The CEO of a hotel company traveled for miles to make beds at an understaffed Florida branch amid the labor shortage

A suitcase by two beds in a hotel room — Hotels nationwide continue to struggle with the labor shortage.
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty

The CEO of an Orlando-based hotel company traveled for miles to help an understaffed branch.
Jan Guatam told The Palm Beach Post he went to help "make the beds" on his way to a meeting.
"Our manager there needs help and if I don't go, what happens?" he added.

It may be a new year but there aren't many signs that the labor shortage is going to disappear any time soon.

Many businesses have been hit hard. This includes the haulage industry and in particular, the hospitality sector, but some bosses have found ways to tackle the problem head-on.

According to The Palm Beach Post, this was the case for Jan Guatam, the president and CEO of Orlando-based hotel company, Interessant Hotels & Resort Management. Guatam told the outlet that he recently pitched in to help with housekeeping duties at an understaffed Florida location.

He said that while on his way to a meeting in Fort Lauderdale from Orlando, he stopped at a Holiday Inn Express in Boynton Beach — which his company manages — to help make the beds and offer support to its manager.

Orlando and Boynton Beach are approximately a two-hour, 30-minute drive away from each other.

"I am going to make the beds," Guatam told the outlet. "Our manager there needs help and if I don't go, what happens?"

The squeezed labor market has led to wage hikes, store closures, and employee burnout.

Last year, the co-founder of a San Francisco pizza chain said he received no applications for an assistant manager, despite raising the salary to $70,000.

The Palm Beach Post reported that making beds and offering manual support to the hotel managers and employees at the 24 properties that Guatam's company owns, plus the 75 others it manages are among his most important duties as an executive.

"The people staying at our hotels demand 100% service. They are paying for it," he said. "The rooms have to be clean. They have to be ready."

Labor shortages may persist beyond 2022 and could remain a long-lasting problem, as Insider's Juliana Kaplan reported.

Results from a study conducted in November 2021 by the US Chamber of Commerce, suggested labor shortages could even be permanent, given how many people left jobs during the pandemic and have not returned to work.

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