Journals of a Hotel Manager

After the flood, the owners tried to scam the insurance company and got caught.  The hotel was a cash cow for them and we had been breaking even at 26% occupancy. Once the operation stopped, the owners confessed that they were actually running out of cash. They had gambled heavily on the hotel profitability and invested in numerous personal projects such as massive villas which tied up all the funds. Therefore about six months into the hotel closure none of the staff, including the GM and myself, was getting paid. We had 300 staff but with their families we were looking at feeding up to 900 people. To try to get the staff paid was the main reason for the stress that drove Alfred to drinking.

There was a regular guy called Jack who was a commis in the kitchen. Jack’s wife was seven months pregnant when we announced to the staff the sad news that not only they wouldn’t get paid, but their benefits such as health insurance would also be stopped at the end of the month.  A few days later, the HR manager told us that Jack had come to ask for her blessings.  He and his wife had decided to induce the birth of the baby before they had to face the monumental maternity bill when the baby would be born in the next month.

Simon and I were shocked and disgusted by our own inability to get staff paid. We each pitched in a few hundred dollars and gave to Jack so his baby could be born at full term.

Since the owners had no money, the hotel eventually belonged to the bank.  The bank in turn wanted their own insurance assessments.  Thus it dragged on for months.  As the money situation worsened, I regularly received phone calls from loan sharks threatening to kill my staff. Grown men stood in front of me, sobbing, as they resigned from a job they loved and looked for another job that paid.  A promising young star in F&B who graduated from a top hotel school in Australia began selling wicker baskets at dawn in the local market to make ends meet.  As a result, we began to allow staff to have second jobs while still being registered as hotel employees so they could at least feed their families.

Never in my life had I felt so frustrated and helpless.