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About 74 percent of U.S. hotels are dealing with shortages of key supplies and paying more for those they can find, reducing their margins, according to a report by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA).
Eighty-six percent of lodging establishments the AHLA surveyed reported supply-line disruptions are posing moderate to significant problems for their operations.
The survey’s other findings:
- 85 percent of inns are short of linens and soft goods and 77 percent are paying more for them;
- 76 percent lack enough food and beverage supplies and 77 percent have seen prices for them rise;
- 72 percent are low on cleaning and housekeeping items, with 79 percent reporting higher prices.
The problems have worsened this quarter, according to 52 percent of respondents.
Innkeepers see more of the same next year: 46 percent say the shortages and price increases will continue for six to 12 months, while 36 percent say the troubles will last more than a year.
“Hotels have a complex supply chain that requires regular procurement of a wide range of goods and services each day,” AHLA CEO Chip Rogers said in a statement announcing the survey’s results.
“Whether it’s production backups or shipping delays, supply chain disruptions are compounding hotels’ existing problems and increasing operating costs during an already tough time,” he noted.
Rogers again called on Congress to pass the Save Hotel Jobs Act, which would subsidize lodging businesses’ payrolls.
TREND FORECAST: As we have said before in articles such as “Hotel Industry Suffering From COVID Wars” (12 Oct 2021), it will be years until the hotel industry ‘recovers’ from the COVID War.
And, should politicians and Presstitutes continue to ramp up new virus scares—such as the Omicron which followed the Delta which followed Coronavirus—the hospitality business will continue to suffer.
Moreover, dozens of large corporations have permanently slashed their travel budgets (“HSBC Endorses Remote Work Model, Slashes Travel Budget,” 14 Sep 2021), depriving many large urban and metro-area inns of their main source of profits.
Leisure travel has begun to return, but with new restrictions, it will slow down and will not bring enough revenue to the hotel industry to sustain its pre-COVID size.
TREND FORECAST: Unmentioned in mainstream media coverage is the disastrous hit the convention and trade show has taken since the COVID War began. Thus, those hotels depending on that market sector—will either close or never reopen, leaving giant buildings vacant and for sale.
Tens of thousands of low-skill jobs will disappear with those hotel rooms, leaving a legion of unskilled or low-skill workers to be retrained, reabsorbed elsewhere in the low-wage economy, or on the public dole.