TSA Lines Stretch to 3 Hours Amid Government Shutdown
Hotel investors already know staffing is fragile. They see it in lagging RevPAR, negative guest reviews and labor costs that never seem to match the model. High turnover is not just an operational headache. It is a recurring leak that erodes returns, year after year.
In many markets, annual churn for frontline roles such as housekeeping and food services remains far above historic norms. It’s a revolving door that comes with the cost of constantly replacing high-turnover roles. The opportunity is to stop treating that churn as background noise and start treating it as an investment question that can be managed and improved.
How turnover shows up on the P&L
Labor instability is a constant in the day-to-day operations of hotel properties. Vacant rooms are unavailable due to insufficient housekeeping coverage. Room service takes forever or may be unavailable. Guests notice. The cycle goes round and round as hotel management uses the same old protective tactics, such as overtime and agency workers. In the end, it pushes labor as a percentage of revenue above target.
Over time, these patterns depress NOI. Direct costs rise as recruiting and training cycles repeat. Indirect costs follow as productivity lags and brand scores soften. When it is time to refinance or sell, for example, those trends shape the story buyers and lenders use to discount value.
The case for change is not so much about sentiment as it is about protecting cash flow and exit multiples.
From one-off vacancies to a workforce plan
Most hotels are still hiring in reaction to vacancies as they come. Someone leaves, a hiring requisition opens, and recruiting begins. The cycle repeats with every departure, which is treated as an isolated emergency, giving operators little visibility into the true scale of the problem.
A workforce plan starts with a simple and straightforward set of numbers. What are the annual turnover rates by role, not just the aggregate figure? How many days does it take to bring a room attendant or line cook to full productivity? What is the fully loaded replacement cost, including recruiting, onboarding, uniforms, training time, and lost revenue?
Once those numbers are clear, churn can be viewed in dollars rather than anecdotes. When you add up recruiting, training, and lost productivity, it’s not unusual for high-churn positions to generate six-figure turnover costs each year — money that could otherwise be funding renovations, technology upgrades, or even additional staff. At that point, retention work stops looking like soft spend and becomes a logical investment in asset performance.
A practical example from the field
Consider a select-service hotel in a secondary market with around 120 rooms. Ownership realized housekeeping turnover had climbed close to 90 percent a year. Rooms were regularly held back on high-demand nights because there were not enough experienced room attendants available. Cleanliness became a recurring theme in online reviews and RevPAR underperformed.
Rather than accept that as the new normal, the owner and management company agreed to test a narrow set of changes. They quantified the full replacement cost of a single room attendant, which landed just above $3,000 when all factors were considered. They then introduced slightly higher starting pay, a modest attendance bonus and a simple 90-day training plan with three clear milestones.
Within a year, housekeeping turnover dropped by about 20%. The savings in replacement cost, the increase in sellable rooms and the improvement in guest scores more than covered the investment. The workforce plan behaved like any other efficiency project with a clear payback period.
What investors should ask for
Investors do not need to run the hiring process, but they should insist that turnover is treated as a managed risk with a clear plan. Practical questions to build into asset reviews include: how is the property measuring turnover and vacancy days by role? What is the current cost per replacement and how has it trended? Which retention initiatives are in place, what do they cost and how are they being evaluated? Where do lawful immigration pathways, including programs such as the EB-3 visa, fit into the long-term plan for hard-to-fill roles?
Answers will vary by market and brand, yet the underlying principle is constant. Workforce stability is not a side issue. It is an operating discipline with direct impact on NOI, debt service coverage and exit value.
Owners who push their teams to quantify and plan around turnover will be better positioned than those who accept it as a permanent drag on performance. In a cycle where lenders and buyers are scrutinizing every basis point of return, treating the workforce as an asset to be managed rather than a cost to be endured may prove one of the most durable advantages a hotel investment can offer.
Turkey’s hotel industry is grappling with a volatile economic landscape, with its hoteliers seeking to balance record-breaking tourism numbers with soaring operational costs.
The country is no stranger to macroeconomic shocks.
Inflation reached 35% in 2025 and 68% in 2024, severely eroding purchasing power and increasing business costs. In response, the government implemented high interest rates, which made borrowing more expensive.
Cost pressures in Turkey’s hotels intensified significantly in 2025, driven primarily by that persistently high inflation, which continues to outpace currency, said Tuğra Gönden, chairman of Cushman & Wakefield in Turkey.
“This imbalance has pushed operating costs to levels that many hotels can no longer absorb, resulting in a growing number of properties exiting the market, entering distressed sale processes or continuing operations under severe margin pressure,” he said.
Operational costs are exceptionally high, said Erdoğan Turan, general manager of the 315-room Innvista Hotels Belek, near Antalya.
“Prices are rising across the board: fuel, energy, labor costs. Against this background, the key thing is to keep the increase in prices at a certain balance,” he said.
The harsh economic realities have gone hand in hand with Turkey’s positive travel industry performance.
Turkey achieved record-breaking tourism in 2025, welcoming approximately 64 million visitors and generating approximately $65.2 billion in revenue, according to government figures. In 2025, the sector saw a 3% rise in tourist numbers and a 7% increase in revenue, driven by strong demand from Russia, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Hoteliers are finding little joy in these rising tourist numbers.
“Inflation remains the dominant factor reshaping the sector’s economic realities,” Gönden said.
Hoteliers in the country are looking to move to a more premium product, as high occupancy is no longer translating into higher profits.
“The industry is navigating well-documented headwinds … which can place pressure on profitability even in periods of high occupancy,” said Seda Aslan Yilmaz, a marketing director who works closely with the Regnum chain of hotels.
Optimism among Turkish hoteliers
There are reasons to be optimistic about Turkey's hospitality industry, hoteliers said.
In 2025, Regnum Hotels observed a significant increase in tourist spending compared with previous years, Yilmaz said.
“Not only did visitor numbers remain strong but per-capita spend rose meaningfully, indicating a clear shift in demand towards higher-priced, premium and experience-led hotels,” she said.
The ongoing profitability crisis is affecting primarily the budget segment, a concern compounded by Turkey gradually moving away from its historic positioning as a low‑cost, all‑inclusive destination.
“Both government and industry stakeholders have accelerated efforts to reposition the country as a higher‑quality destination with improved service standards,” Gönden said.
He added this shift requires time and sustained investment but aligns strongly with Turkey’s broader value proposition.
Those hotels that took part in the premiumization trend in recent years have made the right bet, said Volkan Öztürkler, general manager of the 129-room Mandarin Oriental Bodrum.
“In the luxury segment especially, we believe Turkey has made a significant leap in recent years,” Öztürkler said. “The country is no longer perceived solely as a holiday destination. It is now a hub where global brands invest and where high-spending international travelers consciously choose to visit.”
Despite the macroeconomic uncertainty, the 2025 occupancy of the Mandarin Oriental Bodrum was higher than in 2019, Öztürkler said, and overall operational performance was “exceptionally strong.”
Navigating turbulence
The Turkish hotel forecast for 2026 remains cautiously optimistic, which will largely depend on whether the growth in foreign tourist numbers continues.
Overall growth has been highly volatile and there is no guarantee it will continue in 2026, Gönden said.
“Regional conflicts, geopolitical tensions and recessions in key feeder markets have all negatively affected booking trends, average spend and traveler confidence,” he said.
Specifically, economic headwinds in Germany and Russia are seen as factors that could undermine the upcoming summer season.
Yilmaz said Regnum Hotels expects continued growth in demand for luxury, wellness and experience, which aligns closely with its brand positioning.
“While we remain attentive to global economic conditions and ongoing cost pressures, we believe that strong product differentiation, brand strength and market diversification will support a balanced and sustainable year of performance,” she said.
Innvista’s Turan said Turkish tourism is always vulnerable to external factors.
“War, global crises or any other negative event can change the course of the sector,” he said.
Öztürkler, however, is optimistic for Turkey's hospitality sector.
“International demand remains resilient, and momentum in the premium segment continues. We believe upper-tier destinations such as Bodrum will continue to positively differentiate themselves,” he said.
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