…which they absolutely should be. I bet you’d pretty easily get similar at Marriott properties in other AP countries.

Yeah, no doubt. Regional standards differ—not sure if Marriott changed this for other regions beyond AP. But this kind of hearkens back to toxic boss culture here in Taiwan. It’s easy to override things like this in the Athena system for example, if employees are empowered / trusted to do so..

…minute early check-in/late checkout, but anything else must be charged (Duty Managers have slightly more limited flexibility, but must ‘sign-off’ on anything beyond official corporate standards.)

Oh, and perhaps an interesting bit of ‘trivia:’ Marriott (a former client) changed their corporate directed standards in recent years regarding early and late checkout. Depending on occupancy & availability, Front Desk staff have some limited flexibility for allowing 30-60…

…poor attitude and it spreads like a contagion throughout the team. Direct managers that do care about their team generally have nothing to offer employees (performance bonuses, raises, benefits, etc.) because owners refuse to relinquish even some of their profit.

Same here—and you are right—it’s not hospitality. I want emphasize there are genuine hospitality professionals that do care and go the extra mile, despite poor working conditions and low wages, but this means unfortunately that in many cases, you end up with extremely high turnover, poor morale,…

My previous employer was purchased by one of the ‘Big Four.’ Not long after, they decided Taiwan was where we (I) should hire (hospitality graduates) for our large AP team. Many of reasons were the right ones—but the main reason was low wages compared to the region, allowing greater profitability.

Obviously there are other issues at play when it comes to hotels in Taiwan (taxes, permitting costs, etc.), but profits over people is a huge part of the problem.

…but the large number of colleagues over the years that have left the field because of work conditions and wages or have opted to work abroad is telling.

I say this as someone who has worked in hospitality last 20+ years. Certainly there are many hospitality professionals that stick it out because they love what they are doing—and this is obviously anecdotal…

This greatly contributes to all too common very poor customer experience at hotels in Taiwan. Raise hospitality wages and improve working conditions and you end up with a team that cares about guest experience.