Indies use tech, social media to urge future bookings

The current pandemic has led to changes in business for the hotel industry, and independent hotels have shifted the way they communicate with guests via social media and other virtual methods to give guests hope and attract business down the line when lockdowns and travel restrictions have lifted.

The Hotel at the University of Maryland is temporarily closed, but has some members of its sales team going on-site to give virtual tours of its meetings and event space, according to Jeff Brainard, VP of sales for Southern Management Corporation's hospitality division, which manages the hotel.

"Getting people on-site to see the hotel and see the space is a critical part of the booking process," he said. "We want people comfortable with the amenities, the level of product, the facility itself, where you're going to host your guests, and with the travel restrictions, having people getting comfortable with you on-site (was) basically impossible from mid-March until, you know, pick a date."

The Hotel at the University of Maryland wanted to come up with a solution that was more than uploading videos of the space to the hotel's website, Brainard said. The technology the hotel is using for virtual tours is "kind of like FaceTime plus" because it allows sales leaders to walk around and talk to the client while giving them a tour of meetings and events space in real time, he said.