Article
26 min read
How a Global Expansion Manager Drove Hospitality Growth
Global expansion
Author
Jemima Owen-Jones
Last Update
August 14, 2025
Table of Contents
The challenge of expanding a hospitality brand globally
Why international expansion is hard for global expansion managers—and how Deel makes it easy
A day in the life of a hospitality global expansion manager using Deel
The ROI of faster hospitality market entry with Deel
Simplify your global expansion strategy with Deel for hospitality
The challenge of expanding a hospitality brand globally
In the hospitality industry, opening a new property in a new country isn’t just about construction schedules and marketing strategies—it’s about people.
Hotels, restaurants, and resorts rely heavily on front-line, skilled, and seasonal staff. But structural labour tightness, seasonal visa competition, patchwork compliance requirements, and differing pay and licensing rules all add complexity to the Global Expansion Manager’s mission.
Deel draws on real-world expertise from supporting hospitality businesses worldwide, so we understand the chronic staffing shortages, high vacancy rates, and compliance risks that can derail a launch.
In this article, you’ll follow Zara, a fictional Global Expansion Manager, as she uses Deel’s global people platform to open properties faster, stay compliant, and maintain workforce quality across multiple jurisdictions.
Why international expansion is hard for global expansion managers—and how Deel makes it easy
For hospitality operators, time-to-market is everything. But expanding into a new country is never simple—staffing, compliance, and payroll all vary by jurisdiction. Without the right systems, delays and costs can quickly spiral.
Key pain points for a hospitality Global Expansion Manager like Zara:
- Filling critical roles fast in competitive markets: Local job ads alone won’t attract enough qualified hospitality professionals, especially in regions facing structural labour shortages
- Navigating work authorisations and visas: Complex, varying processes for relocating talent or hiring third-country nationals can derail opening timelines if deadlines or licensing requirements are missed
- Keeping pace with evolving employment laws: Frequent changes to scheduling, time-keeping, and rest-break rules across jurisdictions require constant monitoring and real-time contract updates to stay compliant
- Managing payroll and market-specific pay laws: From tip and service charge allocation to overtime and split-shift premiums, each country (and often each city) has unique wage rules that must be applied correctly
- Maintaining visibility over a global workforce: Without a centralized HRIS, workforce data, compliance documents, and headcount insights become scattered across multiple systems and spreadsheets
- Choosing and adapting the right hiring model: The most effective hiring approach varies by country; balancing contractors, Contractor of Record, EOR, or entity setup requires agility and clear legal guidance
That’s where Deel comes in—a global hiring platform that helps hospitality businesses hire, pay, and manage international teams without the cost, complexity, or compliance risk of going it alone.
A day in the life of a hospitality global expansion manager using Deel
8:30 AM — Forecast staffing needs for a new beach resort in Portugal
Labour shortages mean Zara can’t rely on local job ads alone—she needs to stand out to in-demand hospitality professionals. That starts with offering competitive, market-driven compensation and localized benefits that resonate with talent in the Algarve region. Once the package is right, she must move quickly to secure top candidates before competitors do.
With Deel, Zara can:
- Access up-to-date salary insights and localized employee benefits for the Algarve region to create attractive, market-leading offers
- Use Deel Talent to connect with trusted local recruiters and hire qualified hospitality staff faster
- Initiate cross-border Employer of Record (EOR) hiring to secure talent without the delays of setting up a legal entity
- Apply Deel Workforce Planning to refine headcount targets and model hiring costs for budget certainty
Problem solved: Zara attracts and signs top talent quickly, securing her opening-day staffing plan without costly last-minute overtime.
With Deel’s compensation insights, recruiter network, and fast EOR hiring, I can lock in the best talent months ahead of opening—no more last-minute staffing scrambles.
—Zara,
fictional Global Expansion Manager
Platform Tour
10:00 AM — Secure work authorisations and visa approvals
Relocating key talent or hiring third-country nationals compliantly is one of the most complex steps in opening a new property. Work permit and visa processes vary widely between countries, often involving multiple agencies, strict quotas, and shifting timelines. Missing a deadline can mean losing top candidates or delaying openings.
With Deel, Zara can:
- Receive automatic alerts to critical work authorisation and visa deadlines through Deel’s platform.
- Obtain sponsorship status with Deel’s support, ensuring compliance and faster processing.
- Use EOR visa sponsorship to relocate or hire talent without managing applications herself.
- Access streamlined visa and immigration support when hiring via her own local entities.
- Build contingency plans with alternative eligible nationalities to prevent skill shortages.
Problem solved: All necessary work authorisations and visas are secured in sync with property readiness, ensuring critical staff are on-site from day one.
With Deel’s immigration support, I never have to choose between the right talent and a fast opening—we get both, on schedule.
—Zara,
fictional Global Expansion Manager
Platform Tour
11:30 AM — Stay ahead of evolving employment laws across markets
Employment laws differ from country to country—and they’re constantly changing. From scheduling and time-keeping requirements to mandated rest breaks, even small changes in legislation can directly impact your workforce. Without a system to stay ahead, these shifts can lead to fines, disputes, and reputational damage.
With Deel, Zara can:
- Tap into Deel’s Compliance Hub to stay on top of country-specific laws that affect scheduling, time-keeping, and rest breaks
- Get automatic alerts when laws change in any market where her teams operate
- Instantly update employee contracts in real time to reflect new legal requirements
Problem solved: Zara maintains ongoing compliance without manually tracking dozens of evolving laws, ensuring her workforce is managed legally and efficiently everywhere.
Deel’s Compliance Hub means I never worry about missing a legal update—our contracts and workflows adjust instantly.
—Zara,
fictional Global Expansion Manager
Continuous Compliance™
1:00 PM — Manage payroll and pay laws from one global system
In the hospitality sector, payroll isn’t just about paying people on time—it’s about ensuring every payment follows the laws of the country or city where each employee works. From the UK’s Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, which mandates fair and transparent tip distribution, to US state-specific FLSA tip pooling rules, to local laws on overtime, split-shift premiums, and service charge allocations, each jurisdiction adds its own complexity.
With Deel, Zara can:
- Run global payroll for all locations from one global, centralized platform while automatically applying local pay rules
- Pre-configure jurisdiction-specific policies for tips, service charges, overtime, and other wage components
- Automate fair allocation and reporting in compliance with local laws
- Maintain transparent, audit-ready records to resolve any disputes quickly
Problem solved: Payroll compliance is consistent across every market, boosting staff trust and eliminating the risk of costly legal challenges.
Because Deel’s payroll adjusts automatically for each market’s rules, we launch new properties knowing our pay practices are compliant from day one—and our teams are impressed by the flexible withdrawal options and Anytime Pay feature.
—Zara,
fictional Global Expansion Manager
See also: The ROI of Centralized Payroll Systems
Platform Tour
3:00 PM — Oversee your entire workforce in one centralized HRIS
As Zara’s hospitality group expands, managing a growing, globally distributed workforce becomes increasingly complex. Different countries mean different employment laws, contracts, benefits, and compliance requirements—and without a unified system, data quickly fragments across spreadsheets, emails, and disconnected platforms.
With Deel, Zara has all the essential HRIS tools to manage and grow her team. With centralized reporting, automated workflows, and granular permissions, she can work faster and gain complete workforce insights.
With Deel, Zara can:
- Analyze global costs: See workforce costs at the worker, country, and regional level with comprehensive analytics
- Review and forecast headcount: Monitor onboarding, offboarding, retention, and growth across all locations for accurate trend analysis
- Track diversity, equity, and inclusion: Use the DE&I dashboard to collect demographic data and analyze representation across the workforce.
- Customize and share reports: Tailor reports for finance, IT, procurement, or leadership to align with their specific priorities.
- Get instant answers with Deel AI: Quickly resolve payroll, compliance, or HR questions using AI trained on Deel’s legally vetted Knowledge Hub.
- Automate HR workflows: Trigger built-in or custom workflows for lifecycle events like promotions, relocations, or role changes—streamlining processes and minimizing error
- Access essential features like digital employee files, time-off tracking, org charts, onboarding/offboarding automation, and app provisioning
Problem solved: Zara has one source of truth for her global team, ensuring every contract, compliance record, and credential is accurate, up-to-date, and synced with payroll, benefits, and tax reporting.
With Deel’s HRIS, I can oversee every employee in one place—whether they’re training at a new resort or transferring across borders—and have full visibility into costs, compliance, and growth trends.
—Zara,
fictional Global Expansion Manager
Discover how Directional Pizza, the largest Pizza Hut franchise in the UK, scaled payroll and HR with Deel
When Directional Pizza expanded into Europe as a new franchisee, it encountered fragmented payroll and HR operating systems after establishing itself as a new entity and acquiring portfolios of restaurants across the UK, Denmark, and Sweden
Emily Curtis, Group Chief People Officer (CPO) at Directional Pizza, explained:
“I wanted payroll to be as simple as ordering a pizza. Every minute employees spend on admin instead of serving customers impacts our revenue.”
Curtis conducted a market review of global payroll and HR providers, evaluating Deel, ADP, Papaya Global, HiBob, and BambooHR. Deel stood out as the only fully integrated, single-platform solution covering Global HRIS, payroll, IT, and compliance—eliminating the need for additional platforms or manual data entry.
“Deel is the only truly complete solution for scaling a global team. The moment I saw everything it could do in just one platform, I knew they truly understood our challenges and had built exactly what we needed.”
But Deel’s impact extended beyond payroll and HR—IT management became a game-changer. Previously, each newly acquired business had a fragmented, localized IT setup, resulting in inconsistent and unscalable operations.
By switching to Deel IT’s global-first solution, the team could hire across borders and seamlessly equip employees with the technology they needed, wherever they were located. Directional Pizza can procure, deploy, and manage IT assets across all countries from a single platform.
“With Deel, we get fast support, an easy-to-use platform, and a partner we can rely on to keep our workforce running smoothly. It’s the flexibility and speed we need to keep up with our growth, so we can focus on scaling our business and getting our amazing world-famous pizzas to customers in every market in which we operate. Our leaders want to spend time with their teams, not completing mundane and thankless administration.”
Deel's Built-In HRIS
4:30 PM — Choosing the right hiring model for each market
Different countries call for different hiring strategies. In some markets, hiring contractors is a great fit; in others, the risk of misclassification is too high, making it safer to engage them through a Contractor of Record (COR).
Employer of Record hiring can be ideal for quickly onboarding employees without setting up a local entity, while in other countries, it may be more cost-effective to establish an entity—something Deel can also support.
As operations evolve, the right model can change, and being able to switch seamlessly is key to long-term agility.
With Deel, Zara can:
- Compare the costs, compliance requirements, and operational implications of contractor, Contractor of Record, EOR, or Entity Setup per market
- Access local legal guidance instantly to understand the best-fit model for each jurisdiction
- Switch between hiring models as the business grows, without disrupting operations.
Problem solved: Zara always uses the most appropriate hiring model for each market, balancing speed, compliance, and cost-effectiveness.
With Deel, I can adapt our hiring model to each market and switch as we grow—without slowing down expansion or adding unnecessary risk.
—Zara,
fictional Global Expansion Manager
See also: A Guide to Setting up a Local Entity
Global Hiring Toolkit
The ROI of faster hospitality market entry with Deel
With Deel, Zara cuts delays, trims costs, and launches hotels, restaurants, and resorts on time—without the compliance headaches.
| Challenge | Without Deel | With Deel |
|---|---|---|
| Filling roles fast | Slow local hiring; long vacancies; costly overtime | Salary benchmarks, localised perks, Deel Talent + EOR to hire anywhere instantly |
| Work permits & visas | Missed deadlines; delayed openings | Auto deadline alerts, sponsorship support, EOR visa handling, smooth in-entity hires |
| Changing labour laws | Manual tracking; outdated contracts; compliance risk | Compliance Hub auto-tracks laws, updates contracts in real time |
| Global payroll compliance | Multiple providers; manual tip/service charge rules | One global payroll, auto local rules, tips + Anytime Pay built in |
| Workforce visibility | Scattered data; no clear cost or headcount view | Central HRIS, global cost + headcount insights, DE&I tracking, AI answers |
| Right hiring model | Guesswork; misclassification risk | Compare + switch between contractor, COR, EOR, entity as needed |
With Deel, we’ve cut our market entry timelines in half and filled every role with the right talent—without tripping over compliance or payroll complexity.
—Zara,
fictional Global Expansion Manager
Simplify your global expansion strategy with Deel for hospitality
Zara is fictional, but her challenges mirror those faced by Global Expansion Managers worldwide: tackling labour scarcity, immigration timing, and compliance complexity across multiple jurisdictions.
With Deel, global hospitality leaders can:
- Eliminate entity setup delays with compliant EOR and COR hiring in 150+ countries
- Replace fragmented payroll with a single global platform
- Automate onboarding, performance management, and reporting
- Cut vendor bloat and scale without adding more admin headcount
Book a demo to see how Deel can help your hospitality business expand faster and enjoy long-term success.
More resources
Jemima is a nomadic writer, journalist, and digital marketer with a decade of experience crafting compelling B2B content for a global audience. She is a strong advocate for equal opportunities and is dedicated to shaping the future of work. At Deel, she specializes in thought-leadership content covering global mobility, cross-border compliance, and workplace culture topics.
