Visiting London ranks high on the wish-list of many people around the world who want to explore the town, and yet many native Londoners rarely venture beyond the river to see the other side of their city.
The UK is witnessing a tentative re-opening now that we are at the end of March. Monday 29th saw the end of the Stay At Home rule in England and the fresh ability to meet up in private gardens. Frustratingly, this lifting of restrictions does not include hospitality's super clean and COVID safe premises until April 12th 'at the earliest'.
Sharp declines in revenue caused by the pandemic coupled with a more cautious approach to lending has prompted hotel valuations to fall over the past 12 months, although not as steeply as some had initially anticipated.
"Sustainability-driven legislation should not be only falling on the governments, but also be a responsibility for hospitality operators and investors, using the various legal documents they have at their disposal: design standards, lease/management/franchise agreements, operating guidelines."
Europe has always been the guardian of traditional hospitality, high-class service based on the personal touch. However, today's realities demand new approaches where contactless technology is integrated harmoniously into the familiar European level of service.
It has been over a year since I boarded a Eurostar train from St. Pancras in London to Paris. The journey was ominous as Covid-19 loomed large. What the pandemic would entail was anybody's guess. The estimated number of 20,000 deaths due to Covid-19 in the UK seemed preposterous.
The U.S. hotel industry was in need of a month like February. For Europe, it was another in a string of profitability pain.
"Hotel brands are putting their cleaning staff more on the forefront now to showcase the (additional) cleaning that takes place in marketing videos. It is vital during this pandemic to have clean surfaces that might be overlooked at different times."
Anyone working or studying at the Ecole hotelière de Lausanne will agree that campus life is an integral part of the EHL experience. A walk around the F&B outlets in the central part of the building inevitably entails bumping into people, swapping ideas, hatching plans - in brief, making things happen! With the quick transition to remote learning, virtual classrooms and a campus on strictly reduced capacity, the fertile hub of human interaction at EHL has inevitably been impacted - but it's far from being diminished.
A large number of Marriott employees around the world have answered the call and come forward to run, walk or cycle by way of honouring the memory of Arne Sorenson. Although I am now a former employee of Marriott International, I decided to cycle for 17 miles in memory of my late friend.
Although at times it can feel longer, this week marks the one-year anniversary of when hotel bookings most steeply decelerated around the world, as countries closed borders and commercial travel was suspended.
Nearly a year into our days of forced telecommuting and videoconferencing, the words 'impact of COVID-19' continue to ring in our ears. The hospitality industry has undoubtedly borne the brunt of this crisis, as many hotels across Europe continue to record single-digit occupancies, with average revenues per room down by nearly 70% in 2020.
