Employer branding strategy for hotels: culture beats pay

Every hotel that is hiring knows the problem. The candidate you want can walk next door and earn a little more, with the same training, the same career path and the same promises. An employer branding strategy is how a hotel answers the question every applicant silently asks: why work here and not there? If your offer looks like everyone else's on paper, the answer has to come from elsewhere.

Cindy Kasanmoeseni, Head of HR for the Dutch hotels of Corendon Hotels & Resorts, has worked in HR for more than twenty years, and calls hospitality the best industry she has worked in. Below are the lessons from her experience, framed for any hotel that competes for staff.

Why pay and career paths no longer set a hotel apart

Most hotels check the same boxes. Work-life balance has to be right, people need room to develop, and the salary has to be good. Kasanmoeseni's point is that these are the entry ticket, not the differentiator. Around Amsterdam, where many hotels are fighting for the same people, a candidate can find comparable pay, comparable chances and a comparable career path at the hotel down the street.

When she discussed this with one of her hotel managers, she reached a simple conclusion:

“I think the only thing that distinguish us from other hotels is the fun factor.”

Cindy Kasanmoeseni, 13:06

Fun here does not mean perks for show. In her words, working somewhere has to be a good story people can tell at home. That story comes from culture: how people treat each other, and what it feels like to be part of the team.

How to build an employer branding strategy on culture

If every employer offers the same package, culture is what your employer branding strategy should express. At Corendon, that culture rests on family values. The company is a family business, and the idea of a work family runs through how staff are treated. If someone is going through a difficult time, the team takes care of them. Ambitions are supported with a career path, although, as Kasanmoeseni admits, every employer says that.

What makes such a brand credible is that it is translated from what already exists inside the company, instead of being invented for a campaign. For any hotel, that suggests a few practical steps:

• Name the values your team actually lives, not the ones that sound good in a job ad.
• Check that daily behaviour, such as how a colleague in trouble is treated, matches those values.
• Put those same values at the core of your employer branding, so the story candidates hear matches what they will experience.
• Keep the basics in order: fair pay, development and a career path remain the minimum.

A plan that skips the last step will not hold. One that only does the last step will not stand out.

Hire for personality, not for the resume

Asked about the biggest hiring mistake in hospitality, Kasanmoeseni points to an over-reliance on the resume. A resume shows only what someone has done in the past, and details such as age say little about what a person will bring. Good hospitality recruitment starts from what candidates really want.

“I think it overlooks the cultural fit, the personality, the passion that somebody has for the industry.”

Cindy Kasanmoeseni, 8:20

She is open that her own organisation is still making this shift. Corporate recruiters still scan resumes, but personality carries more weight. Assessments compared against a benchmark help show what someone can do in the future, for example whether they are a real leader. The personal conversation remains decisive, because in her experience someone who is passionate, eager and motivated lasts longer than someone whose resume claims they can do anything.

Looking past the resume also means looking past age. People still tell her they are turned away for being too old. Her answer is to hire them: the youngest team member she mentions is 16, the oldest is 76.

Employee experience is part of your employer brand

Everyone in hospitality talks about guest experience. Kasanmoeseni calls the employee experience essential, following the idea that happy employees make happy guests. That journey starts before the first shift, with the recruitment process itself.

The approach she describes runs in a clear order. First the company defined its DNA from the guest experience it wants to deliver: what should guests experience when they walk in? Then it translated that into what employees need to deliver it: getting acquainted with that DNA, an environment where they feel safe, and the coaching and leadership to back it up.

She gives a concrete example from a hotel near the airport, where guests arrive tired from the buses and wait in line at check-in. The guest relations team comes by with a trolley, a drink and a cookie. That kind of behaviour, she argues, comes from people who love their job.

Leadership: the most overlooked retention factor

A strong employer brand gets people in the door. Whether they stay depends, in Kasanmoeseni's view, on one thing above all: leadership. She cites figures suggesting that somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of people leave because of their manager. People do not leave the company, they leave their boss.

Money does not fix that. She notes that a salary increase for an unhappy employee lasts about a month. If the leader is not good, everything else fails too. She separates managers from leaders: leaders facilitate their staff with feedback, trust and a safe space to make mistakes.

“This is where the growth is. And this is where if people feel safe that they wanna stay and develop further.”

Cindy Kasanmoeseni, 19:58

This is where an employer branding strategy keeps its promise or breaks it. A brand that speaks of family and growth needs leaders who actually create both.

Developing talent across five generations

Effective talent development, according to Kasanmoeseni, starts with recognising talent: investing time to know who your stars are and who needs more development or attention.

She adds one condition that is easy to miss: make development fit the generation in front of you. Her teams include baby boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z, and Generation Alpha is already asking about traineeships. A baby boomer learning something new needs a different approach than a Gen Z employee who wants direct feedback when something is not done well. Managing Gen Z hotel staff calls for exactly that kind of feedback.

Looking ahead, she sees three focus points for HR in hospitality: using AI well, starting by helping people see what it can do for their own job; making HR processes more sustainable, both greener and built to last for years instead of one; and the well-being of team members, which she calls her main priority. You can watch the full conversation or find more episodes in the Room for Talent series.

Frequently asked questions

What is an employer branding strategy for a hotel?

It is the way a hotel shows candidates why they should work there and not next door. In Cindy Kasanmoeseni's view, pay, development and a career path are the minimum every hotel offers. The strategy should therefore express what is different: the culture, the values the team actually lives and the story employees can tell at home.

How can hotels stand out as employers when pay is similar?

By making culture the differentiator. Kasanmoeseni sees hotels around Amsterdam offering comparable salaries, chances and career paths, so candidates can always earn a bit more elsewhere. What sets a hotel apart, in her experience, is how much fun people have at work and values such as taking care of colleagues during a difficult time.

What is the biggest hiring mistake in hospitality?

According to Kasanmoeseni, it is focusing too much on the resume. A resume only shows the past and says nothing about cultural fit, personality or passion for the industry. She recommends combining assessments that indicate future potential with a personal conversation, and not ruling people out because of their age.

Why do hotel employees leave their jobs?

Kasanmoeseni names leadership as the most overlooked factor. She cites figures suggesting that between 30 and 50 percent of people leave because of their manager. A pay rise for an unhappy employee lasts about a month, she says, while leaders who give feedback, trust and a safe space to make mistakes make people want to stay.