It is only fair.

Give them the same increas Campbell gave himself. It is only fair and we won't talk about a pension plan. At least these workers don't spend all their time trying to put the boots to workers in general. They actually deserve 54%.

Settle, or the clout is coming

I'm sure that these "5-star" businesses charge 5-star prices and can well afford wages to match their employees' increased cost of living.

Workers should not be ashamed of letting the hotel patrons know what is going on. Perhaps some will feel a little peeved on checking out - more at the bill than the protesting employees.

I hope it's resolved in the workers' favor before then, but there will be the considerable clout preceding 2010, should the employers remain indifferent.

hotel industry profitability

2007 Trends In The Hotel Industry Report

In 2006, the average hotel manager in our 71st Trends in the Hotel Industry survey achieved a 13.3 percent gain in operating profits(1), the third consecutive year of bottom-line increases in excess of ten percent. Favorable supply / demand conditions allowed these operators to enjoy an 8.2 percent jump in revenues for the year.

Survey Results

The following paragraphs highlight the major findings from this year's survey:

Revenue
• An 8.3 percent gain in average daily room rates was the main driver of the 8.2 percent increase in total revenue. Concurrently, occupancy rose just 0.4 percent. The net result was an 8.8 percent gain in rooms revenue, or RevPAR.

• Food and beverage revenues grew 7.1 percent, while sales in other operated departments (gift shop, golf, spa, movies, parking etc...) increased 5.9 percent.

• On the negative side, telecommunications revenue declined (-5.5 percent) for the sixth consecutive year.

Expenses
• Measured on a percentage basis, the two expense items that increased the most from 2005 to 2006 were management fees (10.0 percent) and franchise fees (9.5 percent). Since these fees are typically charged as a percentage of revenue, the sharp increases were attributable to the strong gain in revenue.

• Utility (7.3 percent) and insurance costs (9.5 percent) are two expense items over which management has limited control that grew significantly in 2006.

• For the year, hotel labor costs increased a relatively modest 4.8 percent. However, what continues to concern management is the fact that the growth in labor costs was driven primarily by the increase in employee benefits.

Profits
• With revenue expanding at a greater pace than expenses, hotel operating profits increased 13.3 percent in 2006.

• Full-service (15.9 percent) and all-suite (15.2 percent) hotels achieved the greatest gains in profits among the five property categories covered in our survey. Limited-service and convention hotels saw their bottom-lines' surge by 10.8 percent, while resorts achieved a profit increase of 9.6 percent.

[Emphasis mine - these are US figures but I'll wager Canadian results are probably as good or better.]

So, murdock, cry me a river - as for your suggestion that all these people just quit - give your head a shake - many of them have invested more in these businesses than the average shareholder - they should fight for their futures, decent pay and working conditions, their jobs and some real respect.

Good on 'em!

(source: http://www.hotelresource.com/index.php)

The room rates put these hotels in stratosphere territory

.
It's not as if these hotel rooms are cheap. Maybe if you're the Queen and pose for a picture to be hung in the lobby. But for the rest of us, it's more like a basic $250 or $350 a night. Plus food. Plus plus plus.

How do I know this? From checking out the details so I can attend some of the Supreme Court hearings and/or trial on the B.C. Rail case.

At these prices, surely the profit margins are ample enough to fund generous wage increases for the people who create the welcoming conditions inside these properties.

I've stayed in 3 of the 4 hotels

I can assure you that the prices in those hotels are very high and the help is most certainly underpaid for the work they do compared to the amount of money charged.

I recently stayed at the airport Hilton near Halifax. I found the room and its furniture worn and in need of repairs; it was dirty, the service poor. Belive me, I am not overly picky, but i notice things. In my younger days, I was a property manager of 100 condo units at a 4 Star Ski resort and I know what a hotel room should look like when it is clean and properly repaired. I took severl digital photos of offending qualities of the room and sent them to the Hilton management.

The manager had the audacity to write back crying that his job was hard because the room had been occupied for 97% of the days that the hotel had been open. He had no time to keep the rooms presentable - though the hotel charged top dollar. In other words, at the prices they charge, they have been making buckets of money and they couldn't find a way to hire more staff to do the work needed between the hours when people check in and when they check out.

After working at the ski resort, I went into the construction/development business, so I know what I am saying when I state: "I would imagine that the hotel will have paid for itself in just a couple of years of operation - three years, tops!" It's my guess that the young heiress and her clan need more cash to rent and dirty-up limos so some hapless sod of a minimum wage worker can clean it for them.

Precursor to 2010

If hospitality workers think it's bad now, wait until they see what will happen when the 2010 Olympics arrive.

I recently posted an article about the current CUPE strike on my blog that hospitality workers will find interesting(http://www.olyblog.com/f/07/GarbageStrikeF09072007.shtml), but I cover the hospitality issue at length in my book, www.LeverageOlympicMomentum.com, and the outcome for workers, union or otherwise isn't pretty.

Hospitality workers will soon have to contend with thousands of young people from out of town, many with hospitality experience, interested in doing their jobs.

Legislation will change, if it hasn't already, in order to make it easier for employers to bring in temp help for the run up to and during 2010, the problem is that the temp help never leaves. This is one of the very big issues that CUPE is concerned about.

The CUPE garbage strike is only an introduction to other union labour challenges that will roll out in our region over the next couple of years.

If the hospitality workers haven't done so yet, the best tool they have is YouTube.

Upsetting a few tourists in the lobby has little impact, doing it globally however carries serious punch.

Think local. Act Global.