5 Tips on Stabilizing your Hospitality Business during Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has exerted a profound impact on the revenues of the hospitality industry. With the increasing chances of the communicability of the disease and individuals quarantined in their homes, the hospitality industry is witnessing a massive decrease in revenues over all the costs of maintenance and other fixed costs that they have to endure.
Statistics revealed a year-over-year decrease of 29.2% in occupancy rates in U.S. hotels following the COVID-19 outbreak. Implementing the necessary procedures to stabilize the damage the crisis brought empowers hoteliers to anticipate the rebound in travel demand and ensure a smooth hotel reopening after COVID.
With most hotels beginning to plan their returns to their previous operations, the need to evaluate hospitality trends and forecasts is crucial in ultimately shaping your recovery strategy. Outlined in this article is a hotel reopening checklist and tips that you should take into account to achieve a successful hotel reopening process.
1. Practice Good Corporate Social Responsibility
Actively responding to health measures imposed by the government sends a message that you are doing whatever is necessary to ensure a healthy environment for your guests. With travelers becoming increasingly concerned about the safety and sanitation of their living environments, adhering to these health and safety regulations also provides your guests peace of mind. It also keeps your name out of legal issues.
Additionally, practicing good corporate social responsibility shows your commitment to managing the social, economic, and environmental effects of your operations responsibly and ensuring that it is in line with public expectations. Doing so can also translate to establishing a good reputation, attracting positive attention, and increasing sales and customer loyalty, which are incredibly essential in a cutthroat environment such as the hospitality industry.
2. Align Revenue and Marketing Strategies
Developing a recovery plan focused on aligning your revenue and marketing strategies is one of the primary hotel guidelines for reopening. This guarantees parity throughout all channels, new packages and offers, direct booking, and cancellation policies while simultaneously ensuring that the recovery plan is consistent with your rate strategy.
Marketing and revenue alignment in this crisis also allows you to gather relevant feedback and observe guests on their booking journeys. Shared and cohesive customer intelligence in the hotel industry paves the way for higher booking and lower cancellation rates. It also promotes the better implementation of customer feedback providing you with an idea of how will hotels reopen with new regulations following the effects of COVID-19.
3. Use Hotel Management Software
Taking advantage of hotel management solutions will reduce time spent on administrative tasks, enabling you to concentrate on revenue budget and forecasts. By streamlining hospitality processes with a hotel management software, you can do all the essential things to market your hotel brand and take it to the next level under present circumstances.
It will also offer valuable data on the booking and cancellation rates in your hotel, making it more straightforward to perform the necessary adjustments. The right hotel management solution will also help you build a strong relationship with your guests since you can better tap into your target market while identifying potential customers.
4. Maintain Connections with Guests
The relationship you maintain with your guests is meaningful because it can translate into increased bookings and loyalty. Although people are not traveling, hotels should still make an effort to stay connected with guests through email, social media, or editorial content that adds value and entertains to maintain a strong brand relationship.
Social media channels are a vital part of the hotel-guest relationship because it helps people connect. Taking advantage of this helps you develop a personal relationship with your guests at every step of their journey. You can also opt to create packages that upsell items while offering guests coupons and discounts once you reopen.
5. Update Digital Assets with Vital Information
With technology continuously evolving, so do the behavior of hotel guests. Update digital assets with critical information that enables guests to stay in the loop of your hotel reopening. Consider posting an announcement that a prevention plan is in place, and the hotel is ready to accept reservations to help ensure bookings at these uncertain times.
If your hotel was closed momentarily, indicate on your website the proper precautions that you took to ensure the safety of staff and guests for reassurance purposes. Emphasize the destination through a blog post to show businesses and attractions are open. You can also employ website content personalization based on website pathing behaviors, feeder market, and customer segment to generate more potential bookings.
Staying Afloat in the Hospitality Industry
As businesses begin to recover, careful planning for the anticipation of travel demand will help make up for lost revenues. With travel demand expected to experience a steady increase in the coming years, your hotel should be ready to take full advantage. Leveraging hotel management solutions in planning for the rebound empowers you to regain your footing and establish yourself as one of the competitive names in the cutthroat hospitality industry.
OKKAMI is a digital guest engagement solution that is built specifically for the hospitality industry. It provides guests with contactless express check-ins and check-outs and room controls that enable them to control all room components without having to touch any buttons on the wall. OKKAMI offers hotel owners four unique pricing plans to choose from including the Starter, Essentials, Essentials Plus, and Pro packages.
If you are interested in finding out more about our guest engagement software, contact OKKAMI today for a demo.
