Restaurants that allow diners to book reservations on a flexible schedule can increase revenues by up to 21 percent over those that use rigid reservation timing for patrons, according to a new study by Gary Thompson, professor of service operations research at the School of Hotel Administration.
Consumer confidence is slowly returning, with two main trends: short-term booking windows and long-term reservations towards the end of 2021, reports the latest edition of the Duetto Pulse Report, which tracked data from June 15-28 across three key hotel metrics - bookings, cancellations and web traffic.
The issue of financing the cost of reopening the hotel sector was the hot topic tackled in the second hotel webinar organised by global hotel consultancy HVS, legal firm Bird & Bird, EP Hospitality and AlixPartners, which was held yesterday [8th July].
"The main things that could or should be done are. 1: guest communication platforms, either a Whats App for business or a dedicated platform, guest's communication should be digital and remove the need to go to the reception or concierge."
Technology is not a consequence businesses need to adapt to, but rather an opportunity that businesses can take advantage of. Having worked in the digital world of hospitality for four years, I have a long list of success stories thanks to basic technology adaption of restaurants in the industry.
At a time of fairly steady recovery, depending on where you are in the world, companies make choices every day that can mean definitive capitulation or a further step towards financial recovery. This is a good time to bring in interns.
The hospitality industry is facing the greatest challenge in our lifetime as hotels around the world have been closed, international borders restricted, and flights cancelled in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The hospitality industry brings boundless opportunities globally, providing millions of jobs to people. In December 2019, Eton College's research showed that hospitality is one of the fastest-growing industries and accounts for 10% of the world's GDP, generating over $550 billion in revenue annually.
Around the world and across industries, marketers now face arguably one of the toughest challenges of their careers. There is, after all, no universally established gold-standard for marketing during a wide-spread pandemic, because a global crisis of this magnitude is hardly 'textbook'.
"Consumers are progressively depending on technology to plan and book travel, which is driving an increase in the number of technology companies seeking to incorporate distribution solutions into their business model."
In a recent survey conducted at Cendyn, we spoke with hoteliers from across the globe and asked them how they are managing their re-opening strategy during a global pandemic. As a reminder to all, hotels are in different situations across the globe - not every hotel is closed right now but many were closed for a significant time and are just re-opening or planning to re-open, albeit at a limited capacity.
As the UK prepares for reopening the hospitality industry, AETHOS sought to get a clearer picture of the sentiment amongst branded as well as independent hotel operators. The idea - to contrast the mood of the British hospitality industry with that of a country where hoteliers have already had a little 'head start' due to the earlier lifting of restrictions.
