The Future of Hospitality after the outbreak
Just before the 2020 Chinese Spring Festival in late January, with the regional hotel industry forecasting more than 450 million domestic incoming travelers to China, the sudden COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak hit the “pause button” hard -full stop.
The effects of Covid-19 in the world of tourism and travel, and especially in the hotel sector, are as unknown as the virus itself, given that it is the first time in history that we are faced with a situation like the current one.
It is true that the crisis committees of the hotel companies are handling the situation as the events are taking place, and especially with regard to the short-term measures associated with the government regulations that are taking place, but the The medium-term impact of this crisis still remains an uncertainty.
We are living through very difficult times due to the coronavirus worldwide and many economists are already talking about a CRISIS in which we are going to be for only a few months, if not years. However, apart from the fact that the market situation now registers a null demand, as soon as we pass the quarantine we will have to see what happens.
This is where we have to get to work intensively and prepare different scenarios with their action plan, because once the closure is over, the fast fish will eat the slow fish.
From the point of view of hotel revenue management consultant, many of my clients, alumni of courses, friends and colleagues by profession continually ask me, how are you doing in sales? what can we do?
Current Situation
Now the demand is zero and via price it will not be encouraged, because it does not exist.
If we look for dates of stay from June onwards, it is possible that some demand will already be registered, but before it is very unlikely as things are today. Here we must always clarify that each type of hotel is different, as well as the destination in question and the type of client, so that each one can react differently.
What can we do now?
Make the cancellation policies more flexible since the probability that they will now book a non-refundable rate or with very strict policies is very low. In fact, that is why agencies such as Expedia do not publish non-refundable for stays until May even if you have them charged, because they know that nobody reserved them, it would be a double job to reserve and then “fight” to modify it, and on eliminating it, the cleaner is panel of rates available to the client.
- Minimum nights, release and other rate conditions that may be a brake must be eliminated.
- Enhance the value of the product, and visibly show the flexibility we offer to cancel, among other things.
- Take advantage of the time to recycle ourselves with online courses and train in the weakest areas.
Future Situation
We will open the hotels when the state allows it, but the clients are not going to arrive the next day.
Here all the directors will have already done the work of adjusting the costs to the maximum, as well as we will have to go looking for when it pays to open, and under what conditions.
Demand will clearly be lower, because even after a few weeks people will travel with precautionary measures as we have seen in China to avoid a re-emergence of covid-19. Therefore, transmitting in the hotels that we follow the hygienic sanitary recommendations of the competent bodies, will help to gain the trust of the client.
On the other hand, not everyone will return to work because companies will not go from producing 0% to 100% in a short time, this needs their time, and therefore it will not need as many people to start.
The effects of global globalization have already shown us that it has both advantages and disadvantages, so if the Chinese world factory stops, it stops a large part of the world, and thus with many other international relations that make the economies of the countries are linked.
This topic has to write sheets and sheets, but it is not the intention of this article and the scenarios will change with the days.
What can we do then?
Be very attentive to the movements of the competition, see if the offer that was before has been maintained, listen a lot to the client because what previously worked will surely not work then, consult with specialists in each subject, transmit hygiene-sanitary security, upload the value of the products etc.
It will really be necessary to see how all this evolves as it is something unprecedented, however it is better to have a battery of ideas according to scenarios and all the duties done, because the market will be the same for everyone but each will be the one to write their own history.
As they say, “if you want different results, do different things, because if you keep doing the usual, the usual will happen to you.”
Now more than ever, we have a challenge ahead of us with impressive dimensions and we are a generation that is making history. Therefore, I invite you to take advantage of the time and recycle everything you can.
