Hotels Use $40,000 Robots and Self Service to Fill US Labor Gap

Tourism is back in the US — but hotel workers are not.

Hotels and resorts learned to operate with leaner staffing models during the pandemic. Three years later, Covid-era band-aids like self-service kiosks and less frequent housekeeping have now become the new normal for many firms seeking to cope with rising labor costs and perpetual vacancies.

While employment in a variety of industries has now surpassed 2020 levels, the accommodation industry currently employs about 238,000 fewer workers than before the health crisis — a hole that’s likely to persist.

Companies are seeing these initiatives “as a solution to the efficiency issues,” said Alexi Khajavi ...