When we talk about hotels, we often talk about the guests. The perfect check-in experience. The turn-down service (with the chocolate, of course…). The food that keeps someone coming back year after year. We are masters at curating and telling the hotel guest story. And we should be—it’s what keeps us in business. But what about the employee story? That’s a missed opportunity.
Uncovering the Untold Employee Story
The hotel employee narrative has been long neglected—or worse, misunderstood. And it shows. Job seekers don’t see the hospitality industry as a place of opportunity. Instead, they see an antiquated field with little innovation, long hours, and limited growth. They picture standing behind a front desk or cleaning rooms and think, “That’s not for me,” without realizing the hundreds of career paths that exist beyond that single role.
The truth is, we have more than just a reputation problem. Some of it comes from a lack of understanding. People simply don’t know what’s possible in the hospitality industry. They don’t see the pathways—from entry-level positions to leadership roles, from operations to marketing, from finance to technology. They don’t know that many general managers, brand executives, and owners started in roles just like the ones they’re overlooking today.
And some of it is legitimate. The hospitality industry has been slow to recover from the mass layoffs during COVID-19. We’re still battling perceptions of instability, burnout, and over reliance on contract workers. These challenges are real, and they impact both sides: job seekers are missing out on careers that could change their lives, while hotels are missing out on the talent that could change their businesses. It’s a lose-lose cycle we can’t afford to sustain.
Hospitality Careers: Where Growth Meets Opportunity
Research backs this up. Research published in the book Conflict and Hostility in Hotels, Restaurants, and Bars (Ding, González, & Kesgin, 2024) explores a recent study of hospitality students found that whether they intend to pursue jobs in the industry is shaped less by pay or perks and more by how they perceive an employer’s values, inclusivity, and social responsibility. In other words, the way hotels project their identity matters. If job seekers don’t see belonging, growth, and purpose in the story, they look elsewhere—even the ones that are paying tuition and earning a degree in hospitality. And if we can’t win them over, what are we doing?
Now is the time for hotels to start telling the employee story as intentionally as they tell the guest story. The narrative of this industry isn’t just about service delivered—it’s about the people delivering it. It’s about the front desk associate who becomes a revenue manager, the banquet server who grows into a director of operations, or the housekeeper who one day runs an entire property. These stories are not anomalies; they exist everywhere in hospitality. But they’re not being amplified widely enough or told in a way that truly resonates with the people who need to hear them.
Humanizing the Employee Journey
Hospitality job seekers today want to see themselves in the story. They want to know that the role they apply for is the beginning of a journey, not the end of one. They want to understand how a job in a hotel connects to innovation, leadership, and growth. If we want them to choose hospitality, we have to show them—not just tell them—that these pathways are real and attainable.
The good news is that hotels already know how to tell compelling stories. They do it every day for guests. The even better news is that Hireology is here to help tell that story— and to apply that same creativity, intention, and authenticity to the candidate experience. Because when we tell the employee story with the same energy we devote to the guest story, we won’t just change perceptions—we’ll change the future of the industry.
