The post-pandemic landscape of the hotel manager’s job: challenges and outlook from a Greek perspective

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic, as previous studies highlight, has drastically changed the world of employment and working conditions. The majority of studies are focusing on employees in general and not on the specific category of managers. Additionally, there are few studies focusing on hotel employees, even more on hotel managers. The present study aims to shed light on the impact that the pandemic and the subsequent staffing crisis had on a hotel manager’s job in Greece. As part of this study, key aspects of a hotel manager’s job were analysed including career path, remuneration, satisfaction with employer and staff members and challenges relating to staff recruitment. The study overall allows for managers’ opinion regarding their job, their working conditions and their satisfaction to be heard. Design/methodology/approach The study, mainly comparative in nature, follows a quantitative research approach and is based on two web-based cross-sectional surveys, just before the outbreak of the pandemic (winter 2018–2019) and shortly after the end of it (winter 2023–2024). The study uses a non-probability sampling, with the first survey yielding 125 valid questionnaires, and the follow-up survey another 128 valid questionnaires. Survey participants were mostly members of the Greek Federation of Hotel Managers. Findings The study details the changes brought forward by the pandemic and identifies the current key challenges regarding working conditions at hotels in Greece, highlighting how a hotel manager’s job has been impacted compared to the period before the pandemic. Despite new challenges such as the Great Resignation, job satisfaction of Greek hotel managers remains quite high with just some limited variations between subgroups of surveyed managers. The surveys yielded several recommendations about improving working conditions at hotels and overcoming the current recruitment challenges the Greek hotel sector is facing. Originality/value The present article represents the first post-pandemic study to include first-hand testimony by Greek hotel managers about how their job has been affected by recent developments and especially the current staffing crisis affecting the hospitality sector.