Maya, Bristol South Socialist Party
Checking into a hotel is something many of us are familiar with. You stand in a queue, give your booking reference and, all going well, you are assigned a room number and key card. Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple.
During a recent trip, I was informed by the staff at the major budget hotel chain I was staying at that, although I had prepaid for a room over two weeks prior, the hotel was overbooked. There were no more rooms and I would need to go to another hotel that might have more availability. Through an unexpected and extraordinary series of events, I ended up travelling to four different hotels in London over the course of two hours before finally being granted a room – all because the company has an exploitative and unethical practice of overbooking rooms.
I was tired and annoyed by the time I got to bed that night, but my thoughts are with the hotel workers who have to deal with this on a regular basis. This was not a fluke or tragic mistake, overbooking customers is official policy!
The company makes millions in profits every year for its investment firm owners. They have this policy of overbooking because the bosses say this is the best way to squeeze every penny out of the system, but also because they know they will never have to hear anyone cry, scream or complain about it. Those making these decisions are far removed from the realities faced by both their customers and employees.
The toll this takes was evident in the two staff members I spoke to at my original hotel – one was nervous and overly apologetic, as if she was scared of what my reaction would be, the other, the young man who initially told me I had no room for the night, was armoured with a carefully honed coping mechanism. I learned he went through this very situation all night long every night when he worked the late shift. He told me customers often reacted poorly, and some people said truly cruel things to him.
If a co-worker bullies you and makes work dangerous, we call it a hostile working environment. What do we call it when it’s the official policy of the business putting workers in these situations?
As workers struggle with the cost-of-living crisis, we are seeing them start to stand up and vote for industrial action. As the current strike wave continues, we must keep an eye on the sectors where things are still rumbling under the surface – sectors like customer service and hospitality.
Trade unions should campaign with members and potential members on fair pay but also on fair conditions and the need to fight against the bosses’ unsafe, demoralising policies (for example the routine overbooking of hotel rooms). These policies degrade employee morale and put stress and risk directly on workers. We need to stand with them for better working conditions to create a fairer system for everyone.
