The worldwide pandemic isn’t quite over, but these days, the food and beverage departments of hotels are mostly busier than ever. That said, pandemic-related circumstances can change at a moment’s notice and F&B departments must be ready to adjust on the fly.
“What we’re seeing [especially in Las Vegas] is that the world is coming back pretty quickly,” said Jason Lapin, president of Blau + Associates, a Las Vegas-based F&B operator and consultancy. “I want to be cautious, and there’s probably some hard lessons learned over the past year, as an operator and consultant to other operators, but (COVID-19) is taking a backseat to the fact that F&B here is more pent-up business out there than our industry can handle in the current labor market. That is the far bigger conversation right now.”
With labor shortages, Blau had to become more efficient, in not just how staffing is deployed, but also entraining new entry level staff. “We had to revise our training mechanisms to get our staff up to the level of service we need, as well as to give them a lot of support,” Lapin added.
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