Asian guest workers appear among waiters: Hungary’s hospitality sector struggles to fill jobs

Hungary’s hospitality industry is once again grappling with labour shortages as the spring and summer tourism season approaches, prompting employers to look for guest workers. While hotels and restaurants can still find chefs and trained waiters in many cases, employers say it is increasingly difficult to recruit workers for less popular roles such as dishwashers, cleaners and housekeeping staff.

As a result, more venues are turning to foreign guest workers to fill these gaps, with Asian guest workers now appearing not only in back-of-house roles but also among waitstaff.

Industry insiders say the issue is especially visible outside Budapest, where a smaller labour pool and limited training opportunities make recruitment even harder.

Rural areas face the biggest challenges

Rudolf Semsei, vice president of the Hungarian Hospitality Industry Association, told Portfolio that the labour situation differs significantly between Budapest and the countryside.

While the capital offers larger venues and more career opportunities, many rural restaurants and hotels struggle to attract trained professionals. A major reason is that hospitality graduates often move to Budapest for work, leaving smaller towns with fewer qualified candidates.

Semsei believes stronger cooperation with vocational schools could help solve part of the problem. If hospitality businesses establish relationships with students during their training, they may be able to build a more stable workforce over time.

However, smaller establishments outside the capital often lack the resources to provide mentors for trainees, which makes long-term staff development more difficult.

Asian guest workers increasingly visible

Labour shortages remain most acute in manual hospitality roles such as cleaners, housekeepers and dishwashers. According to Roland Sívó, adviser to the National Association of Tourism Hospitality Employers, many restaurants struggle to find applicants even for basic kitchen jobs.

To address this, some establishments are hiring guest workers from abroad.

“In some restaurants, it is no longer unusual to see waiters from the Philippines or Sri Lanka,” Sívó said.

Foreign staff can also be found in higher-end hotels, where Ukrainian or Mongolian employees sometimes fill operational roles. However, communication can occasionally present challenges, particularly when both foreign and Hungarian workers have limited English proficiency.

Wage competition and changing work preferences

Competition for staff has intensified across the industry. Restaurants frequently try to attract workers from competitors by offering higher wages, creating a constant battle for experienced employees.

At the same time, younger workers are increasingly reluctant to take on jobs that require long shifts, weekend work or irregular hours. These factors make hospitality less appealing as a long-term career, even though many young people still take short-term positions as bartenders, runners or waiters while studying.

Some workers also move between restaurants, accepting shifts where pay is highest on a given day.

New rules could boost hospitality wages

Industry leaders hope recent regulatory changes could make hospitality jobs more attractive. Under a government programme aimed at supporting the sector, restaurants can distribute up to 20% of food and drink revenue — including VAT — as service charges among employees.

This measure could significantly increase workers’ income and help businesses retain staff.

Digital tools and AI entering restaurants

Technology is also becoming more common in Hungarian hospitality, although its main purpose is to improve efficiency rather than attract younger workers.

Self-service ordering screens and digital ordering systems are already widely used in some restaurants. Tablet-based ordering tools and mobile applications can also reduce the number of steps waiters must take during a shift.

Artificial intelligence is currently used mainly in marketing, data analysis and customer feedback monitoring. Some chefs and pastry chefs also experiment with AI tools to generate recipe ideas, optimise ingredient use or calculate nutritional values.

However, industry experts say AI-driven guest acquisition and automated marketing are still in their early stages in the sector.

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