Southeast Asia Hotel Boom Faces Staffing Crisis: Top Brands’ Solutions

Construction of hotels throughout the Asia-Pacific region is achieving unprecedented levels, as outlined in a recent pipeline trend report from Lodging Econometrics. As of late 2025, the pipeline in the region—excluding China—has expanded to exceed 2,200 projects and more than 430,000 rooms. This represents an approximate 9% year-on-year rise in projects and a 6% increase in rooms, with Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia standing out as some of the most dynamic markets driving this surge.

Rather than issues with materials like concrete or funding, the primary obstacle to further expansion is now the availability of skilled personnel. Hotel operators throughout Asia-Pacific are grappling with ongoing talent shortages, exacerbated by elevated staff turnover rates and more attractive compensation packages offered by competing sectors. This makes it particularly challenging to hire for positions that involve direct interaction with guests. In Singapore, for example, current evaluations indicate that persistent labor deficiencies could reduce hotel industry growth by as much as 1.4 percentage points, potentially undermining the benefits of an anticipated 6% yearly expansion if these staffing voids continue.

For hospitality companies operating in Southeast Asia, the critical competition in the coming decade will not revolve around the speed of hotel development, but rather their ability to adequately staff these new properties.

When Multiple Sectors Compete for the Same Talent Pool

Leading hospitality brands are prominently featured in the inaugural Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For in Southeast Asia, with Hilton, Capella Hotels and Resorts, and Marriott International securing spots in the top ten.

For the U.S.-headquartered Hilton, managing growth on a massive scale presents a significant hurdle. The company celebrated the opening of its 1,000th hotel in the Asia-Pacific region in 2024, fueled by a robust 25% compound annual growth rate over the past five years in the area. Its future plans encompass luxury beachfront resorts as well as transformations of former office spaces into hospitality venues.

To realize these ambitious objectives, Hilton must recruit and fill at least 30,000 additional positions region-wide within the next five years. This pressing need has prompted Mary Hogg, the senior regional HR director for Southeast Asia, to fundamentally reassess Hilton’s strategies for attracting and retaining talent.

“We are still confronting a shortage of qualified talent,” she explains. “Organic expansion is occurring across the board, intensifying competition in the entire talent market. As a result, we have intensified our recruitment marketing efforts to connect with individuals who might not have previously viewed hospitality as a viable career path.”

Hilton is actively working to reposition hospitality careers in Southeast Asia, moving away from the notion that they serve merely as temporary positions for the region’s youthful workforce. Instead, the company emphasizes the potential for enduring professional trajectories. “Our goal is to demonstrate that hospitality offers a versatile career that evolves alongside your personal growth,” Hogg notes. “An individual could begin at the front desk and progress to designing unique guest experiences or handling marketing initiatives in a distant location.”

However, Hogg recognizes that effective branding alone cannot address the underlying issues. “A more substantial approach involves prioritizing the well-being of our employees, ensuring that their daily work environment and experiences are as positive and supportive as possible,” she asserts.

Data from Great Place To Work across Southeast Asia reveals that top-tier hospitality employers are fostering an era of elevated trust among staff, with premier hotel chains consistently ranking among the region’s most desirable workplaces. Nevertheless, in the broader industry context, workers perceive opportunities for compensation, professional advancement, and equitable treatment as inferior compared to fields such as professional services and technology. This discrepancy in perceptions proves especially pivotal during periods of constrained labor supply.

Throughout Southeast Asia, more than two-thirds of employers are now acknowledging talent shortages and responding by enhancing salaries and offering greater workplace flexibility to remain competitive, which further complicates efforts for hospitality brands to differentiate themselves.

Scaling a Sense of Family Across an Expansive Network of 1,000 Hotels

In the niche segment of boutique luxury accommodations, the tolerance for mistakes is even narrower. A poorly executed launch can inflict lasting harm on a brand like Capella Hotel Group, which aims to double its portfolio by 2030—a setback far more damaging than mere construction delays.

Expanding a corporate culture in this sector requires careful adaptation rather than rigid replication, according to Richmond Kwok, senior director of human resources, learning, and talent development at Capella. “The key challenge lies in ensuring that our core values are authentically embodied within each local setting, rather than imposed as a one-size-fits-all directive,” he elaborates. “For example, daily team briefings are conducted universally across properties to maintain operational consistency, yet they are tailored to incorporate regional subtleties and customs.”

Marriott’s approach to talent acquisition is influenced by its strategy of property conversions and promoting internal mobility within its extensive existing network. In markets like Vietnam and Malaysia, the company is accelerating growth by rebranding existing hotels and incorporating dozens more into its already varied collection.

For organizations with substantial operational footprints, the primary task is convincing prospective employees to opt for hospitality over alternative industries that often demand less physical or emotional effort.

“The competition is undoubtedly fierce,” acknowledges Emma Jones, Marriott’s vice president of human resources operations for Asia Pacific (excluding China). Nonetheless, she believes Marriott’s organizational culture serves as a strong advantage. “We maintain dedicated teams at the country level, along with localized HR and finance experts who support properties right from inception. Proximity to on-the-ground realities allows us to make a substantial impact.”

Jones maintains that Marriott has preserved its foundational principles steadfastly, even as the company nears its centennial milestone. “Regardless of the number of properties under our banner, our associates consistently describe a profound sense of family when working in our hotels.”

Swiss-Certified Training in the Maldives and Innovative Retention Tactics

In Great Place To Work Certified companies throughout Southeast Asia, such as Hilton, Capella, and Marriott, a robust organizational culture emerges as a decisive element in retaining employees and facilitating their career progression. Staff members who strongly affirm the availability of growth opportunities are four times more inclined to commit to long-term employment.

Hilton and Marriott both allocate significant resources to educational initiatives as a cornerstone of their sustained strategies. Via collaborations with hospitality academies and expansive internship schemes, these firms introduce tens of thousands of early-career professionals into their Southeast Asian properties annually.

At Capella, educational efforts also emphasize community benefits. The group’s alliance with EHL Hospitality Business School, initiated at Patina Maldives in 2022, provides local Maldivians with Swiss-recognized professional credentials while they gain practical experience and income on-site. “This initiative demonstrates that elite hospitality training can be accessible right where individuals reside and work,” states Kok.

Like other enterprises, Capella is exploring automation, with Kok viewing AI as a complementary tool. “We regard automation as a facilitator that enhances human interactions,” he explains. “It frees our team members to concentrate on genuine, impactful engagements with guests.”

Although the sector might increasingly automate administrative functions, hotels will continue relying on frontline personnel skilled in intuitively assessing situations, de-escalating conflicts, or crafting memorable narratives from guest visits—especially as younger demographics seek highly customized, immersive travel experiences.

“Even in a scenario where hotels operate entirely via robotics,” Hogg observes, “human ingenuity will be essential to conceive them, and human presence will remain vital for their appeal. At its core, hospitality will forever be a profoundly human endeavor.”