14-07-2025
- Business
- Travel Daily News
Booking.com Barometer 2025: European accommodation sector confident
Specialized staffing and upskilling challenges persist
With an operationally busy period ahead, hiring needs are front of mind. On average, European hotels plan to hire 3.59 employees over the next 12 months. This number varies significantly between independent and chain hotels. Independent hotels plan to hire 2.72 employees, while for chain hotels the number rises to 5.85.
According to the research, while respondents indicated that relatively low-skilled, seasonal roles are easier to fill, the opposite is true for hiring skilled senior roles (e.g. general management, sales, marketing). High salary expectations (56%) and challenges with work-life balance (52%) in the industry were noted as the largest barriers contributing to the challenge of finding staff.
47% also cited a lack of necessary skills or experience as a significant barrier to successful recruiting. Taking a risk on under qualified or less experienced candidates is equally unappealing due to the high costs associated with training and upskilling initiatives – a hurdle shared by all property sizes, as well as a lack of managerial capacity to oversee them.
Across Europe, the skills gap hits particularly hard for small and independent accommodations, which lack the training resources available to chains. In fact, 17% of all independent properties do not offer any training at all while the same is true for only 2% of chain properties. Additionally, while chains are more likely to work with external training providers (49%), as well as offer online training programs (42%), the contrast is stark for independent businesses (29% and 24%, respectively).
Digital technology and AI adoption – a growing digital divide
Many European accommodations recognize the potential benefits of AI for their business, particularly in the areas of marketing (66%), customer service (63%) and revenue management (61%). But challenges continue to hamper adoption, with three in five citing high implementation costs (61%) and integration complexity (58%) revealed as the biggest obstacles.
