How hoteliers can cope with the current situation?
Do you want to cope with the current situation of Covid-19?
I know it is not easy for the hotel industry as travel is at a slow pace.
It is not possible to predict when everything will back to normal. It already cost the tourism industry more than 3 billion dollars.
But still, we can do our bit to cope with the current situation of Covid-19.
Use this time to reflect what we are doing and ways to improvise it, change your approach and refocus your efforts.
The pandemic is temporary and will pass after some time. Thus, we should don’t lose hope and plan for the future.
This is possible when we take steps to reduce further damage and take a path towards recovery.
Hence, I will provide you with a few insights into this blog to cope with the current situation.
Marketing of room
You can use your rooms, apartments or rentals for different purposes to earn revenue during this time of the pandemic.
There are two ways you can use it until the situation becomes normal.
Isolation centre
You can subsidize the rates of your room and allow bookings to guests who want self-isolation away from their near ones.
This way, you are not only offering help to those who are affected but also opening a way to generate revenue.
Work from home
Not everyone home has enough space or a suitable working environment in their home.
So they may be looking for a place where they can concentrate and complete their work effectively and with efficiency.
You can use this in your advantage and give a comfortable room with good suitable working conditions at low rates.
These include free wifi, chair, appropriate lighting.
Hence, you can attract professionals when they have some important work to accomplish.
More domestic channels
A distribution channel is a platform through which your hotel sells its rooms.
For instance-Online Travel Agency, social media, Global distribution channels, etc.
Review your distribution channels and find out if you left out to market some of your inventories on certain websites.
Now is the time to expand local, and then international, distribution from markets for cheaper rates as travel returns.
More distribution tends to raise gross sales and take up more bookings from a smaller pool of demand.
Learn from past
It is not the first time the hotel industry is facing crises.
Thus, it must try to learn from the past ways industry handle terrorist attacks, epidemics like the SARS outbreak and more.
They will give insights into how the hotel industry responded and behaved during those crises.
Those crises result in a significant dip in the industry.
Hence, you can learn from them and apply it to manage the current situation your hotel is facing due to pandemic.
Rates
Charge reasonable rates from your guests. The rates should be such that it can cover your operating and non-operating expenses.
Even if you are not able to earn profits during this time, try to be at break-even point(i.e., no profit no loss).
Check what is stopping your booking? Have you set a booking window at high rates, then set it at nominal rates.
Hotel Restaurant
In the current situation, when social distancing is essential.
Hence, to encourage guests to practise social distancing and increase restaurant sales during Covid-19.
You can reconsider your marketing strategy. Dining in hotel restaurants is not safe, so pack meals of guests and drop them at their doorsteps.
Further, you can collaborate with order and delivery platforms or do it individually and delivery food to nearby residents.
Ensure food is of good quality and it is prepared while taking care of all necessary precautions.
This way, you can earn revenue and cope with the current situation.
Adopt cloud technologies
The hotel industry is people-centric. It involves a lot of human interaction.
But pandemic forces it to adopt more innovative technologies and maintain contact through them. And this will become the new normal.
When guests arrive at the hotel they don’t want to wait in line with others or come in contact with staff.
Adopting contactless technologies will help in doing the same.
Moreover, cloud-based Property Management System easily controls all operations from anywhere at any time.
Thus, there is better coordination while maintaining the safety of everyone present in the hotel.
Government support
Keep updated of any assistance or support government is providing in your area.
Governments in most countries around the world delay payments, decrease taxes.
Introduce grant funds for business assistance, make loans for low-interest working capital available to companies, etc.
Furthermore, by offering free software, products, sharing services, and more.
Big and small enterprises aim to support their staff and customers.
Authentic information
This is the first time we are facing a crisis like Covid-19, so the information speculating around is not always correct.
Hence, hoteliers must inspect the authenticity of the source from where they are getting information before sharing it with customers or their staff members.
Further, a scam may be targetting you and your hotel by sharing the wrong information with you.
Scammers are active to use this time of fear for their advantage and may misuse confidential data of your hotel.
For instance, financial data of hotel, details of customers, etc.
Hence, it is essential to use an authentic source to gather information to protect oneself from scammers.
If you become a victim of a scam then report it to the fraud reporting centre.
Conclusion
There are ways we can adopt to recover from the crises which our hotel industry is facing.
Marketing room differently, charging nominal rates, learning from past crises like SARS, adopting cloud technologies and many more.
We can use these to cope with the current situation.
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If you want to learn about the functionality of QloApps then you can visit this link: QLO Reservation System – Free Open-Source Hotel Booking & Reservation System
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