Hotels looking to rationalise employee-to-room ratio

The hospitality industry is seeking ways to reduce payroll costs and rationalise employee-to-room ratio, said a report.

“With rising manpower costs, the higher ratio is posing a problem. Hence, companies are now seeking ways to rationalise employee-to-room ratio and cut down on payroll costs, which will improve operational efficiency,” said ’HVS-FHRAI Indian Hotel Industry Survey 2012-13’. The report said the employee-to-room ratio in India is almost twice the global benchmarks.

The average employee-to-room ratio in the country is 1.6, as hotels provide services and facilities beyond their positioning, it pointed out. Effective manpower management training in multitasking would help, it said.

Effective training accompanied by growth opportunities for existing employees would act as sound retention policy. “This will also help stabilise costs over time, as companies need not incur fresh costs in hiring.”

The data for the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) Indian Hotel Survey 2012-13 has been contributed by the member hotels of FHRAI. FHRAI has 2,505 hotels as members, of which 1,450 responded.

In 2012-13, it said, the country experienced a slowdown in growth across sectors, despite which hotels maintain occupancy levels at 60.4 per cent (60.9 per cent in 2011-12).

Some of the major cities across the country witnessed a growth of 11 per cent in hotel room supply during 2012-13, while demand increased 9.2 per cent. However, the average rate declined 3.6 per cent compared to 2011-12.

Food and Beverage (F&B) and the Banquets & Conferences department continue to give greater contribution, recording a year-on-year increase of 17.4 per cent.

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