Is this the death of hospitality

I know that sounds really dramatic but as any of those working in Hospitality will agree, it is really tough at the moment. And I am not saying that hotels and restaurants will die out, there will always be a need but the hospitality or service that will be provided will definitely change - there just isn't the same understanding or desire to deliver great service that we are so used to - I was in a restaurant recently and there was a catalogue of errors (right down to us receiving a phone call whilst we were sat at the table asking us why we had not shown up for our reservation!) but that wasn't the worst of it - what really got me was when after 20 minutes of waiting, I finally received a bottle of wine and the waitress left without opening it - when I called her back, she went away and came back to hand me the corkscrew - and she thought nothing of it - she had no idea that this is not how you do things in hospitality! And that is what we are facing, a generation of people who do not know what true hospitality is or even worse, they just don't care.

I am sure many of you will have at some point, worked in a job that was just for the money - in my teens and early 20's I worked in bars and restaurants and clothes shops - all to earn money to get me through my studies. And I can honestly say that I worked really hard, I turned up on time, in the right attire, did my job really well, always nice to customers and I went home feeling a sense of satisfaction. The money wasn't great and neither were the hours, I was often missing out on social activities because I had to work but I just got on with it. No more is that the case - we had a young lady recently who told us "Oh, I don't work on Thursdays - that's when I get my nails done" or the young man who took a flexible contract of 20 hours but then told us he can only really work weekends because of college - oh and he is 15 minutes late for every shift and has never apologised. Managers are too scared to address concerns because the employees will leave and they don't think we will be able to recruit a replacement. And what level of hospitality or service will these employees give - certainly not what we expect or our customers deserve.

And many of you will be shouting, its about the training you give and until recently I absolutely agreed - we train our employees in our Company values and also use the Fish Philosophy - encouraging them to "Be there" for guests, to "choose your attitude", to look for opportunities to "Make their day" and to have fun at work using the "Play" mentality - but what do we actually get - employees who are more interested in sorting out their social lives that focusing on customers, who will look down or shy away from guests in the lobby or the restaurant, they say "no" when asked for the most basic requests and rarely even think about how they can make someone's day - I cry when I read some of the Trip Advisor reviews and yet we pay our employees €20 euro if their name is mentioned - surely it is nice to be nice! To work in hospitality is about being hospitable. The fundamentals are to provide good service, to be there for customers, to enjoy being hospitable and to be learning great life skills - for example, the art of communication.

In the past, hospitality was a place where many people started their careers - perhaps working in a local bar or cafe whilst at school, moving on to restaurants and hotels whilst at college - earning money and learning along the way - it's fast paced and fun and a great way to meet people and if you are earning money, even better! But with 2 years of closures during the Covid pandemic, there was no opportunity for the youngsters to gain experience plus the increase in the number of tech companies in Dublin and the WFH opportunities meant that as an industry we lost large volumes of people who would normally have come to hospitality. And once in, for many, it became a career - one of the rare places you can literally start at the bottom and rise to the top of the Company - where qualifications are not what means the most - hard work and attitude are so important and anyone really can have a great career in hospitality if they really put the work in.

For every vacancy we advertise, we need to have 24 applications to choose from in order to fill the role - that is because half simply have no experience or a lack of basic English, then half of those invited to interview don't show up and then those who do, half may not be able to work the hours that are needed for the role and some don't have the right to work - or they need to work 40 hours but their visa only permits 20 and we can't break the law. I get it, who can live off 20 hours earnings in Dublin city? It's impossible and so many are forced to get 2 jobs just to make ends meet. The other thing is that some businesses are paying cash in hand - again illegal but I totally understand from the employees perspective that it is a better option. Pay them more, I hear you say - well we have increased our rates but if we were to go any higher, you would be paying 5 euros for your cup of coffee and 30 Euros for a Steak - and that is just not sustainable and that is what worries me the most. That hospitality is dying - that we will continue to accept queues and poor service, that we will tolerate a lack of hospitality or we will simply stop going out and that will mean the forced closure of more restaurants, cafes, bars and ultimately hotels.

Anyone who follows me knows that I totally believe in the power of positively, that is what I breathe on a daily basis and it makes me really sad to write this. We are working hard with the new recruits to train them in how to be hospitable, how to exceed customer expectations, to live our values and the Fish philosophy. But we need more help - we need the Government to help with Visa applications - I recently met a charity from Tanzania who have youngsters who would love the opportunity to come and do a 1 year placement here so that they can learn and take that back to their own country to help their own tourism business - that would be a great help - our best employees are hospitality students because this is a vocation for them - to be able to recruit beyond Europe would be amazing. We also need parents to help - if you have children under 14, teach them to communicate with people, not technology. If you have older children encourage them to get a job - to mix with people, to go through the tough days, to build resilience, to learn skills and to appreciate what it is like to really earn money. To understand the value of work.