Trading work for lodging in Morocco
“He wants us to pay him, but we didn’t ask him to carry our luggage,” said one of the sisters, who were traveling around Morocco together.
I explained that porters linger in the parking areas outside the medina and will cart bags through the car-free zone, sometimes without asking first. To defuse the situation, I reached into my wallet, pulled out a 10-dirham coin and paid the man. He asked for 20, but I firmly shook my head, as I had seen my host do. He departed with a huff, and our guests sank into the cushioned couch with relief.
Less than 24 hours on the job — and in the country — I was already fulfilling several of my responsibilities as a work exchange volunteer. (I presumed paying off the disgruntled porter fell under “guest assistance.”) I had flown a red-eye from Washington to Casablanca and caught about a four-hour train to Fez for the primary purpose of helping out at the hostel — plus several fringe benefits. In return for pitching in wherever and whenever, I received free accommodations, daily breakfast and a sense of contentment knowing that, in some small way, I was alleviating the pain caused by the pandemic.
“We had to close for two years,” said Hannan Diab, the 42-year-old owner who, until several months ago, had been running the property single-handedly. “It has been so hard. We need more people to come.”
The global health crisis has ravaged the travel and tourism sector, causing debilitating hardships. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the industry lost almost $4.9 trillion and 62 million jobs in 2020. In 2021, the industry recouped more than 18.2 million jobs globally, but gaps remain. For instance, the July employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated 1.5 million openings in the U.S. leisure and hospitality market, a 74 percent fill rate. The American Hotel & Lodging Association does not expect staffing to return to 2019 levels for at least another two years.
“Demand is back, but hotels can’t fill rooms, because they don’t have the staff,” said Chip Rogers, the association’s president and chief executive. “A lot of people are leaving the industry.”
To attract employees, lodgings are raising wages, offering more flexible schedules and ramping up the benefits, such as covering continuing-education expenses. Others are compensating for the labor shortage by limiting housekeeping, streamlining food-and-beverage menus and relying more on technology, such as mobile check-in, digital keys and room service delivered by robots that resemble paper shredders with personality.
Smaller, independent lodgings without HR departments or a strata of managers can pursue more audacious hiring practices. Bob Monahan, who owns Hostel du Nord in Duluth, Minn., has employed former guests who overstayed their travel budgets. This summer, he welcomed a professor from Mexico City who responded to a “volunteer wanted” post on Worldpackers, a work exchange website.
“He was the best employee I’ve ever had,” Monahan said of the educator, who he said plans to return for a second stint in November.
Though not always advertised, many establishments around the world accept travelers as temporary workers on a quid pro quo basis. The arrangement — to change sheets or wash dishes for room and board — is a win for both sides. The hotel can plug holes in staffing, and for the traveler, the free accommodations and meals can lessen the sting of escalating expenses, which these days include such basic necessities as food and fuel.
“It won’t fill millions of jobs,” Donna Quadri-Felitti, the Marvin Ashner endowed director of Pennsylvania State University’s School of Hospitality Management, said of work exchange programs, “but it is a fun idea.”
To find a volunteer opportunity, you can cold-call — or email or DM — a property. I messaged Heb Hostel in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides and received this positive reply: “We ask for 20 hours of work (mostly cleaning with some reception) in exchange for free accommodation in a dorm, free laundry and access to the free food cupboard. Mostly dry foods and some veg.” For more expansive searches with a high rate of success, I also signed up for Worldpackers and its fraternal twin, Workaway.
“Before the pandemic, it was more budget travelers and people on sabbaticals,” Ricardo Lima, the chief executive and co-founder of Worldpackers, said from his home in Brazil. “Now, it is especially used by Gen Z and people who are asking, ‘How can I help?’ ”
Trading work for lodging in Morocco