The hotel operator Hilton Worldwide Holdings is cutting 22% of its global corporate workforce, the company announced Tuesday, as the travel and hospitality industry still reels with declining demand from the coronavirus.
Hilton is laying off 2,100 white-collar workers in effort to “reduce its cost structure.”
Laid off workers will get severance pay and “access to an expedited recruitment process when travel resumes.”
Hilton will also extend furloughs and reduced hours for corporate workers for the next 90 days, which were first announced in late-March.
Executives will continue taking a 50% pay cut for the next 90 days and CEO Christopher Nassetta will continue to forgo his salary for the remainder of 2020.
“Never in Hilton’s 101-year history has our industry faced a global crisis that brings travel to a virtual standstill,” Nassetta said. “Hospitality will always be a business of people serving people, which is why I am devastated that to protect our business, we have been forced to take actions that directly impact our Team Members.
Plummeting travel demand resulting from the coronavirus has devastated the travel and hospitality industry, resulting in widespread furloughs and layoffs. Even as some regions begin to reopen, it’s unclear when normal travel patterns will return or if hotels will staff up at their pre-coronavirus levels when the disease subsides. Hyatt said it would lay off 1,300 corporate employees in mid-May and Marriott also furloughed workers in March.
$33 billion, that’s how much hotels in the U.S. have lost in room revenue since pandemic began escalating in mid-February, according to the American Lodging and Hotels Association.
