How Distribution Technology Helps Hotels Solve Problems Created by Staffing Shortages

One of the lasting impacts of the past few years in the hospitality industry has been an ongoing shift in the labor landscape. More than 80% of hotels in the United States are reporting a staffing shortage, according to the AHLA. Meanwhile, when surveying the hospitality landscape STR reported that over 2022, most global regions showed full RevPAR recovery.  

Hotels are filling up, but many don’t have the staff to meet that demand. Hotels are facing staffing issues in the front and back office, as well as at the brand level. Macroeconomic factors are entirely outside of hotel control, but the technology you use is not.  

Your technology needs to be as up to date as your staff expectations. It should also solve the problems created by high turnover and staff shortages.  

Why you need modern interfaces and task automation  

To attract and retain talent, hotels need modern technology. Staff want and expect the same intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces in work-related applications as they expect in the applications they use in their personal lives. 

Modern interfaces make your technology easier to onboard and train new staff at every level. This is true of your day-to-day operational technology as much as its true of marketing and distribution technology. Every component of your hotel tech stack should be ready for the digital-first generation of hotel staff.  

Investing in modern, innovative technology also means investing in automation. Updating your technology lets you complete more processes with fewer resources. Replace manual, repetitive tasks with simple solutions.  

For example, automate media distribution for your hotel or hotel group to eliminate the need to tediously upload content to every site your hotel appears on. Your listing information, specifically the photos and marketing text, impacts your bottom line.  

We’ve calculated the value of descriptive content and it impacts conversion across every single website your hotel appears on. Maintaining those listings can be easy, with the power of tools like Content Manager. The modern interface in Content Manager gives your staff a single, easy-to-use interface to: 

• Upload media for distribution to external channels  
• Input categories, room types, and copyright data 

• Save time on manual uploads  

How modern technology helps: centralized knowledge 

Modern tools will help you retain staff and lessen frustration. But they also help solve some of the issues created by turnover and shortages. One of the biggest impacts of staff turnover is that knowledge walks out of the door with that staff member.  

Some of that knowledge is soft skills around guest experience, as well as the specifics of the technology you use. But it’s also very specific knowledge. For example, the passwords to all the extranets of every third-party listing your hotel appears on to update the listing itself. Or where that information and the files themselves are stored.  

Using centralized content management platforms puts all this knowledge in a shared system. Leonardo’s technology suite ensures that your media, marketing text, access to external channels, and website content stay with your hotel, even if staff leaves. 

In addition to Content Manager, Leonardo’s Content Verification system centralizes knowledge about your hotel and then facilitates updates to your photos, marketing text, and more, accurate across third-party listings.  

Learn more about how Leonardo centralizes content management to solve problems, fix mistakes, and empower your staff.

Schedule a demo today!