The Big Read: At your service — or perhaps not, as manpower crunch worsens for hotels and restaurants

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SINGAPORE: After forking out more than S$2,000 for a three-night staycation at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa in November last year, Ms Wendy Chong and her family were told that their room was not ready when they arrived at the scheduled check-in time. They were asked to wait at a restauran

Meanwhile, an Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa spokesperson said in response to queries on Ms Chong's experience that the resort constantly reviews its processes to ensure a"seamless and safe stay" for all its guests.

The border restrictions amid the pandemic have only made it even harder for hotels to recruit foreign workers. “Of course, the longer waits in queues to get into the restaurant, and in some instances, a slightly longer wait at the table for the food to arrive has resulted in some customer service issues, but credit must be given to the majority of the diners who have been more patient and understanding,” said the spokesperson.

“Housekeeping is the most challenging area, as we are finding it difficult to recruit locally for this position and have difficulty in recruiting foreign workers at the moment,” said Mr Daly, adding that wait staff for Komyuniti has been the second most challenging role to fill. The group’s hotels have also been struggling to keep pace with the fast-changing COVID-19 rules on dining-in at restaurants, he added. He cited how during the circuit breaker in April to June 2020, its restaurants were operating with a skeleton crew.

Buffets were allowed to resume in mid-2021 but servers must dish out the food items for diners, who are not allowed to help themselves to the food.in August last year and operating with an a la carte menu. Currently, the restaurant's office staff have had to help out with frontline service when necessary, he added.

While the restaurant used to rely on younger workers, it had to turn to older workers during the pandemic to plug the manpower gap. Ms Heng, the executive director of SHA, said that over the past two years, many of its 160 member hotels have embraced technology to offer contactless hospitality services, such as self-service check-in counters and robots that can deliver food to rooms.

Mr Daly, its general manager, said that this has benefitted the hotel, especially in the early stages of the pandemic when many hotels were scrambling to find ways of reducing contact among hotel guests and staff. “Outsourcing could be another consideration but this is usually used as a last resort,” he said. This is because it is difficult to get contract staff to consistently deliver the same standard of service.

 

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The Big Read in short: Manpower woes drag down hotel, F&B service qualityEach week, TODAY’s long-running Big Read series delves into the trends and issues that matter. This week, we look at how hotels and restaurants are struggling to upkeep service quality amid a severe manpower crunch. This is a shortened version of the full feature. Nonsense. Just look at all the management level executives and managers in the hotels in this country... overloaded with foreigners hired through internal hiring or transfers. Never seen such things in hotels from other countries. No locals want hotel jobs with free meals, etc.? Service quality dropped in Rome when slaves were in short supply. Similar story here. I hope the foreigners who got fired (the infamous singapore core), discriminated (vaccines rollout, financial aids) & forbidden to see their family for 2 yrs will NOT come back.
Source: TODAYonline - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

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The Big Read: At your service — or perhaps not, as manpower crunch worsens for hotels and restaurantsSINGAPORE — After forking out more than S$2,000 for a three-night staycation at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa in November last year, Ms Wendy Chong and her family were told that their room was not ready when they arrived at the scheduled check-in time. Hotels are a wonderland for foreign manpower.
Source: TODAYonline - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

The Big Read: At your service — or perhaps not, as manpower crunch worsens for hotels and restaurantsSINGAPORE — After forking out more than S$2,000 for a three-night staycation at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa in November last year, Ms Wendy Chong and her family were told that their room was not ready when they arrived at the scheduled check-in time. Hotels are a wonderland for foreign manpower.
Source: TODAYonline - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

The Big Read in short: Manpower woes drag down hotel, F&B service qualityEach week, TODAY’s long-running Big Read series delves into the trends and issues that matter. This week, we look at how hotels and restaurants are struggling to upkeep service quality amid a severe manpower crunch. This is a shortened version of the full feature. Nonsense. Just look at all the management level executives and managers in the hotels in this country... overloaded with foreigners hired through internal hiring or transfers. Never seen such things in hotels from other countries. No locals want hotel jobs with free meals, etc.? Service quality dropped in Rome when slaves were in short supply. Similar story here. I hope the foreigners who got fired (the infamous singapore core), discriminated (vaccines rollout, financial aids) & forbidden to see their family for 2 yrs will NOT come back.
Source: TODAYonline - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »