The last several years have seen considerable developments in Moscow's hotel, restaurant and cafe industry infrastructures, including an increase in the number of new, comfortable hotels.

Needless to say, high-class hotels need high-class personnel. There are approximately 60 schools in Moscow alone preparing specialists in hotel services and the tourism industry, a hopeful sign that the shortage of high-class hotel-service personnel will be resolved over the next decade. The personnel issue is one of the most acute issues today, and many projects depend on its resolution.

At the end of last year, the Moscow Mayor's Office considered a project of developing Moscow into a center of tourism. It was resolved to build a "Golden Ring of Moscow" chain of high-class hotels.

City-development plans up to the year 2020 call for building new hotels and reconstructing existing ones to a total of thousands of suites, mostly in the central part of the city, and places of tourist accommodation.

New hotels to be built by the year 2005 include a hotel on Novinsky Boulevard (part of the hotel and business center), a Hilton on Nikitsky Bulvar, a Big Hilton on Neglinka Ul. and a hotel on Ilyinka Ul. (part of the Gostiny Dvor center).

The following hotels are to be reconstructed: the Intourist, Peking, Budapest, Rossiya, Moskva, Ukraina, Tsentralnaya, Ostankino, Turist and Volga (Severnaya).

Investments are flowing into the top-end hotel segment because they operate with high profit margins and generate quick returns. Therefore, the issue of hotel personnel concerns both the Moscow government and businessmen. There are only a few certified specialists available, so hotel managers have no choice but to employ all those who appear fit. At the moment, the major requirements – honesty, efficiency and politeness – apply to candidates for many positions. Other qualities that are regarded as a plus and facilitate employment and career growth include a pleasant appearance, good coordination, rapid reactions and, of course, knowledge of foreign languages – at least English.

Usually, people who work in a hotel start from a low-ranking position, but most of them manage to climb up the career ladder quickly. Many five-star hotels employ people aged over 40 in positions such as hostesses and technical-support team members. HR managers say young people may need a lot of coaching and lack experience and diligence.

Regrettably, personnel turnover in Moscow's hotel and catering sector remains very high. But the truth is that a hotel with a high personnel turnover will hardly be able to offer its clients really top-notch quality service. Quite often, HR managers do little or nothing to reduce personnel turnover, and limit their work to seeking those who will work for low pay and fill the vacancy.

A couple of dozen Western hotel chains currently run outlets in Moscow, including Sheraton and Marriott. Managers from Hilton visited Moscow recently to consider the possibility of building a massive hotel for their chain. Hotel complexes built for businessmen from Turkey and Sweden are being prepared for commercial launch.

In this situation, it is hard to overestimate the importance of foreign experience in slowing down personnel turnover. For example, in order to get hired for any position, from dishwasher to auditor, in a hotel belonging to the Quest Quarters chain, an applicant has to go though four interviews, including one with the hotel's general manager. The aim of these interviews is to select the people who are the most client-oriented.

The La Quinta Motor Inns hotel chain has conducted research into the problem of losses caused by personnel turnover among managers and has successfully reduced it from 36 percent to 21 percent per year. Research determined the following four major ways of fighting the problem:

1. Selection. Strict selection criteria, with preference given to married couples.

2. Orientation. New employees take a special 13-week course of intensive training followed by practical training at the workplace.

3. Stability. A manager is not permitted to ask to be moved to a different position before he or she has worked for two years.

4. Advanced studies. All employees have to work on permanent skill perfection.

Having studied the problem of personnel turnover in this sector, experts have found it is different among different groups of employees. For example, turnover tends to be higher among restaurant managers than among hotel-catering service managers, and assistant managers tend to be more volatile than general managers.