Looking at drastically different hotel business models
While most industry watchers expect hotels to return to a more normalized environment eventually, what if they used this moment to drastically reimagine the way they do business?
The more I read and report throughout this pandemic, the more I get this message: The hotel industry will eventually return to business as usual. It might take a while, but eventually things will go back to the way they once were.
The more I read and report throughout this pandemic, the more I get this message: The hotel industry will eventually return to business as usual. It might take a while, but eventually things will go back to the way they once were.
I'm sure this is very true in many ways. It's probably unreasonable optimism in many other ways.
But if the end result of this is a (massive) dip before a return to the way things have always been, it leaves me wondering what are some of the more radical ways of doing business that hoteliers could use this moment to transition to?
So, lets use this space for some baseless speculation on the more radical business models that hotels could adopt to have more downturn resilient business models
Subscriptions
We've discussed the possibility in the past of how the hotel industry could up the ante with it's ever growing loyalty programs by turning them into Netflix-style subscriptions rather than earn-and-burn programs. Obviously, this wouldn't recession-proof the business, as guests would be more likely to cancel in periods they don't feel comfortable traveling, but it would be interesting at the very least to see how much more resilient revenue streams would be in that circumstance.