Hotels in Kenya are struggling to retain talented staff, as bartenders, waiters, chefs, trained cleaners, and housekeepers leave permanent jobs for short-term contracts on international cruise ships.
The exodus that started during the Covid-19 pandemic is not slowing down as more workers become aware of cruise ship jobs, thanks to social media, where vacancies are posted.
Posts on TikTok and Facebook highlighting the appeal of working at sea, including travel to new countries, serving the who’s who and higher pay, have also sparked growing interest among Kenyans seeking jobs abroad.
The painful reality for hotel managers is watching their most talented workers vanish, sometimes without even giving notice.
“It’s like a talent drain, and hotels can’t compete. We’re feeling the heat, but there’s very little we can do,” says Jerry Were, the General Manager at Lake Naivasha Sopa Resort.
He points to the high salaries offered by cruise liners, often four times higher than what hotels in Kenya pay.
“When they [the workers] join a cruise ship, they’re offered six-month contracts per voyage, with two months off before the next one. If you look at our labour market, on average, a waiter earns about Sh50,000, and after tax, it drops to Sh35,000. But then, when this same person joins a cruise ship, they earn $1,500 (Sh193,000) a month, tax-free, not counting tips, which they can easily survive on and keep 100 percent of their pay,” Mr Were explains to the BDLife.
The onboard personal costs are also very low because they are provided with free accommodation, food, and for some cruise lines, free access to medical care at sea and entertainment, which includes free or subsidised alcohol. This means the workers can save or send home 100 per cent of their salaries.
Charles Matu, the director of sales and marketing at Sankara Hotel, agrees.
“Kenya is staring at a growing talent drain in the hospitality sector. We’re losing top talent for sure — chefs, wait staff, spa therapists, mixologists, sommeliers, baristas, front office staff, even housekeeping supervisors to these cruise ships. And it’s not hard to see why. Cruise lines are offering competitive tax-free salaries, clear career paths, free accommodation, meals, medical cover, and other inclusive benefits - you name it," he says.
“Add that to the global exposure, the ability to travel the world, and the chance to save in hard currency, and it’s a no-brainer for many. Back home, the industry continues to grapple with stagnant pay, long hours and inconsistent career advancement."
According to Mr Were, this turn of events was triggered by a cocktail of post-Covid realities, global wage shifts, and a hunger for opportunities that go beyond just the normal paycheck.
“Before Covid, cruise ships mostly hired staff from the Philippines, India, and Europe. But the pandemic changed everything. People left hospitality in droves, looking for more stable careers,” he adds.
When the industry began to recover, Mr Were says the traditional talent pools in Europe and the West had dried up, pushing the wage bills up, making it very difficult for cruise liners to continue hiring talent from those places.
“Imagine trying to hire a waiter in Germany now, you must be ready to pay them $35 an hour (Sh4,500). In the US it is $40 (Sh5,100). Most cruise lines just couldn’t afford it anymore,” he adds.
That wage difference led cruise lines to look elsewhere, particularly in Kenya and South Africa, for skilled and affordable labour.
From an outsider’s view, it might seem like exploitation of Africans working for lower wages than their Western counterparts. But to Kenyans, it is a golden ticket.
“For them in the West, it’s a pay cut. For us, it’s life-changing money, and that’s why we’ve become the new frontier for cruise ships,” Mr Were says.
“When you take a look at the African tourism space right now, the first names that will pop up are Kenya and South Africa. These are countries that have heavily invested in skill development within the hospitality industry. If you check around, you will discover that it's South Africans and Kenyans who are joining cruise ships in droves more than any other country.”
Thanks to specialised training, cruise liners are increasingly biased in favour of recruiting talent from Kenya and South Africa.
Mr Were adds institutions like Kenya Utalii College and Boma International Hospitality College churn out top-notch graduates every year, rigorously trained, which sets them apart in the global industry.
“In Europe, no one studies to be a waiter. [Service roles in Europe are learned on the job, not through college degrees or structured hospitality training.] You learn on the job. Here, we go to college for two years to learn how to wait tables. Cruise ships have taken notice of that,” Mr Were emphasises.
What began as a small trial recruitment has now turned into an aggressive talent sweep.
Posts on TikTok and Facebook highlighting the appeal of working at sea, including travel to new countries, serving the who’s who and higher pay, have sparked growing interest among Kenyans seeking jobs abroad.
Photo credit: Shutterstock
“For cruise ships, it’s easier to target workers in Kenyan hotels of repute, the likes of international brands, for polished talent rather than start from scratch,” he adds.
But the staff shortage is not only felt by the urban hospitality establishments; it has also stretched deep into the wilderness as far as Maasai Mara camps.
"For us in the remote regions like the Mara, what’s hurting us when it comes to talent retention is the community quota requirement. The government requires that at least 30 percent of hospitality staff come from the local community, which is a good initiative in theory. But in practice, it’s affecting merit-based hiring. We often find ourselves forced to bypass well-trained and experienced professionals because we’re obligated to give jobs to community members, some of whom may not have the same level of skill or training. So, people who’ve gone to Utalii or even studied hospitality abroad in places like Italy find themselves jobless, while someone with little to no training gets hired purely based on their local roots. This is demoralising," says James Kibuka, Wilderness Group General Manager – Maasai Mara.
According to Mr Kibuka, this policy, though rooted in equity, is pushing many qualified Kenyan talents out of the domestic job market.
“That’s one of the reasons I believe we’re seeing this wave of talent moving to cruise ships and international resorts. These professionals are highly trained, speak fluent English, have global exposure, and yet, they can’t find a job here because of quota-based hiring. So they look elsewhere, where their merit actually matters."
He adds, "I’ve not personally lost anyone from my team to cruise ships just yet, but I know many professionals who’ve been approached or are actively applying. The demand is there. These are people who are passionate about their craft—chefs, housekeepers, mixologists—but they’re being underutilised or overlooked in their own country. So when the opportunity comes knocking from overseas, with better pay, structured growth, and appreciation for skill, of course, they’ll go. And I can’t blame them," he says.
Susan Mugure, a talent and culture human resource manager at Accor-owned Novotel Nairobi Westlands Hotel, admits this cruise ship craze has complicated talent retention. She talks of trends at her previous employer.
“It’s tough. You invest in training people, grooming them, helping them grow and just when they’re hitting their stride, they’re gone. The cruise lines come calling, and it’s like starting from scratch again,” she says.
The HR practitioner says the industry is now compelled to continuously train and upgrade casual workers, converting them to permanent staff when necessary, a strategy to cushion against the loss of experienced talent to cruise liners.
But he adds that, “the good thing about it is that we have so many hospitality talents fresh from college who work on a casual basis. They are the ones we promote into these permanent roles as and when those vacancies arise.”
However, what worries her most is experienced chefs.
“These we have to replace. This is where we have had major challenges because for chefs, experience is vital, and it takes years to gain experience. An entry-level chef, one with two years of experience, the salary rate in Kenya is about Sh60,000 without the service charge and other benefits, which can push the salary to between Sh80,000 to Sh100,000. When this chef joins a cruise line, he or she is offered four times more. Finding another experienced chef as a quick replacement isn’t easy. Currently, there is even a shortage of pastry chefs in the country; you can imagine the kind of experience needed to manage the pastry section of a reputable hotel,” Ms Mugure says.
Still, she understands the decision.
“You can’t blame them. At the end of the day, people are looking for opportunities that change their lives, and quite frankly, cruise ship salaries are attractive. For instance, our Kenyan market rate for wait staff is between Sh35,000 and Sh60,000 per month, depending on experience and the property. But when someone joins a cruise ship, even at entry-level, they could earn anywhere from Sh150,000 to Sh200,000 tax-free, and that’s before tips. Imagine taking home four to five times what you used to earn locally, without paying tax, and with free housing, food, and medical cover? I mean who wouldn’t go. This is an offer that I'm not able to even match, and so you let them go,” she adds.
Some of her former colleagues, she says, have even returned after one contract to take a break or start their own businesses back home.
“It sounds strange, I know. You’d think once someone earns all that money they’d never come back. But some come back due to various reasons. Cruise jobs come with a catch. You will surely sweat for that money. By design, cruise jobs require you to work for long hours and some people aren’t able to. Some come back after hitting their financial goals, and then decide to return to something else,” she says.
