CHANTILLY, VA – In May 2020, Feb 2021, and now March 2022, Vinay Patel (pictured), president and CEO of Fairbrook Hotels, Chantilly, Va. has offered an honest assessment of the industry for HX: The News readers. In Patel’s latest interview with HX, a new optimism emerges, plus some significant concerns. “It is still a big challenge to find labor in terms of housekeeping,” he says. “We’ve had instances where we simply couldn’t clean the rooms to meet demand.”
Greg Thompson, editor of HX: The News: How does March 2022 compare to March 2021?
Vinay Patel, president and CEO, Fairbrook Hotels, Chantilly, Va.: It depends on which market you’re talking about. In leisure markets, where we’ve got families, weekend events, weddings, and leisure stuff like that—I’m not saying it’s back to normal but when you look at some of the leisure numbers, we’re beating 2019 numbers, and 2019 was probably one of the better years on record.
Thompson: What about the corporate side?
Patel: On the corporate side, I see light at the end of the tunnel. I genuinely do. I think last year the corporate travel was still slow, and our rates were not where they needed to be. The biggest challenge of the corporate traveler is that the corporate traveler will take a lot higher rate than a leisure traveler. We’re not able to get the rates that we need.
At our hotel, we’ve got corporate business. We’re seeing people coming back. We’re seeing people wanting to come back. I think you’ve probably heard the term “bleisure,” which is business and leisure. So you know on corporate travel, in the past, Tuesday and Wednesday were your peak nights. Our rates would spike on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Thursday and Monday are your shoulder nights, and then the weekend would be slow.
Thompson: And what are you seeing now in that corporate market?
Patel: We’re seeing that Thursdays are much better and Wednesday and Thursday are a lot better. The shoulder days are picking up. People are coming in on a Wednesday, doing business on a Wednesday or Thursday or Friday, and are staying the weekend—or vice versa. They would come in on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We’re also seeing the trend a little bit different on the corporate side where we’re seeing a lot of people who are coming on a Thursday or Friday or Saturday, and staying to a Monday, Tuesday. It’s interesting how the pandemic has shifted the travel habits of people. The corporate side is a little more complicated than the leisure side.
Thompson: What’s the labor situation?
Patel: It’s still very challenging. We’ve had instances at hotels where we simply couldn’t clean the rooms to meet the demand. I’ve got a hotel with 125 rooms. Only 102 are sold, but then I think, what happens to the other 23? Oh, they were out of order because we just didn’t have enough housekeepers. So we literally had to leave 20 rooms on the books just because it was too much for the existing labor to clean up the rooms that we had. It’s one of those things, and I hate to say it, but I feel like we’re kind of getting used to it.
Thompson: Do you feel like this problem mirrors much of the service industries?
Patel: When I travel right now, I’ll go to a restaurant and I’m used to not being served as quickly. I’m used to going to the bar and waiting a few extra minutes. I feel like we’re getting used to it. And it’s the same thing with the hospitality side. I hope it’s not a trend that continues, because we can’t continue to lose money on the hotel owner side of things.
If I can’t clean 20 rooms, I can’t sell the 20 rooms. It is still a big challenge to find labor in terms of housekeeping. Many of our housekeepers, front desk agents, and other people have gone to different industries where they are able to work different hours, odd hours, and not working a 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. or a 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. It’s a difficult challenge for the industry as a whole to deal with, because it’s a hard job.
Thompson: What is your level of optimism for the next two to three years?
Patel: For the next two to three years, it is still going to continue to be a challenge. I think we are going to have to learn to adapt a lot.
Thompson: What kinds of decisions will have to be made?
Patel: Do you clean rooms in the evening, or do you do other things at odd times? How flexible can the industry be? We’re going to have to learn to be more adaptable in terms of the labor that we have. It’s not going to change overnight. You’ve got inflation and a lot of things going on.
Thompson: What about demand?
Patel: Demand is going to pick up. Corporate travelers are coming back and people are wanting to travel a lot more. People have been pent up over the last two years now. Now when you go to indoor places, you don’t have to wear a mask. So now all of a sudden, we’re feeling good and want to travel more and more. When you have more demand on these hotels, that’s going to put more demand on the hotel owners to hire more staff. I think that’s going to make it even worse, because you’re going to have more demand, more people, and labor is not going to all of a sudden have an influx of people coming to the industry. It’s going to be a challenging time looking ahead.
Thompson: What’s your reaction to gas prices going up?
Patel: We are concerned. It worries me because when I travel right now, airfare has really gone up over the last month or so. I used to be able to book flights usually a week or two in advance, or maybe a couple days in advance, and it wasn’t too bad. But now all of a sudden, we’re seeing a large increase. And same thing on leisure travel where people drive to their destination. You go from a 20 to 25 percent increase in gas, it’s a lot. I filled my gas tank the other day and it was 80 dollars. When you see 80 dollars for a gas tank, it’s a wake up call. I think that will impact or hinder some travel ahead.
Thompson: Is the familiar breakfast buffet back in your hotels?
Patel: Yeah, they’re probably 70 to 80 percent back. Consumers are demanding it and we’ve got the existing facilities to deliver it because we used to have it in the past. We’re also becoming more competitive as well. We look at these leisure markets and we’re charging a lot more than what we did in 2019 because there’s a strong demand. And if a customer is paying a lot more, as an owner I can’t give them a two-ounce muffin, because he or she is paying a lot of money. So we are pushing the envelope in terms of the F and B part. I think that’s going to get back to what we had before, if not more.
Thompson: What would you say to someone who was on the fence about going to a trade show like HX: The Hotel Experience Powered By AAHOA in New York City in November 2022?
Patel: They should go. I’ve been to so many conferences already. There’s a lot of new products, lots of new things to see, and people are excited. It genuinely feels good to talk to people face to face compared to a Zoom call or a phone call. You cannot transact business, at least in our industry, without face-to-face interactions. I encourage everybody to go. Knock on wood, I think with the vaccines and the precautions, we should be safe. I encourage everybody to go out to conventions to conferences.