Signs of a busy C.O. tourist summer ahead: ‘No Vacancy’ — and ‘Help Wanted’

(Update: Adding video, comment from Bend hotel management company)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Signs of the coming summer season that Central Oregon hotels, motels and resorts hope to avoid? No, not "No Vacancy," that's a good thing -- but the other, more prevalent signs around town: "Help Wanted."

Josh Claravall, the human resources business partner for Mereté Hotel Management, told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday, "If we were to sell out, and we were short 20 to 30 percent staff, that’s a little bit tough.”

Mereté Hotel Management manages Bend’s Holiday Inn Express and Element by Westin hotels. Claravall said coming off the pandemic this year is kind of an unknown, staffing-wise.

 “I start to see it maybe slowly getting a little bit better, compared to what it was,” Claravall said.

He said staffing at both hotels is at about 85 to 90 percent of where they want it to be. They’re expecting to be at least as busy as last summer, but hiring is different than before.

“There’s a lot of wages being displayed. That normally wasn’t a usual practice, to display what you were going pay,” Claravall said.

He said Mereté has raised wages from pre-pandemic levels, from about $15 an hour to $18.50. The majority of the openings now are in housekeeping.

“We do tend to have higher turnover in the housekeeping department, and a lot of times that’s where the core is, especially during the busy times,” Claravall said. If we can’t turn over rooms quick enough, we can’t get those rooms to the next guest.”

Merete will hold a job fair next week to help fill out the rest of their staff for what looks to be an especially busy summer for Bend. The event will be from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, April 8, at Bend’s Holiday Inn Express.

A new report Tuesday from the Oregon Employment Department shows Deschutes County jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector had the largest gains of any industry over the past year, adding 3,270 jobs, or 32.8 percent.