A PEO for a hotel with 25 employees

What pricing looks like at 25 employees

At 25 employees, small differences in a per-employee fee compound into a material annual amount, and benefit participation can support more meaningful plan comparisons. Normalize percentage pricing to PEPM using actual payroll and compare the plan designs as well as premiums.

Housekeeping drives much of the exposure through lifting, pushing carts, and repetitive strain. Food and beverage adds kitchen exposure under a separate class. Carriers ask about room quotas, lifting practices, ergonomics, and return-to-work procedures.

Your leverage

A complete census, loss information, and a documented request for proposal can create useful competition. Ask each finalist to model state unemployment and workers compensation explicitly and to state how benefits renewal notice works.

When a PEO is the wrong answer at this size

If an experienced internal operator already manages HR, benefits, payroll, and compliance, a PEO may duplicate part of that role. Compare the PEO with an ASO or payroll platform while keeping the existing insurance and internal expertise.

Worth pricing when wage complexity, frequent onboarding, and housekeeping claims administration create measurable work. Franchisees should first confirm which systems the brand requires, since those requirements can constrain the PEO’s payroll and timekeeping role.

What a hotel should ask every PEO

• A single property can run four pay structures at once: hourly front desk, tipped food and beverage, housekeeping with productivity incentives, and salaried management, each with different overtime and reporting treatment.
• Service charges versus tips is a consequential distinction: service charges are wages for tax and overtime purposes while tips follow tip-credit rules, and banquet operations mix both in the same pay period.
• Overnight shifts and split schedules generate premium pay obligations in some cities and states, and predictive scheduling ordinances increasingly apply to hospitality.
• Housekeeping turnover and seasonal occupancy swings mean constant onboarding, and several cities have enacted hotel-specific worker protection ordinances with training and workload rules.

Model management, year-round, seasonal, and part-time eligibility from the hotel’s actual census. Ask how the fee treats each group and compare plan tiers, employer contribution, waivers, and variable-hour measurement without assuming an enrollment rate.

Common questions

Can a PEO handle banquet service charges and tipped payroll in the same property?

The correct treatment differs: distributed service charges are wages that enter the regular rate for overtime, while tips follow tip-credit and pooling rules that vary by state. Ask the PEO to process a sample banquet pay period from your actual operation and show the overtime calculation, because this is where hospitality payroll fails audits.

What drives workers comp cost for a hotel inside a PEO?

Housekeeping claims. Carriers and PEO risk teams look at rooms cleaned per shift, mattress-lifting practices, and cart ergonomics before quoting class 9052. A PEO with hospitality clients should offer specific housekeeping safety programs and return-to-work coordination; ask what its book’s claim frequency looks like for room attendants.

Different team size?