I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in the luxury hotels of Shanghai on recently on various projects and found service levels in general quite high. International brands seem to be investing ever more budget into training staff in English communications, sales, and even complaint management. The service skills employees develop help the hotels to maintain competitive advantage in markets that have fast-become saturated at the high-end. With room supply outstripping demand and room rates falling the last three years, developing and strengthening relationships with customers is ever more important. “Employees need to understand that guests develop relationships with the individual, not with the hotel,” one industry trainer told me.

Of course, now that the labor market is heating up again, hotels have once again become recruiting grounds for companies in need of polished staff. Hotels themselves are learning to that employees are worth more than a one night’s stand.

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