If you run two or more hotels in the same area, you can sometimes cover open shifts with people from the other hotel. That works well when it is arranged in advance and badly when it is improvised on the day. Read which roles lend themselves to sharing, how to set up a shared pool, what to agree on contracts, travel time and onboarding, and how to stop your best people paying the price.
28 October 2026
Hotels in the same group or with the same owner often do not have their busy days at the same time. One hotel hosts a conference while the other has a quiet week. By deploying employees at more than one property, you cover peaks, sickness and holidays without hiring extra people straight away, and you can offer employees more hours or a steadier rota than one hotel alone could.
Roles that work the same way at every property are easiest to share: housekeeping, breakfast service, kitchen porters, banqueting service and maintenance. Front desk and night reception are possible too, but require knowledge of each hotel’s reservation system, till and local procedures. Roles centred on guest relationships or team leadership, such as a head of department, are better not shared on a structural basis.
There are roughly two forms. With an occasional loan, an employee now and then helps out at another hotel when someone there is absent. With a shared pool, employees are hired for several properties from the start and scheduled centrally. A pool is more predictable for both employees and hotels, but needs a single owner of the rota. Compare also floater roles in a flexible pool within one hotel.
Check which legal entity employs the person and whether the contract allows work at other properties. If the hotels are different employers, working at the other hotel may count as a form of hiring out staff, which is regulated in many countries. Have HR or a lawyer check this in advance, and put the work locations and the arrangement for travel time and travel costs in writing.
Sharing only works if the distance between the hotels is short enough for the shifts you ask for. A 6:30 breakfast shift at a hotel with no early public transport is not feasible for many employees. Agree whether travel time between properties counts as working time and who pays the travel costs. See also how commuting for early and late shifts affects retention.
The most common problem is that each hotel makes its own rota and shared employees are double-booked or moved at the last minute. Appoint one person or department to manage the rota of shared employees, with fixed moments when hotels submit their needs. Use the occupancy forecast per hotel as the basis, so you can see where people are needed most.
An employee covering at another hotel needs to know their way around: entrances, linen room, keys, till, allergen lists, emergency procedures and who the duty manager is. Plan a short shadow shift for each new property and keep a practical onboarding card per hotel. Without that, the first shift at a new property takes a lot of time and the details often go wrong.
The more working methods are the same across hotels, the easier sharing becomes. Think of the same room checklist in housekeeping, the same breakfast buffet layout and the same handover between shifts. Complete uniformity is not necessary, but the differences must be known and written down. Cross-training within one hotel also helps when working at other properties.
The risk is that the same reliable employees are always asked to step in, until they have had enough. Track how often someone works at another property, spread it across the pool and ask in advance rather than on the day. Employees who prefer to stay at one property should be able to make that choice without it being seen as less commitment.
If hotels report separately, agree how the hours of shared employees are charged: per hour worked at actual payroll cost, or at a fixed rate. A simple and fair arrangement prevents hotel managers from avoiding sharing because it hurts their own figures. Include travel time and travel costs in that agreement.
Sharing does not solve a structural shortage. If both hotels are busy in the same weeks, for example in peak season or around the holidays, there is nobody spare to share. Large distances, very different systems or a team already working at the limit also make sharing cost more than it delivers. Then additional recruitment or temporary staffing from outside is the better choice.
Start with one department, for example housekeeping or breakfast, and two hotels close to each other. For a few months, track how many shifts you covered this way, how many last-minute changes there were and what employees think of it. Only then expand to other departments or properties.
Can I simply deploy an employee at another hotel? That depends on the contract and on whether the hotels share the same employer. Set out work at multiple properties in advance and have the legal side checked if the hotels are separate entities.
Is travel time between hotels working time? That varies by country and by agreement. In any case, make it clear before someone starts, and reimburse travel costs so sharing does not cost the employee money.
How large should a shared pool be? Start with a few employees per department and two properties. After a few months, look at how many open shifts it covers before expanding.
• Do you know which roles work the same way at every property?
• Are work locations, travel time and travel costs in the contract?
• Have you checked whether working between the hotels legally counts as hiring out staff?
• Does the rota of shared employees have one owner?
• Is there an onboarding card per hotel and a shadow shift for new properties?
• Do you track how often someone works at another property, so it stays fairly spread?
AXXAZ Hospitality provides reliable hospitality professionals to hotels across Europe. When sharing between your hotels is not enough, because all properties are busy at once or a department is structurally short, we cover open shifts so your own team does not have to step in everywhere. It starts with a clear staffing brief.
Share staff between hotels by choosing roles that work the same everywhere, setting out multi-property work in advance, appointing one rota owner, onboarding at every property and spreading it fairly, and bring in outside help when all hotels are busy at the same time.