The Current COVID-19 crisis has put incredible strains on hotel owners, operators and managers. Steps to alleviate the current pain points are well noted - fee reductions/deferrals, closing of properties, reduced staffing and services - but these are likely not sustainable over a long period.
The prominence of the housekeeping function has seen a revival in recent years. While its contribution was underappreciated for many decades, there has been a recent awakening to the department's significant impact on shaping the guest experience and the positive impact a well-managed team can have on the hotel's bottom line.
Travel suppliers - hotels and airlines - have experimented for years with a supplier-owned online travel agency (OTA) to combat their over-dependency on the mega OTAs like Booking Holdings and Expedia Group.
Over the past 20 years, the hospitality industry has experienced a continuous increase in various 'stamps of approval', especially at the sustainable front. A few large certification bodies with extensive criteria catalogues dominate the market but hoteliers and consumers alike are still struggling to differentiate the reputable and credible ones from the home-made seals of approval.
A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing or Real Help? - Expedia just launched a partner recovery program, in which to participate, hotels need to provide Expedia with a.) their lowest retail rates and b.) competitive pricing on things like holiday packages and c.
Just when it seemed as if single-use plastics were slowly becoming a thing of the past, COVID-19 hit the industry. The second half of 2019 had seen more and more industry leaders making public pledges to abandon a product group that had become the infamous representative of an old and immoral, linear economy.
Most hoteliers agree that, at least for the foreseeable future, hotel stays will be different. Guests will be more conscious about hygiene, social distancing and expecting a contactless guest-journey.
As the hospitality industry grapples with market instability and changes worldwide, this viewpoint aims to identify helpful views from a panel of industry experts, to discuss leading action-items for near-term and long-range strategic planning.
It is completely understandable that most hospitality industry companies are focused on short-term survival right now. World, business and industry conditions require such attention. However, as time passes and we settle into our routines and manage to put out our most pressing fires, it will soon become time for the industry's leaders to look past the clouds of uncertainty hanging over us and take the necessary time to consider how firms need to position themselves once the pandemic crisis has abated and the world returns to normal.
The global hospitality industry has been through every perceivable calamity over the past decades: earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, major floods, terrorist attracts like 9/11, SARS, global recessions, epidemics and pandemics like SARS, MERSA, ZIKA, swine flu and now COVID-19.
Hospitality Net's World Panel is a thought-leadership platform where hospitality-industry opinion leaders share insights, views, ideas and reactions on important issues and events currently affecting the hospitality business. Each panel is made up of a select group of experts, and industry leaders who, by invitation, contribute succinct commentary on viewpoints which are suggested by panel-champs.
