How Hotels Are Saving Big and Solving Labor Challenges

Glenn: Hey, my hospitality out there. It’s your friendly neighborhood glen here. I’m excited to be back with you today because I know the struggles that you’re going through. You’re all trying to accomplish more with less. We’re all understaffed. Things are costing more. It’s becoming more complicated out there. So we’re trying to find great solutions in order to make your lives easier out there. So when thinking this through, that’s why I had to reach out to our friends over at Food Buy and Tia Ariano, Senior Category Business Manager. Tia, so great to hear from you. Starting to think like hotels are never going to get back to the levels of employment they think they have, and now it’s kind of time to reset our expectations of how many people are working in hotels. How are you thinking this issue through for your customers?

Tia: Absolutely. First off, thanks for having me excited to talk through this. Not a great time to talk about always, but it’s unfortunately our new norm, I think, post-Covid. And I think we all have to adapt to it. And hotels are finding innovative solutions to adapt to that by utilizing companies such as Food Buy to help them out. You know, we continue to hear from our members that they’re struggling with staffing in areas of housekeeping and in front of staff in front of office. And, you know, they can’t waste the time shopping around to find the products and services they need at the best price. And that’s how Food buy can step in and help. So members of my team and category business management, as well as our sourcing teams do the research find the best suppliers, distributor partners to help hotels out. You know, we have we partner with the leading industry distributors who can act as one stop shops for hotels. They have all the products they need for housekeeping, engineering, front of office so you can get your amenities, your bedding, your key cards, your plumbing supplies all from one place at the best price. And that’s one of the best values of food buy, I would say.

Glenn: Absolutely, absolutely. It’s interesting because you’re, you know, I’ll say it. Your name is Food BAE. So I’m not necessarily thinking housekeeping bae. So it’s really important that everybody knows that you really have a wide panoply of products that are helpful. But let’s take a look at what you folks are doing, for example, with housekeeping. That’s helping simplify things for housekeepers. And I will say, the more you can simplify things for housekeepers, not only will you help get things done quicker, but the level of engagement amongst that team will rise. Saving you money because I ain’t quitting. So Tia, how do you feel about that?

Tia: Absolutely. And to your to your first point, we are so much more than food. That is kind of our tagline on our team here on the supply, equipment and services. We’re so much more than food, and we have so many programs in that space to help out housekeeping. So we also work with leading industry manufacturers who are the top suppliers and manufacturers of hospitality grade products. So it’s going to withstand that hospitality use. And so, you know, there’s lots of examples from our programs. I’ll touch on a few for housekeeping specifically. You know, we have manufacturers in the textile space that have box to bed programs so they can get those boxes in the door, unbox the products, and get them right on the bed. So that’s saving them time and saving them money in laundering as well. That’s one great solution from our textile manufacturer programs. The in the amenity space. So the in room you know, shampoos and soaps we’re moving from the mini bottles to the large format bottles. Those are going to save time in replacing and also waste. You know, housekeeping isn’t throwing away these bottles, and they’re also not replacing them as often.

Speaker3: And I’ll say.

Glenn: It’s really cool because a lot of them have like a clear stripe going down the side that see through. So housekeepers could see instantly whether or not it’s low, not having to check each thing. So all of these little increments of time over the day really add up to real savings for housekeeping team.

Tia: Exactly. Yep, that that view strip on those bottles is for the manufacturers to take in from housekeeping staff at hotels to help them better be able to turn around those rooms, for sure.

Glenn: Yeah. So all right, so what about I’m gonna name like, hotel category. You tell me. You know what you’re thinking about that one thing I that nobody ever thinks about is landscaping. How are you feeling about helping people with that?

Tia: Yeah. Here on our supplies equipment services team. We also manage all of our service programs for hotels as well. So even with labor shortages, you know, hotels need to still look in tip top shape and maintain that aesthetic. So we also have service programs to help with to combat those issues with labor shortages, shortages as well as services. So we have programs to do indoor landscaping, outdoor landscaping to make sure, you know, your your plants indoors and outdoors are taken care of. We have sensing programs as well. So, you know, when you walk into a hotel and you hit that signature scent. We have programs to curate those those custom scented programs. And then the necessary evil elevator programs. We have elevator servicers to make sure your elevators, escalators, all the people movers are always running to keep your guests moving around the property.

Glenn: That is. And that’s really essential. I love the scent. That is something that we don’t talk a lot about. A lot of major integrated resorts in Las Vegas have those signature scents, and it really, it’s one of those things you don’t think about, but it makes an emotional connection with your customer in the ways that music and decor just can’t. You think about when you have that, that smell of all the things that reminds you of whatever that is. So if you could associate your hotel with the customer, that’s a really great way to do it to you.

Tia: Absolutely. Yeah. Those are so important and and memorable to guest that, you know, some hotels even create the candles that they can sell in property as well to create some extra revenue. So it’s it’s a program that may be back in mind but very important.

Glenn: Yeah. So listen, it sounds to me like whatever you’re thinking about for your hotel food by has a solution for you. I’d encourage everybody to check that out. Tia, where can we learn more about what’s going on with you folks at Food by?

Tia: Absolutely. Log on to food. Com and hit partner with us at the top right corner on the website, and we will get right back to you.

Glenn: Beautiful I love it. And while you’re getting over to to to Tia and talking to her like share subscribe this video. We want you guys to be more successful and save money. And that’s why partnering with a company like a food buy for GPO is going to do good, as well as remove all those headaches from your life. So for Tia and myself, Glenn, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time.