
What this coversHideName possible successors for each property, record their gaps and plan stretch postings. Succession planning holds this together.
Write a pre-opening hiring and training plan
Hiring dates by role, a training calendar, trial service days and a hand-over to the permanent team.
What this coversHide
Write a pre-opening hiring and training plan
Hiring dates by role, a training calendar, trial service days and a hand-over to the permanent team.
What this coversHideHiring dates by role, a training calendar, trial service days and a hand-over to the permanent team.
Agree terms for transfers and relocations
What is offered for moves, how pay bands compare across cities and who decides, written once and applied the same way.
What this coversHide
Agree terms for transfers and relocations
What is offered for moves, how pay bands compare across cities and who decides, written once and applied the same way.
What this coversHideWhat is offered for moves, how pay bands compare across cities and who decides, written once and applied the same way.
Define the roles of corporate and property HR
A short note saying which decisions sit where and the time in which each side replies, so department heads know whom to ask.
What this coversHide
Define the roles of corporate and property HR
A short note saying which decisions sit where and the time in which each side replies, so department heads know whom to ask.
What this coversHideA short note saying which decisions sit where and the time in which each side replies, so department heads know whom to ask.
Develop department heads as managers
A planned programme on coaching, rosters, feedback and difficult talks.
What this coversHide
Develop department heads as managers
A planned programme on coaching, rosters, feedback and difficult talks.
What this coversHideA planned programme on coaching, rosters, feedback and difficult talks. The manager development programme can be repeated for each intake.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- List every general manager and note who could take over each property if needed.
- Compare leave and overtime rules at three of your properties.
- Ask a recently transferred supervisor what the move was like.
- Count the department heads promoted in the last two years who received any people training.
- Check which opening or major refurbishment is next and when its hiring has to begin.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the employment, licensing and state-wise rules that apply to a multi-property hotel group.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- Succession planning
A ready line of general managers and department heads for the next opening.
- HR policies and governance
One base set of people policies, with local variations agreed at the centre.
- Manager development programme
Training for new department heads who have never led a team before.
- Competency and talent management
A shared view of skills and grades that works across properties.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in hospitality, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Management
"What if this person resigned tomorrow?" A succession exercise for small companies
A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
7 min readRead article
HR Process
What should an employee handbook include?
A practical contents list for an employee handbook in a growing Indian business: what to cover, what to leave to policies, and how to keep it usable and current.
5 min readRead article
HR Management
Everyone reports to the founder: when and how to redesign the structure
A flat structure works until the founder becomes the only route to a decision. How to tell when you have passed that point, and how to redesign without a reorganisation.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Define the standards in plain words, train every team on them and repeat the training each year. Walk through properties on a regular rhythm and share what works across hotels.
Name successors early, give them time as acting heads, rotate them across properties and pair them with a senior GM. A bench takes time to build, so start before a vacancy.
Aim for one base with a few local rules set by city or hotel size. Staff comparing notes is a sign of trust issues, so explain the reasons for any difference.
A date for each role, a trial period for service before opening, and clear authority for who may offer jobs. Plan the weeks after opening too, when a fresh team settles.
Set terms in advance for pay, housing, travel and time to settle. Agree who the person reports to and what is expected, and check in after three months to see how it went.
First we would compare people policies across a few of your hotels and talk to two or three general managers about their bench. A succession list with a base policy set is a natural first job, and scope is written for your sign-off.
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