Covid-19: Advice from the past
He used to think "Why is it always me?" It seemed that no matter where he was stationed, hotelier Markus Platzer, currently general manager of Washington's Willard InterContinental, found himself in crisis situations.
In 2002 in Prague – with the post-9/11 drop in travel still a recent memory – floods caused drainage water to back up into his property. The hotel closed for six weeks to clean up.
"We were meeting in the lobby in Welly [rain]boots," he recalled.
The 2008 recession caused pain felt by hoteliers worldwide – Platzer didn't feel singled out by that – but in 2010, it again felt specific to him. For three weeks, he endured 7% occupancy at the two Bangkok properties he was overseeing because they were in a part of the city that was convulsed by violent political demonstrations. When activists took firm control of the area, he sent his few remaining guests elsewhere and closed the doors, again for six weeks.
Covid-19 presents a very different kind of challenge to hoteliers and others in the travel industry, but Platzer identified threads that were common to all his previous crises, and he has developed, if not a plan, a point of view.
Typically at this time of year, occupancy at the Willard would be in the high 80s; it's in the low 50s. "March is finished," he said, and April's looking problematic: The annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund has always kept the Willard buzzing, but it has already been announced that the conference will be conducted online this year.
