Walk into any hotel that has earned its reputation, and the reason is rarely hard to find. There is an energy, a warmth, that has nothing to do with the building and everything to do with the staff who run it. The receptionist who makes a guest feel welcomed rather than merely processed. The waiter who remembers a preference without being asked. The housekeeper who leaves a room feeling cared for rather than simply cleaned. These are the moments guests carry home with them, and they are entirely human in origin.
What keeps a hotel exceptional is the people who choose to stay and work there, and as the industry navigates a period of rapid technological change, that is worth remembering. What guests want from a hotel has not changed. Holding onto the staff who can deliver it is the real challenge, and the real priority.
Give staff the gift of time
Deloitte’s research into frontline workforce trends found that 60 per cent of workers in hospitality say employee turnover has increased as organisations incorporate worker data with AI and related technologies. Hospitality Action’s 2025 Taking the Temperature survey found that 57 per cent of professionals cite understaffing as their primary challenge, up 21 per cent on the previous year. Over half of guests still favour human interaction when they stay.
Where technology earns its place is in the background, absorbing the administrative tasks, the repetitive processes, the operational friction that quietly consumes the energy of good people who would be better placed engaging with guests. When systems are designed with this in mind, they give something back: time. Time for a manager to notice something and make a moment memorable. Time for a team to focus on the guest in front of them rather than the spreadsheet behind them.
By adopting technology in service of people, hotels can streamline operations and reduce administrative burdens without sacrificing the experience that guests truly value. The result is a workplace where employees want to stay and an experience that keeps guests returning. When new tools or systems are introduced, the human side of that transition matters as much as the technical aspect. Staff who are trained thoughtfully, consulted where possible, and given time to adapt will find ways to use new capabilities that no implementation plan could have predicted. Those who feel change is being done to them rather than with them will, understandably, begin to look elsewhere.
A workplace where people want to stay
At Burgh Island, we employ 75 staff year-round, rising to 95 in summer, making us the largest employer in the local area. We have invested £1 million in staff accommodation in a part of Devon the ONS records the average South Hams property price at £369,000, among the highest in the South West, and a figure that puts homeownership out of reach for the majority of hospitality workers in the area. Every member of staff has access to Health Assured’s Employee Assistance Programme with 24/7 confidential support. According to Hospitality Action, more than a third of hospitality workers say financial pressure is their single greatest source of stress, making practical support of this kind as important as any salary figure.
Investing in people also means investing in the quality of their training. Our Director of Guest Relations, Vladimir Krupa, trained at the ESO Euroschool Hotel Academy, the kind of institution whose rigorous, profession-focused programme the UK has yet to replicate at scale.We have also employed Ukrainian refugees who have become a valued and integral part of the team, and all staff receive ongoing development in sustainability practices as part of our broader commitment to professional development.
The hotel sits on a tidal island off the Devon coast, self-contained and screen-free, its 1920s Art Deco character preserved rather than polished into something generic. Hospitality asks a great deal of people emotionally and physically. Acknowledging that with tangible support, proper accommodation, and an environment built around care rather than surveillance, shapes a culture that guests can feel the moment they arrive.
Since acquiring the hotel in 2018, we have more than doubled its value through sustained investment in the building, the team, and the guest experience. That growth has come from consistency, from a team that knows the property and believes in it, and from an environment where staff stay long enough to become part of what makes the place memorable.
Make guests feel their arrival matters
The hotels that will be most fondly remembered, most eagerly returned to, and most warmly recommended are those where someone took the trouble to make a guest feel that their arrival mattered. That will always require people, and it will always require workplaces that give those people every reason to stay.
