A distinct shift in the attitudes of graduates in recent years has left hotels struggling to recruit the staff they need. Even graduates of the most prominent hotel schools are shunning the service industry in favour of more lucrative professions.
It is not just the salary that puts them off, but the prospect of shift work and the concept of serving others - which is no longer an attractive proposition for today's young graduates.
Gentiana Cheung Pui, director of human resources at The Kowloon Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, believes the problem has its roots in the way children are bought up. They were spoilt and had come to believe that it was beneath them to serve others, she said.
'People used to have a lot of kids [in Hong Kong], but now they only have one. That is why kids are so treasured by their families and grow up believing they should be served and not serve other people,' she said.
Connie Ng Mun-wah, training manager at the hotel, said even graduates who joined hotel management training schemes often had unrealistic impressions of the job and left within three months once they discovered the hard work and long hours expected of them.
'When we interview some of the graduates or internship trainees they say that after two or three years they want to be a manager in the hotel. But it is very difficult to be a manager within this time because you need experience,' Ms Ng said.