Gold Coast hotels desperate for staff as new rooms open and domestic visitors flock to city

Hotel bosses say business is booming - but a critical staff shortage is leaving them unable to sell all their rooms. LIST OF VACANCIES AND HOW TO APPLY >>>

Kathleen Skene

4 min read

May 28, 2021 - 3:01PM

Gold Coast Bulletin

Your local beach might be covered in cabanas and day beds soon

Business

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SOARING occupancy rates have created a double-edged sword for Gold Coast hoteliers, who are struggling to fill more than 1000 jobs as domestic tourists flood in and hundreds of new rooms are brought online.

As governments and tourism bodies pour millions into destination marketing, some hotel bosses say they have been forced to reduce the number of rooms available to visitors as they simply don’t have the staff to properly service them.

SEE THE FULL LIST OF JOBS BELOW

A shortage of skilled domestic and international workers, coupled with a booming leisure travel market, has lead to 25,000 job vacancies across Australia, a drought which last week prompted the Queensland Government to bribe tourism industry workers with a cash payment of $1500 to relocate to the Sunshine State.

Hotels were forced to let go up to a third of staff as the pandemic shut down the tourism industry, with many finding new career paths in the meantime.

There are 10 jobs available at InterContinental Sanctuary Cove.

Actor has 76 vacancies across its Accor, Mantra, Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, BreakFree and Peppers properties on the Gold Coast, with roles available in finance, accounts, property management, chefs, housekeeping, reservations, management and more.

Gold Coast-based hospitality giant Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific last week flagged a hiring blitz thanks to pent-up demand from travellers delivering a boost to its hotels and resorts.

The company is looking for about 95 staff across Australia, including 25 new hires on the Gold Coast in a range of positions from front office staff to housekeeping.

Langham Hotels has also embarked on a recruitment drive that will see its Jewel Gold Coast resort staff grow from two people to 350 by the end of the year.

The Star Gold Coast is also looking for more than 190 new staff as it prepares to open its new luxury Dorsett hotel next year.

Gold Coast JW Marriott Resort and Spa and the Sheraton Grand Mirage, both operated by Marriott International, are currently advertising 27 positions ranging from marketing and reservations staff to food, beverage and maintenance workers.

Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort could be your next workplace.

Meriton Suites is set to open another 332 rooms in its Ocean development at Surfers Paradise, with recruiting already under way.

While eight positions are currently advertised across the three properties, many more are likely to pop up ahead of Ocean’s July launch.

IHG Hotels and Resorts is advertising 10 positions at InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort, six at voco Gold Coast and one at Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise.

The company is seeking 600 staff nationwide, with another 4000 needed “in the near future”.

RACV Royal Pines is chasing 30 staff in various positions.

Peppers Soul - this could be your view “from the office”.

Leanne Harwood, IHG Hotels and Resorts’ managing director for Japan, Australasia and the Pacific, described the situation as “the perfect storm” with bookings experiencing a “huge uplift, almost overnight”.

“Of course, it’s hard to be upset about picking up business after such a challenging year, but our problem is that there simply aren’t enough people to run hotels at such increased capacity – from amazing front line staff to the experts in finance, marketing, HR, IT, engineering and other diverse and critical roles required to run a hotel,” she said.

“So, at a time when our industry needs to recover, we’re having to reduce our inventory on sale so that we don’t struggle to provide the exceptional hospitality for which Australian hotels are famous.

“With no access to an international workforce and decreasing Australian unemployment figures, which is fuelling a battle for talent across many industries, the hotel industry does not have the workforce to keep their doors open at pre-pandemic levels.”

You could apply for work at voco Gold Coast.

Accor Pacific CEO Simon McGrath said leisure destinations were performing well as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continued and holiday-thirsty visitors flooded in from interstate and New Zealand.

He said the career path could bring extraordinary development and learning opportunities.

“I have worked for Accor for a long time, because you can be yourself and take your career wherever you want,” he said.

“If people are passionate about caring for guests and doing their best, they will go far in our industry.”

Accor's Simon McGrath.

Matthew Thomas, group general manager of Meriton Suites and a director of Meriton Group, said some staff from its Southport and Broadbeach properties would move to the new hotel, so there were vacancies at all three.

“Because our international borders remain closed for the foreseeable future, people are deciding to holiday closer to home, resulting in very high occupancy rates,” he said.

“One of the challenges in filling vacancies is skill shortage.

“Many roles within hotels are traditionally carried out by students or temporary working visa holders. During the pandemic, we have seen many of these workers return to their home countries with no new arrivals to replace them.”

The Meriton Suites hotel in the Ocean supertower, Surfers Paradise opens in July.

Adding to the challenge is the ongoing uncertainty in the sector, which is still in recovery despite the promising occupancy.

“That means it’s hard to go into salary bidding wars to keep or attract staff,” Mr Thomas said.

“We find that most applicants for our advertised roles are keen to join Meriton Suites based on our long term success, our continual growth and the many new hotels we are preparing to open.”

RACV Royal Pines general manager John Morris said his resort had looked to social media campaigns and calling former staff to invite them back – but they still had up to 30 roles to fill.

“Last year we were getting school leaver who had a gap between school and university,” he said.

“We were expecting a lot of staff would come back after the Government assistance ended, but they haven’t.

“The jobs are dynamic and tied to the occupancy, so it is still difficult to guarantee an amount of work and a lot of the roles are casual, which can make them more difficult to fill.”