Business
Susan Stuart
It’s something Olivia Byrne, owner of Eccleston Square hotel in London, has noticed among her own peer group: “Managing a hotel is 24/7. It’s very operationally driven and you have to be available, especially when it’s your own business. It’s like your child. You have a lot of responsibilities and if someone doesn’t show up to work or something happens with a guest, you have to be available. That’s the biggest challenge,” she says. But being more flexible and open-minded
about career progression routes could help women make that transition to senior man- agement. WiHTL’s annual report called for “a renewed focus on potential rather than experience in hiring into senior roles” and highlighted that although 90% of hospital- ity, tourism and leisure companies had a co-ordinated diversity and inclusion strategy, just 23% had goals and targets, which can also help ensure women are reaching those top roles. Travelodge has managed to achieve gender
parity across its regional directors and oper- ating board, and 65.5% of its hotel manag- ers and assistant hotel managers are female. The budget hotel group credits this in part to its Aspire programme, which supports team members to progress from entry level through to area operation manager level. The company says that, since launching this training, almost 70% of hotel management vacancies have been filled by internal candidates. Travelodge also aims to have a gender balanced interview shortlist for all senior roles, and at least 20% minority ethnic representa- tion. This year, the company plans to increase the number of part-time management roles, starting with advertising all roles as both part- and full-time, creating a mentoring programme, and trialling an interview process more suitable for neurodiverse applicants, including providing questions in advance.
20 | The Caterer | 8 March 2024
Rohaise Rose-Bristow
Zoe Monk
“The biggest blockage for growth is that women are not
Franchising giant Wyndham Hotels &
allowed to fail” Rohaise Rose-Bristow, the Torridon
Resorts, meanwhile, launched ‘Women Own the Room’ last year, a programme targeting women’s advancement in hotel ownership. It offers enhanced capital support, reduced initial franchise fees and operational sup- port as well as networking and education opportunities. It has signed more than 30 hotels in the US and Canada so far. It’s something Samantha Trinder, co-
owner of the Bingham in Richmond, Lon- don, would like to see in the UK, particularly for Black female hoteliers. A total of 10 female entrepreneurs of Black appearance received venture capital investment between 2009 and 2019 – just 0.02% of the total amount invested, according to a report by Extend Ventures. And a 2020 briefing by the Resolution Foundation
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