Young Hoteliers Summit 2022: EUHT StPOL delegates win the challenge “Retaining and attracting talent in the hospitality industry”

Elizaveta Yehorova, Laia Bech and Valeria Bustamante, students of the Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management, have been selected to participate as  EUHT StPOL delegates in the Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS) 2022. During three days, from March 7 to 9, they  have joined this international networking meeting with the main hospitality schools worldwide promoted by  École Hôtelière de Lausanne (Switzerland).

But there’s still more! Two of the three winning projects of the YHS challenge have, in their teams, EUHT StPOL students.

If you would like to know what has been the topic of this edition, what projects have been presented and who has won the challenge, keep reading!

What is the Young Hoteliers Summit?

The Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS) is the world’s largest student-driven and organized hospitality summit. Each year, the YHS has the participation of different speakers, hospitality and tourism students from around the world and companies of this industry.

In this edition of the Young Hoteliers Summit, which has been held online for the third consecutive year, three students of the Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management have been selected to participate as EUHT StPOL delegates. They are Elizaveta Yehorova, Laia Bech and Valeria Bustamante.

During the three days of the online summit, they have shared experience with nearly 90 students from hospitality universities worldwide.

Breaking Through the Tide!: the topic of the Young Hoteliers Summit 2022

Each year the Young Hoteliers Summit have a topic and, in the 2022 edition, it has been Breaking Through the Tide!

“During these three days we have attended presentations, pannels and interviews on what the hospitality industry of the future will be like, after the impact of Covid-19,” explains Elizaveta Yehorova, one of the EUHT StPOL students participating in YHS 2022.

Presentations on leadership, human resources, sustainability, changes and trends in the hospitality industry and much more. “What I have liked the most have been the presentations in which professionals from the hotel sector have told us their story since they started until they became CEO, for example. Their stories give us hope and inspire me to become, tomorrow, a professional of this sector”, says Valeria Bustamante.

Retaining and attracting talent in the hospitality industry: the challenge

All this completed with a challenge presented by Marriott International that the participants had to solve divided into teams made up of young hoteliers from different universities and different countries. How to retain and attract talent in the hospitality industry?

This was the starting point for the projects that the 15 teams of the Young Hoteliers Summit 2022 had to present. These are the projects of the teams with an EUHT StPOL delegate!

The Globetrotters

Laia Bech, student of the Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management, shared a team with participants from Texas, France, the United Kingdom, Asia and Spain. During the YHS they have been “The Globetrotters” and have become the winning team.

“Starting from the basis that there are no bad candidates, our project raised the need to make the worker fit into the Marriott International brands and in the position that best suits their profile”, details Laia. “Furthermore, based on the Work life balance philosophy, we planned to adjust the schedules to the personal situation of the employees” she adds.

The Shark Hoteliers

This was the name chosen for the team in which Elizaveta Yehorova participated. Their project: “To create worker loyalty towards the hotel company, we have devised a plan so that during the hiring process, the candidate can take a virtual tour of the company and interact with people who give them more information and advice”, she explains. And to retain talent, their proposal consisted of organizing the company’s Olympic Games so that the employees could share challenges and learning.

With this idea,  Elizaveta and her team, The Shark Hoteliers, win the second position of the challenge. 

“It has been a very interesting experience because you connected with different people and cultures. In my team, for example, there were members from Mexico, Germany, Bulgaria, America and India”, comments Elizaveta.

The Olympic Hoteliers

“My team was made up of colleagues from Italy, Holland, India and Vienna”, explains Valeria Bustamante. And the name they chose was “The Olympic Hoteliers”.

The plan she presented to solve the challenge of attracting and retaining talent consisted of greater flexibility with employees. “We defended a model in which the employees were the ones who organized their schedule, with what currency they wanted to be paid – here we’ve incorporated the issue of cryptocurrencies -, in which department they wanted to be, etc.”, explains Valeria.

The best of the Young Hoteliers Summit 2022

What do the three EUHT StPOL students take away from the whole experience? What has been the best?

“The best thing for me has been, without a doubt, listening to all the professionals in the industry,” says Valeria. And she adds: “The networking that YHS gives you is extremely important and opens doors for you throughout the hospitality industry.”

Elizaveta agrees with that and she highlight that for her “the best thing has been the experience of meeting people from around the world with whom we have become friends and the future opportunities for professional development that open up after YHS” .

“You learn a lot, but what I take with me is that you work with a team with which initially you have nothing in common beyond being young and studying hospitality and, in the end, you present a proposal that, in our case, has turned out to be the winner”, explains Laia Bech. “The little family that you form during these three days is what I really take away from the Young Hoteliers Summit 2022”, she concludes with a smile.