Rising costs, a shrinking labor pool and soaring guest expectations have created the perfect storm for hoteliers. It’s a squeeze that shows no signs of letting up, and it means that hotels are often required to run with leaner teams – while still delivering standout service.
But fewer staff doesn’t have to mean a worse experience. In fact, smart operators are using this moment to rethink how hotels are run, redesign job roles, and embed intelligent tech in ways that elevate service, reduce churn and improve profitability.
In this article, we explore where hoteliers can find efficiency across five key areas:
- Front office
- Food and beverage
- Housekeeping
- Guest communication
- Revenue and reservations
Why fewer staff isn’t the same as less service
Let’s start with a mindset shift: cutting staff is not about overloading your remaining team. It’s about redesigning how your hotel operates.
Start by looking at where your current team adds real value – and where they’re bogged down in repetitive admin, delays or fluctuations in demand. That’s where the opportunity lies.
The goal is to make jobs more fulfilling, not more stressful. When you empower staff with flexible tech and upskill them to float across departments, you increase engagement and reduce turnover – especially at the front desk, where attrition is often highest.
1. Front office: from bottleneck to efficiency engine
Check-in is still the first impression most guests have – and it’s also where inefficiencies often show up first. Long queues during peak periods, disjointed processes and repeated interactions all take their toll.
So how can you streamline operations while creating more revenue opportunity?
- Implement online check-in/out: When done right, this can eliminate reception interactions for 30% of guests. Add SMS reminders and digital keys to increase adoption and reduce lobby congestion.
- Use kiosks strategically: These can serve as a fallback during busy periods or act as the primary check-in method with roaming hosts assisting. They’re faster, upsell better and cut down queues.
- Reimagine job roles: Combine concierge, bell staff and front desk duties into multi-skilled hosts equipped with mobile tools. It makes the role more engaging and improves flexibility across shifts.
- Optimize early arrivals: Coordinate with housekeeping to prioritize early-ready rooms and monetize them through upsells. This prevents double reception visits and improves guest satisfaction.
2. Food and beverage: reduce waste, increase impact
F&B teams are often stretched thin, especially during breakfast service. Here are ways to ease that pressure:
- Include breakfast in all rates: It reduces the need for host staffing and streamlines the experience.
- Offer flexible formats: Grab-and-go or à la carte options can reduce waste and staffing needs while improving guest convenience.
- Drive early dinner reservations: Use CRM tools, pre-arrival messages or integrations with platforms like ResDiary to boost evening bookings and enable better staff planning.
- Modernize payments: Deploy smart terminals that combine ordering, tipping and payment in one. Or use QR code ordering and payment for common spaces like the pool or lobby to increase revenue without adding staff.
3. Housekeeping: digitize and optimize
While automation can’t clean a room (yet), it can make housekeeping smarter. If you’re not already doing so, it’s time to:
- Use mobile-first tools: Equip your team with native housekeeping apps that update room status in real time, include guest notes and speed up communication with the front desk.
- Leverage intelligent scheduling: Solutions like Flexkeeping or Optii use AI to prioritize room readiness, helping reduce early check-in friction and optimize upsell opportunities.
- Rethink room service: Replace minibars with well-designed vending options or lobby kiosks (e.g., Wundermart), reducing stocking needs and driving incremental sales.
4. Guest communications: AI is no longer optional
If you’re not experimenting with AI in your hotel, you’re already behind. Guests expect fast, intuitive service in their own language. Whether it’s WhatsApp, Messenger or SMS, AI-powered guest messaging tools can:
- Handle common queries in seconds
- Book rooms, tables and activities
- Escalate to a human when needed
Partners like Runnr.ai, HiJiffy and Duve offer omnichannel support with plug-and-play integrations to Mews. This isn’t about replacing humans entirely – it’s about enhancing the service experience while freeing your team to focus on higher-value moments.
5. Revenue and reservations: smarter systems, fewer mistakes
Manual rate-setting and reservation cross-checking belong in the past. Today’s tools make a measurable difference:
- Channel managers like SiteMinder, Cubilis and D-EDGE reduce manual errors and streamline booking flows.
- AI-powered RMS tools (like Atomize, now embedded within Mews) run on autopilot to optimize pricing 24/7 – something even your best team can’t do.
- Revenue roles are evolving: Your revenue manager should now be thinking beyond rates – experimenting with dynamic pricing for add-ons, optimizing total revenue per guest and working cross-departmentally
The bottom line: train, track, try
None of this works without the right mindset and investment.
- Train your team to work across departments and embrace tech.
- Track what matters – service quality, staff satisfaction, profitability – and set clear goals to improve each one.
- Keep trying new tools – don’t lock yourself into long-term contracts. The pace of change, especially in AI, is accelerating fast.
Hoteliers are facing difficult choices – but they also have unprecedented opportunities. With the right tech stack and a willingness to rethink old models, it’s possible to operate with fewer staff, deliver better service and empower your team in the process.
For more detail and sage advice on hotel efficiency, check out the latest Matt Talks episode on how to run your hotel with fewer staff.
About Mews
Mews is the leading platform for the new era of hospitality. Powering over 12,500 customers across more than 85 countries, Mews Hospitality Cloud is designed to streamline operations for modern hoteliers, transform the guest experience and create more profitable businesses. Customers include BWH Hotels, Strawberry, The Social Hub and Airelles Collection. Mews was named Best PMS (2024, 2025) and listed among the Best Places to Work in Hotel Tech (2021, 2022, 2024, 2025) by Hotel Tech Report. Mews has raised $410 million from investors including Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Kinnevik and Tiger Global to transform hospitality.
