Hotelier and host of Channel 5’s The Hotel Inspector, Alex Polizzi, warned the Labour government to stop putting the hotel industry in difficult financial positions, which are having a knock-on effect on employing young people.
“They are now talking about putting up the minimum wage for 18-year-olds to the same level as 21-year-olds, which will be another disaster,” she told The Telegraph The Travel Expert podcast.
The hotelier was referring to the Labour Party’s manifesto promise to end “discriminatory age bands” in which it hopes to deliver a single adult pay band. The party’s manifesto said it would increase the wages of 18- to 20-year-olds so they are paid the same as those over 21.
“As far as I’m concerned, I will never be able to employ an 18-year-old again, because why would you employ someone fresh out of school at the same price as someone who has been out in the world for three years?”
In addition, Ms Polizzi adds that younger people are also discouraged from pursuing a long-term career in the hospitality industry because it is “not a very highly regarded profession”.
She points out that the UK does not offer degree-level hospitality courses as high-standard as those in Europe and the United States, and instead treats hospitality as a “stop-gap job”.
“We have to convince people that this is a career,” the hotelier said. “You shouldn’t be ashamed if your children go into it. It offers enormous possibilities.”
The Office of National Statistics says the youngest workers, those aged 16 to 24 years, make up 10 per cent of the total workforce, but they made up around half of the workers in some hospitality roles, including waiters and waitresses (50 per cent), bar staff (48 per cent), and coffee shop workers (48 per cent).
Ms Polizzi also touched on other expenses putting pressure on hotels and accommodation businesses, such as the UK's 20 per cent VAT rate.
“I have no belief at all that they would reduce VAT, and if you compare us to France, Italy, Germany, where VAT on hospitality is so much lower, you see that we’re losing out.
France and Italy have a VAT rate of 10 per cent, whereas in Germany it ranges from seven to 19 per cent depending on the type of accommodation.
She also adds that she is “completely against” the new power granted to English mayors to impose visitor levies that hotels and accommodation providers will have to collect.
“The visitor numbers are immensely down. And part of that is because of the cost-of-living crisis. But a large part of that is also because we just have to keep putting prices up, because how else are we going to pay for these things?”
Ms Polizzi comes from a family of hoteliers, including her mother, Olga Polizzi, and uncle, Sir Rocco Forte, who founded British luxury hotel group Rocco Forte Hotels.
She helps run The Polizzi Collection with her mother and sister, which owns three hotels in Cornwall, Devon and Sussex.
Amelia Neath
