hotelariadigitalhotelariadigitalhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/learningpoolHow Each Hotel Department Can Start Preparing for A "New Normal"​ Re-opening]]>Robert Hernandez - Origin World Labshttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/20/How-Each-Hotel-Department-Can-Start-Preparing-for-A-New-Normal%E2%80%8B-Re-openinghttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/20/How-Each-Hotel-Department-Can-Start-Preparing-for-A-New-Normal%E2%80%8B-Re-openingMon, 20 Apr 2020 17:32:15 +0000
I think it is safe to say that most hotel people know that no one is going to pull a switch and everything will be back to pre-February 2020. The re-opening of hotels will likely be gradual, done by risk assessment, and it will probably include many restrictions. Knowing that, we should not just sit home and do nothing, we can prepare so that we are ready. Here are just a few projects that you could be working on right now to get ready for the re-opening of your hotel.
By the way, this list is based on the scientific process of baseless, wild speculation, while waiting out the quarantine.
F&B and Restaurant
Re-draw your floor plan so that there is a minimum of 6 feet between tables.Do the same for your bar chairs. Mark their positions on the floor.Re-do your shift schedule for different % of the usual business. In other words, one schedule each for 30% of last year's business, 50%, 80%, etc. You'll be able to explain to your staff why they are getting only a fraction of last year's hours.Research which food costs will increase when you order less volume.Move kitchen stations (if at all possible) to create more space.Create a re-opening menu with items that limit the number of cooks in the kitchen.
Front Office/Reservations
In expectation of occupancy restrictions, add "Covid19 Out-of-Order" designation in your PMS system. These rooms will be tracked differently than regular OOO rooms.Decide which rooms you will take out-of-order to ensure social distancing and limit elevator use.You may have to read the temperature of all guests when they check-in so decide on whether that will happen at the front door or front desk. You may want to start writing an SOP for this.Start talking to your GM about the possibility of requiring a Covid19 affidavit to be signed at the front desk where guests confirm that they have not been close to anyone with virus symptoms.Start crafting a Covid19 disclosure for Phone Reservations to read to each guest and to post on the website (with an electronic "Agree" button).If your credit card scanner does not accept contact-less cards, get one that does.
Finance/Revenue Management
Add a new line for "Covid19 Out-of-Order" rooms to your Pace, Forecast, and Yield reports. This will allow you to better compare Year-over-Year results this year and next year. If you bundle all the OOOs together you will affect the variances.Find alternate years to Pace against, maybe 2009. All Pace reports will be negative this year and positive next year so you have to put the number in a different context.If there are occupancy limitations, you may be sold out every night, so you have to find alternative metrics to track the strength of the market. Try putting together data from your POS or CRM to track KPIs like average guest spend for all outlets year-over-year.Clean up your promotion list, most of them will not work in a world where non-refundable rates will be shunned.
Operations/Engineering
Establish process for changing room access and locker distribution for social distancing.Simulate common area distancing scenarios, furniture distribution, common bathroom usage rules.Do you allow access to the pool by reservation only? If you do, you will need a process for that.
Marketing/Sales
Write re-opening email that lists all the precautions you are taking.Practically every page on your website will need a pop-up advisory so might as well start loading those now.Compile "Best Guests" list from your CRM to send personalized messages. A simple email blast will be lost in everyone else's email blast.Redraw your meeting space floor plans for social distancing requirements. Load the new floor plans to your website.
Spa/Valet/Parking
Publish your temporary limited menu of spa services.Create spa station distancing floor plan.Determine bag handling procedures. Is the bellman allowed into the rooms when they are exposed to common areas of the hotel?.Do cars need to be sanitized before being parked? Determine process for cleaning and parking.
]]>Front desk guide: How hotels can handle guest calls for OTA cancellations due to coronavirus]]>Nancy Huang - Pegasushttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/17/Front-desk-guide-How-hotels-can-handle-guest-calls-for-OTA-cancellations-due-to-coronavirushttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/17/Front-desk-guide-How-hotels-can-handle-guest-calls-for-OTA-cancellations-due-to-coronavirusFri, 17 Apr 2020 10:43:44 +0000
As part of our Virtual Coffee Chats with hotels, we’ve learned that many hotels, particularly in Europe, have had increasing calls from travelers that want to cancel their non-refundable reservations made through OTAs due to coronavirus travel restrictions. As OTAs are currently overwhelmed with such requests, many travelers are unable to get a hold of the OTA customer service lines.
After not being able to reach the OTA, the would-be guest then calls the hotel to try and cancel directly. In many cases, the hotel simply can’t make the cancellation on their end, as it would still incur a commission fee from the OTA.
The would-be guest is already frustrated, and it can become even more frustrating to hear that the hotel can’t help them either. These calls must be handled with utmost sensitivity, but that can often be difficult to do as many hotels are either closed or working with reduced staff.
We’ve put together a quick guide for your front desk team to help address these OTA cancellation requests. In this guide you will find a phone script, messaging for your website, and how to handle the guest complaints with your OTA account manager. Watch our video, or read on for more information.
Phone script for front desk team
When a guest complains about not being able to reach the OTA to cancel a reservation, it’s important to always react first and foremost with empathy, before you explain why the cancellation isn’t possible.
“I do see your reservation here. I’m really sorry for the inconvenience, I know how frustrating this is, especially during this time. I wish I could help you, but unfortunately bookings made through this OTA can only be cancelled through them. If we cancel on our end, you will still be responsible for the reservation, and we will still need to pay the OTA a commission fee.”
Try to be as helpful as you can, and use this as an opportunity to collect guest data so that you can make a direct relationship with them in the future. While you can’t make any promises, an offer of help will build goodwill with these potential guests.
“Other guests are also having trouble reaching this OTA as well. If it is ok with you, can we take your name and email address? We are going to try and reach them to let them know that you would like to cancel. We can’t promise that we will be able to get a hold of the OTA for you, but we will do the best we can.”
And last but not least, take the opportunity to remind guests to book direct the next time they want to visit your hotel.
“If you are able to visit us in the future, do not hesitate to call us or book directly on our website. We can ensure that you have an extra special stay, and that you won’t have to worry about this hassle happening again.”
Website messaging
If your hotel is working with a reduced staff at the moment and cannot train front desk staff to handle these types of calls, it may also be beneficial to have a section of the website that helps explain the situation to guests.
If possible, create a designated coronavirus or COVID-19 page with a simple and easy to remember URL, such as www.yourhotel.com/coronavirus. On the page, we would recommend including:
Message about how the outbreak has affected your hotel’s operations, such as closures or reduced staffIf the hotel is open, the measures it is taking to ensure the safety of all guests and employeesFAQ section on cancellations, rebookings, and refundsForm to collect guest inquiries about cancellations, rebookings, and refunds
Set up the inquiry form to require the full name and email address of all guests. Make sure that form is either connected to your hotel CRM, or at the very minimum to a database or spreadsheet where you will be able to access the guest information later.
Bring guest complaints to your OTA account manager
Whether you’re collecting guest complaints over the phone or through the website, it’s important to keep a consolidated list of them.
First, you may want to reach out to your OTA account manager on a regular basis to let them know of the guest complaints and ask them if they can help contact the support team to facilitate the cancellation requests. Although they may not be able to, it’s worth showing to your account manager how you are trying to resolve customer complaints on their behalf.
You can potentially use these complaints to negotiate more favorable terms with the OTA. Leverage your position to obtain some concessions in your contract, such as no bidding on your brand name or reduced commission rates.
Entice travelers to book direct
Hopefully the guest is able to properly cancel and receive their refund. You now have a list of potential guests that you could market directly to in the future via email or remarketing through search ads or social media. Of course, you should wait until the timing is right to reach out to them, as they may not be able to travel for awhile.
In your future communication with them, be sure to reference their canceled trip. For example, “We regret not being able to host you in April, but we hope you will choose to visit when the time comes. Book through our website to get a free upgrade for your next trip.”
Other potential offers could include an extra free night if they stay longer, or free breakfast or board. Be sure to reassure them in their booking by offering a flexible cancellation policy.
The way you treat these guests now during difficult times will pay dividends in the long run. Leave a lasting impression by showing them what true hospitality means.
]]>Preparing Your Hotel for Quarantine and Social Distancing During the Coronavirus Pandemic]]>Steffan Berelowitz - Pegasushttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/15/Preparing-Your-Hotel-for-Quarantine-and-Social-Distancing-During-the-Coronavirus-Pandemichttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/15/Preparing-Your-Hotel-for-Quarantine-and-Social-Distancing-During-the-Coronavirus-PandemicWed, 15 Apr 2020 14:57:09 +0000
In times of need, you can always count on hotels to do what they do best: hospitality. All around the world, hotels that are able to do so have found helpful ways to support their local communities during the coronavirus pandemic, from sheltering healthcare workers to providing additional patient beds for overwhelmed hospitals. We’ve compiled a list of initiatives and inspirational stories from around the world.
In this story:
Hotels become hospitals & quarantine centersHotel rooms for healthcare workersHotels offer packages for self-quarantineGuidelines for preparing your hotel for quarantine, social distancing and healthcare housing
Hotels become hospitals & quarantine centers
In countries like the USA, United Kingdom, and Spain, all of which are bracing for surges in COVID-19 patients, local governments have been working with hotels to potentially transform the buildings into makeshift care facilities or quarantine centers.
This may become more common as outbreaks grow more severe in certain regions in the world. Chinese experts have already warned Italian officials against home quarantine for patients with milder coronavirus symptoms, as it facilitates the virus’ spread to family members and the community. As a result, Milan has already begun to equip local hotels to serve as isolation centers for these types of patients.
The UK has already begun talks with many of the country’s largest hotel chains, including Best Western, Premier Inn, Hilton, Holiday Inn, and Travelodge, to turn their locations into hospital support sites. Germany has also requested that its states develop plans to potentially turn places like halls and hotels (link in German) into similar care facilities. In other areas, initiatives are being driven at a local level between city governments and local hotel associations, as is the case in Málaga, Spain (link in Spanish).
In the United States, the American Hotel & Lodging Association has set up Hospitality for Hope, an initiative to boost collaboration between hotels and local, state, and federal governments. Hotels that want to participate can submit their property online to a national database that will be shared with the Department of Health & Human Services.
Chicago is among many cities in the U.S. that are quickly mobilizing to rent hotel rooms. The city of Chicago, which secured its first hotel agreement last week, has plans to rent several thousand more rooms. In California, many cities and counties are seeking hotels to shelter individuals that may be at risk or need to remain in medical quarantine. Los Angeles County even recently put out a Request for Quotes to purchase room blocks at a minimum of 100 rooms at a time.
Tip for hotels: Contact your local hotel association or city government to find out whether your property might be suitable to convert into a makeshift healthcare facility. In many cases, hotels may be able to temporarily lease their building to the government for such purposes. For U.S. hotels, AHLA has also provided a sample emergency temporary occupancy agreement for properties that may need to quickly develop contracts. Keep in mind that any hotel conversion will mean that a government agency (such as the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers) will need to retrofit your property to ensure it is suitable for providing patient care.
Hotel rooms for healthcare workers
Many hotels around the world have kept their doors open to the healthcare workers on the front lines, offering free or low-cost stays to doctors, nurses and first responders who may be working long shifts and also do not want to put their families at home at risk.
In addition to identifying properties for makeshift medical facilities, AHLA’s Hospitality for Hope’s database also includes more than 6,500 properties nationwide located near hospitals that can be used for members of the medical community. AHLA is connecting these properties with local public health agencies, emergency management authorities, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in coordination with the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Cloudbeds has put together a #hospitalityhelps initiative to connect healthcare and government agencies with lodging providers ready to supply beds for healthcare workers, people directly or indirectly affected by COVID-19, and family members wanting to be in proximity to loved ones receiving care. Hotels can fill out the form “I Have Beds” to join the database of more than 1 million beds.
Some hotel brands have decided to take action on their own. The Four Seasons in New York, where rooms typically go for $1000 per night, has notably offered free rooms to medical personnel, and other hotels in the city are rumored to potentially follow in its footsteps. OYO Hotels & Homes has offered up free accommodations for medical workers at any OYO hotel in the U.S. In France, Accor Hotels has created a Coronavirus Emergency Desk Accor (CEDA) helpdesk to better coordinate requests for rooms to all front-line medical staff, all French people engaged in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, and to the country’s most vulnerable populations.
Airbnb has also started its own Open Homes COVID-19 relief initiative, using its platform to connect 100,000 healthcare providers, relief workers, and first responders with convenient accommodations while safely distanced from their own families. They are currently recruiting hosts and asking for donations.
Tips for hotels: For first responders and medical professionals, consider offering weekly rates or customized recurring stays at discounted rates. Hotels should also consider adjusting check-in and check-out times for staff that work night shifts. Make any terms and conditions (such as showing medical ID, etc.) clear on those rate plans. Also consider publishing and posting a list of precautions that your property will be taking to ensure that both guests and employees will remain safe during this period. A list of recommended cleaning and public health precautions is included at the end of this article.
Hotels offer stays for self-quarantine
As countries and regions around the world have enacted mandatory self-quarantine measures for all travelers arriving into the area, hotels may find an opportunity to offer “quarantine packages” to those needing to quarantine but who do not want to stay at home (or do not have a local home there).
This strategy has become especially popular in Asia and Australia, where lockdown restrictions are easing but overall demand is still down. One Hong Kong hotel, which saw 15% occupancy in early January at the start of the outbreak, is now 60% full, with 90% of those guests staying for quarantine reasons. Singapore’s government, which has strict quarantine measures for incoming travelers that have been in areas of large outbreak, has offered to place residents in hotels for two weeks as part of mandatory isolation, working with a network of 4-star and 5-star hotels to do so.
Most hotels offer special pricing for these long-term minimum stays. For example, The Park Lane Hong Kong’s 14-day package runs about $115 per night, where typical rates are about $165 per night. At the Fairmont Singapore, where rates typically run 320 SGD ($220) per night, rooms for two weeks are available for as little as $110 per day.
Other hotels have retooled their offerings to cater to the high-end market. One Swiss hotel has put together a luxury quarantine stay for $800-2000 per night that includes add-ons such as in-room coronavirus testing and medical care.
Tips for hotels: Travel restrictions around the world will continue to evolve over the next several months, not just by country but also regionally. For example, in the U.S., an increasing number of states are requiring some or all out of state travelers to quarantine. Consider the potential demand for quarantine packages, as well as the logistics of hosting such guests — you may want to reserve specific floors just for these guests, and find ways to ensure that they do potentially infect staff or other guests.
Any quarantine package would need to consider a discounted rate for stays 14 days or longer, along with included add-ons such as contactless meal delivery and weekly laundry, as well as an enhanced cleaning fee at the conclusion of each stay.
Guidelines for preparing your hotel for quarantine, social distancing and healthcare housing
The following is a list of practices that hotels across the United States, Europe and Asia have implemented in response to COVID19.
Cleaning
Switch to and use disinfectant products that have been pre-approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use against emerging viral pathogens.
Disinfectants should be applied during routine cleaning of guestrooms, public spaces, health club areas and meeting rooms.
Linens may become contaminated with the virus, so it is also important to add disinfectant when washing laundry. Bed scarfs and bedspreads should be washed more frequently.
Public spaces, and the front desk, need to be cleaned frequently. If possible, provide disposable disinfectant wipes to front-of-house staff to disinfect surfaces between guests. High touch areas in public spaces include tables in the lobby area, buttons on elevators, water fountains, and ice and vending machines. Pens at the front desk and room keys and key cards should also be cleaned with disinfectant (Source: Illinois Department of Public Health: COVID-19 Hotels Guidance).
Guidelines from the CDC on Laundry and Cleaning Electronics
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) has issues these guidelines for laundry and electronics:
In order to minimize the possibility of dispersing virus through the air, do not shake dirty laundry.
Wash items as appropriate in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. If possible, launder items using the warmest appropriate water setting for the items and dry items completely. Dirty laundry that has been in contact with an ill person can be washed with other people’s items.
Clean and disinfect hampers or other carts for transporting laundry according to guidance above for hard or soft surfaces.
For electronics such as tablets, touch screens, keyboards, remote controls, and ATM machines, remove visible contamination if present.
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for all cleaning and disinfection products.
Consider use of wipeable covers for electronics.
If no manufacturer guidance is available, consider the use of alcohol-based wipes or sprays containing at least 70% alcohol to disinfect touch screens. Dry surfaces thoroughly to avoid pooling of liquids.
Other practices from hotels around the world:
Guests and staff won’t have to interact. Self-isolating guests will be provided fresh linens and amenities on request, delivered to their door, and left outside for collection. Used linens can be placed in a plastic bag and left outside the room door for retrieval by staff.
All common areas and public touch points, as well as back-of-house, are frequently and thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to the most stringent standards, paying special attention to high touch-point areas, such as door handles, switches, counters etc. All hotels have increased the cleaning and disinfection frequency of public areas and facilities to once every hour.
All public areas in hotels provide 70-80% alcohol-based hand rub/gel for guest and staff use, and providing refill service for guests to use when going out.
A dedicated queue for all arriving guests to take a body temperature scan and fill out a health condition and travel history survey.
All staff on duty are required to wear surgical masks and will need to receive a body temperature scan. Hotel staff are trained to minimize physical contact (ie handshakes, hugs, etc.).
Prohibit use of hotel facilities such as the gymnasium, swimming pool, and spa. Restaurants should switch to in-room delivery only.
Alternative accommodation can help save jobs and save lives
At this time, social distancing and quarantine are the most effective tools in controlling and reducing the spread of coronavirus and the incidence of COVID-19. By making your hotel available for hospital beds, healthcare professionals, and mandatory quarantine or self-isolation, you can benefit the general public while saving jobs and reducing furloughs at your properties. Consider contacting your mayor, city council or other local authorities to find out how you can help your communities at this time of need.
]]>COVID-19 and Hospitality: Why Attracting Millennial Travelers is Essential to your Hotel’s Recovery Plan]]>Nicole Dehler - StayNTouchhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/14/COVID-19-and-Hospitality-Why-Attracting-Millennial-Travelers-is-Essential-to-your-Hotel%E2%80%99s-Recovery-Planhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/14/COVID-19-and-Hospitality-Why-Attracting-Millennial-Travelers-is-Essential-to-your-Hotel%E2%80%99s-Recovery-PlanTue, 14 Apr 2020 11:19:35 +0000
“This too shall pass” is a sentiment that surely everyone can take comfort in right now, and one which hoteliers especially should keep in mind.
The continued spread of COVID-19 has taken the world by storm, and has seemingly overwhelmed the hospitality industry. As the fear of transmission continues to surge, our communities are banding together, as new emergency regulations urge us to self-isolate and avoid all non-essential travel. Currently, the timeline for a return to normalcy is anything but guaranteed: Will this ‘new normal’ last for a month, or three, or for the majority of 2020?
While we cannot change our current circumstances beyond that which is asked of us by governing authorities and safety recommendations, we can (and should) continue to plan for the future. Unfortunately, it’s too soon to tell, but what I can tell you with complete confidence is this: This pandemic is temporary. This, too, shall pass. A new normal will proceed and recovery will happen…and millennials could be leading the recovery.
Millennials are more fearless–and paradoxically more anxious–than other generations, more in tune with advances in mobility and social media, more price conscious, and more desiring of unique experiences. While they are worried about the outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are also the most eager to get back out and explore the world, and will be one of the first to start engaging in travel once the restrictions are relaxed. Needless to say, any rapid business recovery plan should include millennial travelers as an integral role.
Laying the Foundation for a Gradual RecoveryIn many ways, coronavirus has caused the economy to grind to a halt. For many of us, this is a reality which we simply never anticipated. In fact, the current economic crisis is even different from the Great Recession in 2008. And in some ways, this is actually a good thing. Unlike in 2008, the global economy in general and the hospitality industry in particular are fundamentally healthy. The current crisis occurred because of an exogenous pandemic–not from poor business decisions or structural faults in the financial industry. This means that when this virus is contained (and it is a question of “when”), the economy will be poised to make a gradual recovery. When the virus is contained, we will pick ourselves up and begin to rebuild.
This means that it is the responsibility of hoteliers to prepare for the recovery period that lies ahead. Your guests may be on self-quarantine, but you must still stay connected and continue providing excellent service. From ramping up your social media presence, to email campaigns, there are many ways hotels can stay engaged. Consider options like gift certificates or bonus loyalty points guests can redeem when they are ready to explore and travel again.
When it comes to communications, be transparent and keep in touch. This is especially true when dealing with millenials, who place a high value on transparency, trust and authenticity. According to a survey by Consumer Content Report, an overwhelming 90% of millennials value brand authenticity over messaging that is “perfect and packaged.”
How does this apply to coronavirus crisis communications? You need to communicate early, often, and openly. If your company is going through troubles, say so–and then outline what you are doing to respond and make things right. As Harvard Business Review reports, “When customers are separated from the work that’s being done behind the scenes to serve them, they appreciate the service less and then they value the service less.” Describe the steps you’re taking to mitigate risk and give them insight into the steps you’re taking to help your community navigate the current cursis.
And in the realm of travel, many of those trends and estimations that dominated the initial growth forecasts for this year, though delayed, will emerge again . Namely, we will realize the influence of millennial travelers and the potential they have to reignite the hospitality industry.The Role of Millenials
Millennials are championing the ‘experiential’ movement. With a demonstrated penchant for experiences over material goods in combination with their impressive buying power, millennial travelers quickly became a key travel segment. In fact, US Millennials spent $200 billion on travel in 2018 alone, while 55% wanted to increase the volume of trips, and almost 3 in 4 wanted to increase their spend on travel experiences, rather than physical products.
In light of this pandemic, when the prospect of travel is suddenly taken off the table, and planned trips are placed on hold, it’s easy to imagine the disappointment experienced by frequent, avid travelers. Having something they value so deeply suddenly taken away from them is a hard pill to swallow. For millennials who deem travel as such an integral part of their life, the desire to once again travel will surely grow with each passing week.
Many will simply travel no matter what. Reports across the country show that many millenials, lured by cheap plane tickets, continue to travel amidst the global crisis. In fact, millennials crowded popular party destinations such as Miami’s beaches, or New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street, in spite of dire CDC warnings. It’s important to stress that this youthful hubris can be dangerous: data from the CDC suggests that adults aged 20 to 44 account for almost 30% of America’s COVID-19 cases一and 20% of its hospitalizations. Similarly in Europe, about half of Dutch patients who require intensive care because of coronavirus are under 50, while 10% of Italians admitted into an ICU with the virus are under 40. The point here is not to encourage millennial travel during the crisis一that would be socially irresponsible, and could be disastrous to your brand’s reputation一but rather to prepare for the inevitable upsurge of millennial travel once the crisis has waned.
We have all gained a newfound appreciation for the normalcy for which we used to take for granted.
For many, this will instill a desire to ‘do things differently’ and with greater enthusiasm, once we return to normal life. And for millennials, it will likely translate to a sharp increase in spending geared towards unique and meaningful travel.Let’s Refresh Our Memory — What Do Millennials Want?
Now that we’ve identified that millennials will likely champion the initial influx of travel-related spending as the spread of COVID-19 comes to a close, the better question is, how can hoteliers best prepare?
As tech-savvy digital nomads, millennials demand to be at the forefront of a mobile-first guest experience. They are well-informed travelers who crave the cultivation of personalized messaging and offers, the 24/7 convenience made possible by mobile solutions, and the intelligent use of technology to create memorable experiences. The world has seen more startups and young self-made millionaires than ever before, and many of them are millennials. They influence the market, products & strategies as they are the ultimate consumers.
Studies show that 86% of millennials choose to experience a new culture over partying, while 51% plan to visit domestic and international travel destinations. Similarly, 62% are likely to extend business trips to visit areas or sites of cultural significance. Even further, 85% of millennial travelers check multiple sites for the best deals before booking, while 52% check online reviews, travel websites, and blogs researching their potential destinations. Lastly, millennials are more willing than other generations to exchange personal information for discounts, personalized vacation recommendations, advice, and travel tips. Following the pandemic, millennial travelers will be in search of great travel deals that tap into their demand for bleisure packages, weekend getaways, meaningful trips with cultural experiences, and tech-driven personalization. With your sights set on the future, now is the perfect time to re-examine your hotels’ service offerings, stay connected digitally, make critical on-property improvements, upgrade technology, and streamline processes to prepare your business for recovery. Millennials are the first generation of digital natives 一 they are constantly connected and their skill with utilizing mobile technology is unparallelled. Consequently, millennials are uncompromising when it comes to providing a unified and seamless mobile guest journey. Providing a mobile or self-service check-in demonstrates to millennials that you value a digital experience, while also providing them with a convenient check-in experience that let’s them get on with their stay, and avoid any concerns of human-to-human contact in a new post COVID-19 world.
While the details of how they live their lives are different everywhere, millennials share a remarkably similar love of memorable travel, unique experiences, and digital connection. Hoteliers who make the effort to craft the experiences that millennials crave will benefit from a generation that is ready and willing to kick-start their bookings once the tide has turned.
And it will. Remember, “this too, shall pass.”
]]>Series: Getting Through The Corona Crisis With Online Marketing - Quick Wins For Your Social Media Communication]]>Online Birds Hotel Marketing Solutionshttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/07/SERIES-GETTING-THROUGH-THE-CORONA-CRISIS-WITH-ONLINE-MARKETING---QUICK-WINS-FOR-YOUR-SOCIAL-MEDIA-COMMUNICATIONhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/07/SERIES-GETTING-THROUGH-THE-CORONA-CRISIS-WITH-ONLINE-MARKETING---QUICK-WINS-FOR-YOUR-SOCIAL-MEDIA-COMMUNICATIONTue, 07 Apr 2020 16:15:34 +0000
In these days it is especially important to communicate with your existing and potential guests, conveying empathy, optimism and adaptability. NOW your guests have more time than ever before and spend a large part of it in social networks. They will want to make up for cancelled holidays and many are already planning their next trip after Corona. Various studies have shown that social media consumption is currently up to 60% higher than usual. This makes it all the more important to maintain the visibility of your hotel and be present on the social media channels. We have compiled a list of how communication can look like here.
It's all about brand building, lead generation and visibility now
Studies from the past (e.g. by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration) show that in times of crisis it makes sense to continue investing in marketing. For example, suspended activity on the part of competitors while you remain active with your hotel can become a unique selling point. In the social media sector, you should focus on brand building, lead generation and increasing visibility. At the heart of this is a clear positioning in relation to the right target groups. Now more than ever, it is important to become editorially active, to maintain guest loyalty via postings or stories and to remain on your guest's radar.
Spread hope and a positive attitude
In current social media communication, you should give people hope and create positive anticipation for the time after the virus. There are many pleasant emotions associated with the topic of travel and you should now make use of them. In addition, the feeling of community ("together through the crisis" and #wevscorona) strengthens the bond and connection to your guests. For example, show them what is happening behind the scenes and how you prepare to welcome them again soon. In the following you will find some ideas for topics.
Use current social media trends to increase your reach
Due to the Corona crisis, various trends and challenges have been brought to life in recent days and weeks. Use hashtags like #digitaltourism, #stayhome, #worldfromawindow or #westayhome and participate in challenges to generate additional reach and visibility.
Trend: World from a window
Trend: Instagram Story Templates
Maintain cash flow with vouchers and "book today & decide later" offers
Of course, it is essential to maintain the cash flow of your company as well as possible during this period. Social media can support this as well. Create special "book today & decide later" offers, where you give your guests the possibility to change the arrival and departure date for the booking afterwards. Then use the social media channels to draw attention to these offers and the sale of vouchers. There are no limits to creativity at this point, as long as the authenticity is maintained.
Why now is the best time to invest in social media ads
Since the beginning of the crisis, we have observed that click prices in many advertising accounts continue to fall while visibility increases. This realization can be traced back to reduced competition, and this is exactly what you should take advantage of now. Keep running brand awareness campaigns at a lower cost than usual, so you don't have to start from scratch after the crisis. As an alternative to a brand awareness campaign you can also promote your new "book today & decide later" offer via the ads. In addition, the hashtags for the above-mentioned trends can also be included in the ads.
Author:Philipp Ingenillem - Online Birds Hotel Marketing Solutions
]]>In the Time of COVID-19: Top 5 Things You Need to Know Now in Hotel Digital Marketing]]>Margaret Mastrogiacomo, EVP, Strategy at NextGuesthttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/06/In-the-Time-of-COVID-19-Top-5-Things-You-Need-to-Know-Now-in-Hotel-Digital-Marketinghttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/06/In-the-Time-of-COVID-19-Top-5-Things-You-Need-to-Know-Now-in-Hotel-Digital-MarketingMon, 06 Apr 2020 15:26:46 +0000
As we navigate unprecedented times during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has put travel on pause. While everyone is social distancing, people continue to stay connected online through social media, FaceTime, video conferencing, and email. People are searching for an escape and for quality content to lessen their stress and enhance the quality of time at home. In light of this, many hotels can continue creating valuable and entertaining content across channels to stay connected with guests.
If any marketing remains live at this time, the focus should be on brand awareness, with tasteful messaging that drives traffic to valuable content. If your hotel wishes to keep any promotions live, they should be focused on advance purchases for future stay dates, with a flexible cancellation policy.
From SEO to CRM and Design, here are the top 5 considerations for your digital strategy during the time of COVID-19.
1. SEO: Create FAQ pages, update local listings, and ensure healthy SEO for your website.
SEO can be one of your most valuable assets during the pandemic. With fewer travel brands investing in marketing, there is opportunity for more visibility within organic search. During this uncertain time, consider creating a FAQ page to increase visibility in Google Quick Answers. Questions and answers can center around the top questions regarding your hotel during COVID-19, such as measures taken on property in line with the CDC, hotel reopening dates if the hotel has been closed, and other top concerns.
If your hotel has closed, be sure to create optimized content around the hotel's reopening, as well as rich destination content, as many people are daydreaming about future trips once the pandemic subsides.
Hoteliers should also update all local listings to ensure they reflect current hours or closures. Update special hours by day (to show closed) or temporarily closed for the time being. For restaurants/bars, update the description and create a post to clearly announce if it is closed or open only for take out and/or delivery.
Finally, continue ongoing SEO maintenance to ensure that the website is properly crawled and indexed to maintain visibility and rankings.
2. SEM/Metasearch: Focus on covering branded and destination search terms with sensitive messaging, and consider maintaining a presence on metasearch.
Due to lack of competition, CPCs are very low. If you still have SEM budget to spend over the next month or so, ensure your hotel brand has sensitive messaging. Bold promotions, offers, and strong call-to-actions can seem insensitive to people at this time. Keep your SEM ad copy focused on general brand awareness, driving traffic to content that adds value for people at this time.
Metasearch also remains a critical piece in the search ecosystem, with global cost-per-click rates on hotel metasearch platforms currently averaging lower than $1 for the first time in years. This means that if budget allows, hotel brands can still participate in metasearch platforms at lower rates and can still collect valuable data while driving traffic and engagement to the hotel website.
3. Social Media: Stay connected to guests with destination content and activities guests can do at home.
Time spent on social media has significantly increased since people around the world were asked to stay at home, and people are eager for content that offers a little escape from the current situation. While your hotel may or may not be open for business, this is the perfect time to stay connected and provide past guests with valuable content and entertainment while they are at home. Here are some social media content ideas:
Share first-person-perspective photos of destination: Consider sharing first-person-perspective photos of your destination and ask past guests to comment with their favorite activity in your destination.
Ask past guests to share photos from their stay: Ask past guests to share photos of a past stay and trip to your destination by using a dedicated hashtag, so people can share their travel memories with your hotel.
Share recipes from your restaurant's Chef : Many people are cooking at home, and there's no better way to spice things up than by cooking a recipe from your hotel restaurant's Chef. Get creative and share a complimentary cocktail recipe or wine recommendation that is perfectly paired with the dish.
Share at-home spa treatments from your on-site spa : Help people escape and indulge with at-home spa tips from your on-site spa.
Share at-home workout or activity classes: If your hotel offers group activities or fitness classes, share workout or instructional videos guests can use to stay active at home.
Create a kid-friendly scavenger hunt: If your hotel has a large family segment, create printable cards for iconic landmarks in your destination, which parents can print, cut out, and hide to create a scavenger hunt. You can post the printable cards in a scavenger hunt blog post and share on social media and email.
Create destination-themed coloring pages: Share a coloring page of the destination that people can print for their children to color. You can post the coloring pages in a blog post and share on social media and email.
4. CRM: Send an email to people who have cancelled reservations with an option to rebook a future stay, and stay connected with your loyalty members.
Create an email list for leisure travelers, business travelers, and group travelers who have cancelled reservations. When the COVID-19 situation begins to improve, send an email prompting these guests to rebook with added value, perks, or a complimentary welcome amenity.
It's also important to stay connected with your loyalty members during this time. Consider partnering with a relevant cause or charity and send an email to loyalty members prompting them to donate in exchange for hotel perks and rewards that can be used toward a future stay. Now more than ever, supporting charities is critical around the world.
5. Design: Get creative with your digital assets to promote social distancing and solidarity around the world.
Many brands are getting creative with their branding and logos to reflect the current times and help rally people to stay at home for the greater good. NextGuest recently created an animated version of its logo to promote social distancing and remind people that keeping our distance now will allow us to travel together in the future. Your hotel should brainstorm creative ways to adjust your branding to encourage people to social distance and find hope in these stressful times.
]]>Series: Getting Through The Corona Crisis With Online Marketing - Quick Wins For Your Hotel Website]]>Online Birds Hotel Marketing Solutionshttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/02/Series-Getting-Trough-The-Corona-Crisis-With-Online-Marketinghttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/02/Series-Getting-Trough-The-Corona-Crisis-With-Online-MarketingThu, 02 Apr 2020 14:07:05 +0000
The corona virus hits the hotel industry with full force. The losses in turnover that tourism is already struggling with are enormous and on a large scale only state funds will probably help to overcome the crisis. The hotel industry depends on the support of the government! Nevertheless, more than ever it is important now not to lose courage! There will be a time after the crisis and we are firmly confident that there will be a real boom in local recreation and regional travel activities. This is exactly what we should focus on now. People will want to catch up on unusual holidays, but will tend to stay close by. In dealing with the corona virus, communication with your existing and potential guests is therefore crucial. Your website should be THE central marketing instrument for your direct sales and one of the first points of contact for your guests. Accordingly, you will find quickly applicable recommendations for your website below.
Create a subpage with a statement about the corona virus on your website
Communicate openly about the current situation and create a special subpage with a statement for your website. For private hotels it is a good idea to formulate the statement personally from the viewpoint of the hotel manager/owner. Show empathy and emphasize that the health of your guests and employees is the focus of your actions.
Add a banner on your website with a link to the statement
After you have created the subpage, it is also important to integrate a prominent banner with a link to your statement, which can be reached from every subpage of your website. As a slightly more subtle alternative you could also place a notice on the start page. In both cases, have the link to your statement open in a new window so that your (potential) guest does not lose the page he is currently on or does not have to open it again.
Start a "book today & decide later" campaign
Your future guests are online now and currently on the lookout for how to make up for lost holidays. Launch a "Book Today & Decide Later" campaign where you give your guests the opportunity to change the arrival and departure dates for a later booking. Appropriately, be pragmatic when dealing with cancellation and create a clear policy that you publish on the website. For example, tell guests with existing reservations that these can possibly be postponed to a later date.
Promote special offers via an Exit Intent Pop-Up
Currently, it is particularly important to retain users who are already on your website. At this point, exit intent technology is an ideal approach. As soon as a user moves their mouse towards "X" to close the website, a pop-up will be shown to them, indicating your new offer "book today & decide later". This way your potential guest is kept longer on your website and is informed about the new offer at the same time.
Don't forget: Do NOT replace any existing content on the website
With all the things you customize on your website, it is important that you do not replace any existing content. This could cause your search engine rankings to deteriorate. In addition, there are other aspects that should be considered in the field of search engine optimization (SEO).
We will soon provide you with additional tips and recommendations in the fields of SEO, Google Ads, Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing.
Philipp Ingenillem - Online Birds Hotel Marketing Solutions
]]>Caring Is The New Currency: Guest Messaging for Today]]>Lize De Kock - TrustYouhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/01/Caring-Is-The-New-Currency-Guest-Messaging-for-Todayhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/04/01/Caring-Is-The-New-Currency-Guest-Messaging-for-TodayWed, 01 Apr 2020 11:10:55 +0000
As everything we thought we knew shifts to online while COVID-19 spreads around the globe, your hotel guests need you to keep showing up, serve and lead. Everyone is trying to make sense of the world and over the next couple of weeks or months, we will all need to get ready to trade in kindness. Guest messaging tools offer the perfect solution to stay in touch.
While self-isolating at home, it’s comforting to hear from the people and places that we know and love. In fact, this is probably the biggest opportunity for online communications since the beginning of the digital era. Using messaging tools to regularly communicate with the guests that have been frequenting your establishment recently can put them at ease and help to manage stress levels as well as mental health. After all, a big part of hospitality is about making people feel good, rather than simply getting them out of pocket.
There is no better time than a crisis to stand up for what you believe in as a brand and show how much you value your regular guests, whether they are spending money or not. Be present in your communications now while your staff has more time on their hands to use online guest messaging technology. Open up and show that you are dealing with the same reality as everyone else and that you are taking your role within our society seriously. The hospitality industry adds enchantment and meaning to life that far surpasses what it is worth in profit. Put your values in focus now with a steady flow of online guest messaging and information that builds trust.
Technology innovation such as TrustYou Messaging is a tool that gives you the opportunity to personalize your communications and make guests feel recognized and seen during this downtime, even when they are temporarily tucked away from the public eye and may be facing many challenges. It allows you to build strong relationships during a time where people are all holding their breath and watching who keeps on checking in and who falls off the radar when times are tough. Right now is a key moment to reevaluate our priorities and spend our time doing the things that are really important. For us as human beings, a lot of this revolves around staying connected in ways that will set us up for a more heartfelt and meaningful future.
The one thing we do know is that the current situation is temporary. Sooner or later the economy will bounce back and life will take on a more stable pace once again. The hospitality industry is poised to come back stronger than ever, as people realize how much this small freedom means in terms of business and personal fulfillment. Sometimes it takes losing something to fully understand how it underscores our existence.
Take the time to build loyalty now. Keep reaching out to people, stay top of mind and reap the rewards once the industry is back in the game and for years to come. While you’re at it, why not keep people entertained as well? Share a link to your webcam so that people can keep watching their favorite sunset view from the comfort of their armchair, or send them a recipe from the chef to try at home.
There are many ways to bring the vacation feeling into their homes. All you need is a spark and a little imagination. Let’s all take a moment to think about what we can do to keep sharing beautiful experiences online and set our sights on what really moves the people we want to keep coming back again and again when the crisis lifts.
]]>Where do OTAs Stand in the Covid-19 Era?]]>OAGhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/30/Where-do-OTAs-Stand-in-the-Covid-19-Erahttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/30/Where-do-OTAs-Stand-in-the-Covid-19-EraMon, 30 Mar 2020 10:42:47 +0000
Covid-19 (coronavirus disease/2019-nCoV) has impacted the airline and the overall travel industry in unprecedented ways. According to OAG, the number of scheduled flights is down 12% year-over-year compared to the third week of March in 2019. Given the force majeure nature of the situation, airlines have decreased capacities, withdrawn from routes, issued free cancellations and refunds to travelers, enacted flexible amendment policies to accommodate itinerary changes. However, these initiatives have also had negative impact on airlines’ operations and the balance sheets.
When one considers the distribution chain, online travel agencies (OTAs) are a prominent source of flight bookings. Over the last two decades, OTAs have evolved from a niche to a mainstream billion-dollar distribution channel. From Expedia to Booking.com to eDreams ODIGEO to Despegar to Ctrip to Webjet – OTAs are now a household brand, and often the first access point while flight shopping, subject to digital evolution across markets.
As airlines face a formidable test, OTAs had to brace for impact – being the merchant of sale in many cases. Unlike previous crisis, which curtailed domestic or regional travel, the Covid-19 outbreak has pulverized travel worldwide. Historically, OTAs would offer alternate destinations or flight options to its travelers in times of crisis – hoping to still put a sale on its books. This time around, it is different. With several travel advisories, quarantine measures, and lockdowns in effect, people are least likely to spend their disposable incomes on travel just as yet.
Hopefully this impact will be for a shorter term, and travel will eventually get back on track – perhaps even emerge as the fastest-growing industry – OTAs are no doubt heading for uncertain times ahead.
In this whitepaper, OAG explores what OTAs are doing to surf through these rough tides not only to service air travelers, but also to stay agile and nimble through the potentially weakest period of travel in decades. This analysis is based on interviews, press releases and media statements made by OTAs over the last few weeks.
Financial Impact
With air bookings being a sizable share of OTA business, there is no doubt that the full-impact of Covid-19 will be enormous. Beginning with the Chinese OTAs who faced cancelations during the Chinese New Year in January 2020. In its 4Q20 earnings call, Trip.com CEO Jane Sun, noted that there were “tens of millions of cancelations… totaling RMB 31 billion in gross bookings”[1] Trip.com also guided towards a 45-50% year-over-year decrease in company-wide net revenues for the first quarter of 2020.
As the virus spread across countries, several OTAs witnessed amendments and cancellations. In February 2020, Expedia’s acting CFO, Eric Hart, mentioned in an investor call that the outbreak could cost Expedia Group $30-40 million in 1Q20. For MakeMyTrip, cancelations as part of its international business, which is skewed towards Indians traveling to Southeast Asia and the Middle East, were up to 20%.[2] Given the uncertainty, several public OTAs have withdrawn their first quarter and full-year guidance.
Revaluating the Cost Structure
While OTAs pride themselves for seamless booking experiences and slick front-end UI and UX, they still have a considerable human force supporting its operations in the back-end. Besides, several technology licenses, performance marketing, ad-spend, payment processing charges, etc. mount up their expenditure. The sudden spike in cancellations and limited interest in future travels is surely putting OTAs through an uncomfortable patch. For Switzerland-based lm holding, which operates lastminute.com, Bravofly, Rumbo, among other brands – Italy accounted for 15.9% of the group’s turnover in 2019. Considering the weak booking period that is to follow, the group has decided to reduce its cost base, curtailing projects, reduce marketing, overheads and discretionary spend, freeze new hiring, deferring salary increases and waiving off management bonuses.
A similar course correction also applies to other OTAs, where variable spend to achieve sales will be culled in the absence of weak travel demand. In its fourth quarter 2019 earnings call, Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel stated, “In 2020, we will further emphasize the need to make sure our expenses are appropriate for our revenue and we'll look at ways to streamline and make all aspects of our company more efficient.”
Putting the Customers First
OTAs realize that are no travelers without travel. The goodwill earned based on their actions during the ongoing crisis will likely pay off when the world bounces back and returns to traveling. In the last several weeks, OTAs have taken a variety of steps towards traveler safety and bookings:
In-Airport Initiatives: OTAs such as Indonesia’s Traveloka handed over face masks to travelers visiting the affected countries (until border lockdowns were announced). Several also shared best airport and in-flight hygiene practices with their customer base.
Ramping Up Call Center Support: OTAs have witnessed a tsunami of customer calls for assistance to amend or cancel flights (and other travel bookings). Operating calls come with attached overheads, and despite the scale of cancelations most OTAs are absorbing this as part of their customer service initiatives. OTAs, however (and obviously) are prioritizing their assistance based on travel dates.
Rolling Out Self-Service Tools: Most of us by now would be familiar with chatbots that serve basic pre- and post-booking queries. In order to balance the volume of traveler requests amid the crisis, a number of OTAs have rolled out self-service tools, including chatbots, to mitigate the pressure from call center operations and offer instant resolution to travelers’ needs. These (semi-) automated modules are found across OTA websites and apps, which allows travelers to either opt for OTA credit for future bookings or instant refunds (subject to the airline policy). Among OTAs, Kiwi.com has also rolled out an automated airline self-service for travelers to process refunds directly with select carriers, thus allowing them to bypass the OTAs in the process.
Bouncing Back
Airlines and OTAs may often have their commercial disagreements, but the latter’s ability to drive OTAs offer tremendous value not just to the airlines, but to other stakeholders of the industry – hotels, activity providers, ground transfer, local businesses, etc. – either directly or indirectly. With all the components now hurting, OTAs also have the unique position to revive growth in the industry.
On similar lines, Trip.com recently launched Travel Revival V Plan in China, the ground zero for Covid-19. Through the initiative, the OTA group aims to bring together hotels, tours, flights and attractions; and contribute over RMB 1 billion to boost measures for travel industry recovery. Being at the center of various suppliers, expect OTAs worldwide to pursue a similar approach. After all, if travel succeeds, so shall the OTAs.
]]>Checklist: 10 points to keep in mind in case of temporary closure]]>Jean-Thomas Henderson - Insights ehotelierhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/27/Checklist-10-points-to-keep-in-mind-in-case-of-temporary-closurehttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/27/Checklist-10-points-to-keep-in-mind-in-case-of-temporary-closureFri, 27 Mar 2020 10:57:59 +0000
In the Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote: “When the thunderclap breaks out, it is too late to cover your ears”. For his part, Heraclitus, in a moment of great lucidity, affirmed that “only change is permanent”. Very nice words which, let’s face it, will unfortunately be of circumstance when you read this text.
The maxim “All we have to fear is staying” also applies to the preventive approach that hospitality leaders must implement very quickly to ensure due diligence. It is a question of reputation and, even, survival. As a result of discussions with several managers over the past few days, it is clear that the temporary closure is, for the majority of them, fiction unfortunately become reality.
Faced with this inevitable situation, here is a 10-point checklist that can help you achieve a temporary closure which, this time, is not due to seasonality.
1. Physical security of the premises
Before leaving the premises for the duration, make sure that all the exterior doors are locked and that it is impossible for potential criminals to enter. A temporary closure should not create other problems. Therefore, go around and test all the doors, from the delivery platform to the employee accesses to the entrances intended for customers. Finally, collect the keys your team has in its possession (especially master keys), put away the knives and make sure that the perimeter is closed.
2. Water supply
It is essential to close all the water supply valves to avoid damage during your absence. If possible, consider emptying the pool as well as the thermal baths and spas for the duration of the closure to avoid the spread of bacteria and algae in your facilities.
3. Zero energy… or almost
Just like water, consider decommissioning all non-essential equipment that consumes energy. In this period when all actions will make a difference on the financial situation, the time is not for energy loss. Patrick Rochon, specialist in risk management and emergency measures at PREVENTIA, suggests “leaving the sprinklers, the fire alarm service, the video surveillance systems, the intrusion alarm and the natural gas pilots, the power supply and the generator. In addition, keep a minimum of heating to prevent freezing of the pipes and thus save huge costs in the event of plumbing failures”. Finally, remember to keep at least a fridge and a freezer (ideally), and a few lights outside to guarantee a semblance of physical presence on site.
4. Limit food losses
For all catering services offered (restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, room service), it is important to limit losses related to waste or poor inventory management, especially for perishable goods. Before leaving, consider sharing the food with the employees (who will need help with layoffs) and / or encouraging the various organizations working in this sector by making donations. In parallel, the management of residual materials must be done according to the rules of the art. Do not leave recycling bags, garbage cans or compost inside. This will prevent the presence of pests. For used oils, contact your supplier so that pickup can be done before closing. End your regular deliveries by notifying your stakeholders.
5. Ensure a human presence
As you know, a hotel is a very special place: 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, people gather there for a tourist experience. Therefore, it is recommended, during closing, to make sure that there are frequent patrols made during the day. Thus, a human presence on site proves to be a preventive action. Managers should request on-site observation reports on a daily basis. If you cannot get to the facility, bring the facility to you. Second, if you have an IP camera system, nothing prevents you from focusing by remote on monitoring building entrances and exits. Finally, ask for the cooperation of the police. Ask them to pass from time to time – especially at night – through the parking lot to make sure that no suspicious activity is taking place there. Also, do not forget that the visual surveillance of the premises must include a visit to the mechanical rooms and technical rooms to ensure that everything is working normally and that no damage is occurring. The link with the next point is therefore natural.
6. The insurance file
Notify insurance companies of your temporary closure and update them on the new number of employees your company has. Also, document all the actions you will have taken in the context of this troubled passage. Thus, by being in constant contact with your brokers, they could review the policy, adapt it and, perhaps save costs. That said, since a vacant building represents an additional risk for an insurer, they will appreciate being aware of what monitoring measures you have and will put forward during the temporary closure period. It is a good idea to provide them with a list of these measures by email, which they will keep on file.
7. Keeping activities at a distance
One of the most fundamental actions within the framework of a business continuity plan is the technological aspect which allows to remain operational despite the distance. Therefore, plan to save your data in a cloud-based fashion and have access to your PMS from home to continue to manage your room inventory and your reservations during this period. Also, it may be good to create a Messenger or a WhatsApp including the different managers of the crisis cell in order to improve communication.
8. Communicate, communicate, communicate
Before leaving the building, take the time to leave a note, on the main door, in your local languages depending on your location, which informs the clientele of the duration of the temporary closure. Update the information according to the involving situation. Also, take advantage of social networks as well as communication tools to share information with your community, reassure your present and future customers as well as your partners. Finally, inform your team on a daily basis so that employees are aware of developments and that they feel they have psychological support in this time of crisis. Remember that your employees, your workforce, are your main asset! No customer experience without employee experience: this philosophy applies, above all, in difficult times!
9. We get informed and we act
Panic can happen so easily. To avoid this, please read credible sources, do not expose yourself to over-information which leads – sometimes – to a decrease in productivity. At the same time, as resilience requires proactivity and learning from past situations, it is essential to add a “Pandemic Plan” section to your emergency plan. While you’re at it, dust off this document, update it, make security a priority, an investment, and allow time and resources to a business continuity plan (hello “quarantine” procedure). Also, stay apprised of the measures that governments are putting in place to compensate businesses impacted by COVID-19. For example, it is very likely that emergency services will need beds, rooms and private places to make up for the lack of hospital units in the near future and that the spring floods will bring complications for municipalities. Stay tuned and offer your services to the community if need be. Your hotel may reopen more quickly than expected.
10. Reintegration plan
Before returning to the building, it is important to make a plan based on clear and precise roles and responsibilities for each workstation. Each employee will have their role to play in ensuring a quick return to normal activities. Plan to reinstate employees a few days before the arrival of clients.
In Le Prince, Machiavelli warned Laurent II of Medici that “the usual fault of man is not to foresee the storm in good weather”. Let’s say that this COVID-19 thunderstorm was more than difficult to imagine. Now that we are faced with a fait accompli, let’s not give up. The work is just beginning. Let’s think about the recovery and look ahead. At that time, people will need us, to laugh, to get away. Let’s not forget that we are not only in the hotel business: we are, first and foremost, in the field of great customer experiences and memories. And that’s good for the future.
]]>Impacto do COVID-19 na hotelaria – Alguns dados e ações]]>Climber RMS & RM Academyhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/25/Impacto-do-COVID-19-na-hotelaria-%E2%80%93-Alguns-dados-e-a%C3%A7%C3%B5eshttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/25/Impacto-do-COVID-19-na-hotelaria-%E2%80%93-Alguns-dados-e-a%C3%A7%C3%B5esWed, 25 Mar 2020 13:01:11 +0000
O coronavírus (COVID-19) está a impactar drasticamente a economia global, mas neste artigo de opinião iremos centrar o foco da nossa análise na indústria do turismo e hotelariaa nível nacional.
Aproveitando a parceria e sinergias existentes entre a Climber RMS e a RM Academy, examinamos as tendências atuais e fazemos algumas recomendações importantes para mitigar o impacto nos seus negócios.
Alguns analistas preveem que o efeito sobre a indústria hoteleira global para 2020 (fonte Skift), seja de declínio no lucro (EBITDA) de 11% a 29% este ano. No entanto, observa-se que o cenário inclui “uma recuperação quase completa em 2021”, mostrando mais uma vez a resiliência do setor de hotelaria.
Nesta análise, tivemos por base uma amostra de hotéis em Portugal, de 4 e 5 estrelas e subdivididos pelas seguintes regiões: Lisboa, Porto e Norte, Centro Madeira, Açores e Algarve. De salientar que optámos por apresentar os resultados com valores absolutos porque em determinadas regiões os KPI’s seriam enviesados pelo facto da amostra de hotéis ter uma variação significativa. Tivemos por base, os KPI’s de Revenue de Alojamento, Ocupação e OTB (on the books) e para o período de 1 a 19 de março de 2020 e com reflexo até dezembro de 2020.
Em Portugal registamos uma quebra de 60% nas receitas de room revenue no período em análise, quebra de 38.6% no OTB e de 28.4% a nível de ocupação.
Exemplo 1: Hotel da região de Lisboa com quebra acentuada de ocupação entre o dia 1 e 19 de Março – a vermelho. Podemos verificar que os meses de Março, Abril e Maio, têm um impacto maior, notando-se uma ligeira recuperação no 3º e 4º Trimestre.
Exemplo 2: Hotel da região do Porto com quebra acentuada de ocupação entre o dia 1 e 19 de Março – a vermelho. Podemos verificar que os meses de Março, Abril e Maio, têm um impacto maior, notando-se uma ligeira recuperação no 3º Trimestre.
Exemplo 3: Hotel que demonstra bem a realidade de Portugal, com quebra acentuada de ocupação entre o dia 1 e 19 de Março – a vermelho. A tracejado os valores correspondentes ao ano passado, onde podemos verificar que o decréscimo é acentuado para os próximos meses, mas com uma ligeira recuperação no 3º e 4ºTrimestre, comparando com o ano de 2019.
Quando comparamos dados até Dezembro usando nossa ferramenta de comparação de hotéis, prevemos um cenário obviamente negativo para todos os destinos, no entanto, quando avaliamos os resultados de 1 a 19 de março, podemos ver que grande parte do impacto anual, se reflete em Março, Abril e Maio, havendo sinais de recuperação no último trimestre, mas ainda assim, no negativo.
Isto poderá ser um indicador de que as pessoas ainda estão a efetuar pesquisas de hotéis, mas talvez não tenham a confiança necessária para reservar nos próximos meses. Ferramentas como a Climber são fundamentais para que possamos enfrentar situações inesperadas como a do COVID-19, interpretando os dados que nos chegam e como nos chegam. Segundo Mário Mouraz, CEO da Climber RMS “pretendemos sempre fornecer os melhores dados para a tomada de decisão por parte do hoteleiro, conseguindo capitalizar e, em situações como a que estamos a viver, tentar minimizar o impacto que uma situação negativa como a COVID-19 pode ter”.
Dada a incerteza da evolução da crise sanitária e económica, a RM Academy e a Climber deixam algumas recomendações:
• Foco nos mercados domésticos que deverão voltar a ganhar confiança ainda que
moderadamente e definir campanhas para os meses de verão.
• Devido ao aumento de restrições de viagens aéreas dos mercados do TOP 10
nacional, devemos garantir a máxima exposição ao mercado interno, concentrando
mais orçamento e direcionando as ações de e-commerce, nomeadamente
campanhas de “metasearch” e de “re-targeting”, nas quais ainda existe um público
estabelecido com forte intenção de reservar.
• Os clientes não procuram necessariamente preço neste momento, mas sim
flexibilidade e segurança, portanto considere não utilizar tarifas não reembolsáveis,
considere alterar as políticas de penalização para cancelamentos e considere uma
estratégia de preços realista face ao seu mercado concorrencial.
• Considere permitir que os clientes alterem as suas reservas para uma nova data,
caso desejem (tranquilizando também novos clientes). Faça da palavra
“flexibilidade” uma de suas principais mensagens de marketing e tente inclusive
alterar o nome da tarifa BAR para Super flexível. Passe uma mensagem clara de
segurança aos clientes e destaque as ações em vigor, por exemplo limpeza
desinfetantes constantes e tantas outras medidas que as entidades oficiais
recomendaram.
Em termos operacionais, estamos a recomendar muitos dos clientes da RM Academy que têm multi propriedades em localizações próximas, para concentrarem as operações numa só unidade, e se necessário utilizando apenas alguns pisos das unidades minimizando desta forma o impacto negativo ao nível financeiro, reaproveitando recursos, dar a opção de segurança aos RH, escoando produtos com validade limitada, ou mesmo ativando a opção de lay-off. Outras práticas que temos recomendado passam pela renegociação com fornecedores, com as instituições credoras, entre outros, de forma a negociar períodos de
carência aliviando desta forma a dificuldades de tesouraria. Ao nível dos cancelamentos de tarifas não reembolsáveis ou mesmo de tarifas flexíveis, mas que já entram em período de penalização, estamos a recomendar muita prudência por um lado com os reembolsos, porque temos notado muitas situações dúbias, e por outro lado para não sobre carregar a tesouraria. Por outro lado, recomendamos que tentem negociar com todos os titulares de reservas para usufruírem das mesmas num determinado período de tempo com a atribuição de um voucher, e no caso dos grupos para dar a opção de remarcar em datas futuras. O setor do turismo e da hotelaria é historicamente um setor resiliente e de adaptação
rápida e esperamos que, uma vez que a situação melhore, a curva da procura se restabeleça novamente ainda que gradualmente.
Vamos acreditar que 2021 será o ano da retoma, que as economias iniciarão um novo ciclo ascendente e que o COVID-19 fique apenas na nossa memória.
No sentido de procurar soluções e ouvir os hotéis, no dia 2 de Abril, pelas 15h, a Climber RMS e a RM Academy, vão promover uma mesa redonda online com hotéis de várias partes do mundo, com o tema – COVID-19, e agora?
Os detalhes da participação serão divulgados nas redes sociais das empresas.
Rudi Azevedo, Managing Partner da RM Academy
]]>Revenue Management Tips for the Coronavirus Pandemic]]>Joan Evelyn Lee - Travel Triperhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/23/Revenue-Management-Tips-for-the-Coronavirus-Pandemichttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/23/Revenue-Management-Tips-for-the-Coronavirus-PandemicMon, 23 Mar 2020 16:43:21 +0000
The travel sector could shrink by up to 25% in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. That’s according to the latest information from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
In the hotel industry, occupancy levels have fallen dramatically in China and across the Asia Pacific region. As the coronavirus spreads, European cities are also experiencing a sharp drop in occupancy rates. At the week of March 2nd, significant drops were seen in London (-22%), Amsterdam (-25%), Paris (-31%), and Athens (-45%).
Turning attention to the US, year-over-year hotel occupancy rates were down 7.3% as of the week ending March 7th. ADR was also down 4.6%, and RevPAR down 11.6%. These figures look to drop even more drastically now that many countries have implemented tighter travel restrictions and virtually closed down public life.
The fallout from coronavirus could reverberate for many months to come. However, the industry is a resilient one, and we are optimistic that we will rebound from this as we have before. For hotels, this means preparing for the inevitable return of demand when the outbreak begins to subside. We’ve compiled a list of revenue management tips to help you better manage your rates for this crisis period.
Target domestic travelers
The fear of contracting and spreading the virus has led to a severe decrease in travel as well as drastic travel restrictions. In addition to the recent US ban on travel from Europe, we’re seeing country-wide lockdowns around the world.
As such, the idea of targeting domestic travelers is really intended for when lockdowns are lifted. When this happens, we should first see an increase in domestic demand before international demand returns. Marketing to domestic travelers will therefore be an important first step in any hotel’s initial marketing strategy.
Take advantage of Pegasus Dynamic Pricing Rules
Our Dynamic Pricing Rules tool can help you target special offers specifically to domestic travelers on your direct channel. Use our country or city filters to limit visibility to the local market, or even define a geographic radius to target potential drive-in guests (as people may prefer driving to flying in this climate).
Paid search budget
To focus on domestic travelers, you may wish to re-evaluate your paid search budget allocations in geo-targeted campaigns. Using Google AdWords, you can target an entire country, state, city, or a smaller area around a location or location groups. By creating special rates and promotions aimed more at domestic audiences, these targeted campaigns are more likely to convert and lead to a higher ROI.
AAA/AARP rate plans
Consider making your AAA/AARP rate plans more visible by including them in the public search on your booking engine. During this crisis, you need to limit friction points by making special rate plans easy to find.
Parking Packages
If applicable, promote attractive “parking packages.” With huge reductions in air travel and more domestic travel, discounts on parking will help you entice a growing number of drive-in guests.
Meetings and events
Major corporations and small businesses alike are rethinking how and where they host meetings and events. This presents an opportunity to target local companies looking for venues on their doorstep. In addition to special deals, think how you can support meeting and event planners in these challenging times. This includes helping coordinate travel plans, facilitating risk assessments, and providing technology (such as live streaming and video conferencing software) so businesses can communicate with remote attendees in affected areas.
Target ‘staycationers’
In the current travel climate, we predict that leisure travelers will take far fewer overseas trips, leading to a potential boost in staycations. However, since people may be wary about booking travel now for fear their plans may have to change, make the pricing straightforward and simple, and ensure that the cancellation policy is flexible.
Be strategic with pricing
Travel prices are dropping as hotels and airlines scramble to attract people willing to travel. This means it’s essential to monitor your competitor’s prices and react accordingly. Given the rapid spread of the coronavirus, it makes sense to track your comp set rates daily as they adjust to swift changes in demand. In addition, keep a close eye on cancellation patterns to adjust your room prices where necessary.
As discussed in our recent post, dropping rates during times of crisis can have long-term negative effects on your RevPAR. So you might also want to find other ways to offer your guests value. Which brings us on to…
Special promotions
Consider creating length of stay promotions, with attractive packages for longer stays. This could include tiered LOS promotions, such as offering a discount of 15% off your Best Available Rate (BAR) for guests staying three nights, and 20% or even 30% off BAR for guests staying for 7 nights or more. Again, you can easily build these promotions using Pegasus’ Dynamic Pricing Rules tool.
You could also take inspiration from hotels getting creative with deals following the outbreak of coronavirus. For example, Hotel Esencia in Riviera Maya, Mexico has launched a promotion for May and June that lets guests either get a third night free or enjoy unlimited spa treatments during each day of their stay.
Despite nine cancellations because of coronavirus, the owner of Hotel Esencia, Kevin Wendle, told CNN Travel that these cancellations have been offset by new reservations after introducing this deal.
Cancellations and refunds
Many people will need some reassurances before they book a trip. To that end, we recommend you relax your rate policies and offer guests the chance to rebook or cancel with no penalties. Consider pausing or removing non-refundable offers and replacing them with more flexible offers during this time, and be sure to communicate this prominently on your website and within email marketing.
]]>"Nothing will be the same": How Italian hoteliers are coping with coronavirus fallout]]>Mitra Sorrells - PhocusWirehttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/19/Nothing-will-be-the-same-How-Italian-hoteliers-are-coping-with-coronavirus-fallouthttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/19/Nothing-will-be-the-same-How-Italian-hoteliers-are-coping-with-coronavirus-falloutThu, 19 Mar 2020 12:00:27 +0000
Life in Italy is largely at a standstill since the country-wide lockdown on March 10, which came as a result of a dramatic increase in the number of infections and deaths from the COVID-19 coronavirus. All but essential travel is banned, and those traveling must prove why it is necessary.Tourism is one of the largest industries in Italy. Phocuswright estimates created before the outbreak put combined online and offline bookings at more than $25 billion for this year.To get a sense of the current situation in Italy, we talked to Florence-based Giancarlo Carniani last week. Carniani manages a small hotel company, ToFlorence Hotels, which operates three properties in the city. He is also the current president of Confindustria Alberghi Firenze, the region’s hotel association, which has about 150 member properties ranging from small independent hotels to large ones operating under the Marriott and Four Seasons brands. He is also Phocuswright's analyst for Italy.
Below, Carniani explains how the hotels in the region are coping, why hoteliers are "furious" at Booking.com and why the hospitality industry will be starting at point zero when the crisis subsides.
Q:Before we get into what’s happening from your perspective as a hotelier, tell us what life is like for you personally.
Working in the hotel, I’ve met a lot of people in this period. For more than a week we’ve been very careful and stay far from each other. Since yesterday I’ve been working from home only, but I’ve decided to stay away from my family.
There was a job I had to do [interacting with others] and I’ve done it. We are lucky we have another apartment that usually we rent on Airbnb, and this time I’m here alone and for the next two weeks I’m talking with my family only through the web. There is no other solution. We had hotel guests until yesterday. The last guests were an American couple on honeymoon. They were stuck here because they couldn’t find a way to go back, so we stayed open until they left. And now we have closed.
The situation is unreal. We can go out with a mask just to buy food, because the only thing open is food stores and pharmacies. You have half an hour or one hour to go out. There are police checking everyone. Unless you have to go to work – if you work in an activity that is still open - you have to print special permission and keep it with you. But it’s less and less people going to work now because most things are shut down. Yesterday I was coming back to my home from the hotel, and I walked through the city center – it was unreal. There was no one. And we were talking about overtourism until a few weeks ago!
Q: Are all hotels in Florence closed like yours? And what is the situation with your employees?
A few have stayed open because there are still some people with needs to travel and go around, from the sanitary people, the police and others. So the government has decided not to shut down the hotels, but 90% are closed anyway. The local authorities have asked hotels which are already closed to become kind of hospitals. They need the beds in the [actual] hospitals for all those which are in the most serious condition. So for all the people which have to stay in quarantine, they are asking hotels if they can do that it there. A few hotels here in Florence have accepted, and in the next few days they will become like a clinic for people which are already out of the virus but need to stay away from people for another 15 days. We haven’t fired anyone. All the people in my hotels - we had 120 people working for us - are home and they will get paid. It’s less than [their normal] wages but they will get paid, until the situation is over, by the government. The government has stopped taxation for all the companies that had to close down. They made a law immediately. Tourism was the first and then other categories are entering the situation.
Obviously I don’t get what I usually earn, but I get enough to survive for a while. If you had loans by a bank you are not paying until the situation is over. It’s trying to protect everything in order of cash to save the people and to save the companies.
Q: How have you been handling guest communications and cancellations?
By receiving an amount so big of cancellations, OTAs were not any more able to deal with it. Many clients have called us direct, which never happens in this world. We are all used to seeing our guest when he shows up to the hotel. We don’t know anything about him - he has booked on Expedia or Booking. Now it’s like coming back to the old time. You speak with the people.
My booking office, which is still open but working from home, they said, "I have never talked with clients like I am talking now." It is really changing connections. It’s like we need more human touch. We talk a lot about technology, but we went back as human in this case. And at the very beginning, before we had this paper where it says no travel or airlines shutting down flights to Italy, we tried to handle the situation by saying to all the people that had booked nonrefundable rooms that we will freeze the credit. I was amazed because most of them were okay with freezing the credit, and obviously no one was planning to come in 2020, most were saying to us, "Let’s do that but I’m planning to be in Italy next year." Then in the last two days all the hotel companies have been furious with Booking.com because Booking has decided on its site to reimburse every single guest even if the guest had accepted the credit. This has made hoteliers furious. We have tried to handle this in the most gentle possible way, and having such a big organization [such as Booking.com] decide that, it was really something unacceptable in this kind of situation. They can do that by contracts, but it was really unfair. [Editor's note: Booking.com has not responded to request for comment at the time of publication.] For our three hotels, Booking.com alone is 20% in two of those hotels and 40% in the smaller one, which is a boutique hotel so it depends more on Booking.com. Then of the whole online, it’s about 40% coming from online if I add Ctrip and Expedia and LastMinute and others. But obviously Booking is a strong voice in every single hotel here in Florence.
Q: As president of the Confindustria Alberghi Firenze association, what are you hearing from other hoteliers about this?
Today I had a video meeting with a lot of hoteliers, and there is a kind of rebellion because of that. That’s why I think after the coronavirus, nothing will be back as normal. We really want to start from point zero. It’s a really strong voice coming from hoteliers about that, that we need to do something.
We have handled it the best way possible. We understand it is not possible to travel. There have been a lot of no-shows, and the hotels have not charged it. But this position by Booking is very different than what Ctrip and Expedia have done.
Ctrip - maybe because they have had the virus as well [in China] and they know the situation – they have asked the hotel to proceed in the best possible way. Expedia has done the same, and in fact we have received a letter from Cyril Ranque [president Expedia Travel Partners Group] expressing his concern and desire to collaborate. Booking is trying to force us to do only refunds, appealing to some condition of the contract. And we are furious about that, because when you are in a bad situation like this the worst thing that could happen to you is someone who doesn’t really care about what you are doing. We have the impression they care too much about the stock market. Yesterday we had a webinar with 2,000 people, all hoteliers in Italy. We have decided Giovanna Manzi, who is in charge of one of the biggest chains in Italy - Best Western, which I think they have nearly 200 hotels in Italy - she’s going to have a call with them and explain it was a very bad behavior. We know it is an incredible situation for the clients and for the suppliers. Booking has decided to only go with the clients. Suppliers are struggling now, and they are very upset.
Q: Explain what you mean by saying that when this is over, “nothing will be back as normal."
We have an impression here in Italy in the hotelier community that when this whole story will be over, nothing will be as it was before, nothing will be the same, especially in the distribution. We are all in the same condition. We are all at zero. So that is a condition where you say we’re going to start again. We don’t know when, it will take a few months, but then really you start from point zero and we have the force to change the distribution. We had 2,000 on the webinar yesterday that are feeling this way. When there was the internet revolution, the hoteliers were not there. The OTAs and other distributors took over the space, and for us it has been difficult to emerge with our own brand. I think after the coronavirus everywhere in the world, there will be a new renaissance and distribution will be all changed. I’m glad The Phocuswright Conference will still be there in August, because in August we will see the rise of a new distribution. Everything will change. That’s my impression and the impression of many people here in Italy. Because when you are at zero, you have nothing to lose. You can really change the way you do business.
Q: What is your outlook for the Italian travel industry as you think to the future?
The feeling that we have is that when this thing is over, the people which now are stuck in these apartments, the first thing they will do if it’s possible is travel. So we are going to come back. If I have to consider what will happen since the virus is expanding in other countries, when we reopen we may have the others not coming because it will be in their country.
In two weeks, France and Germany I think will be the same as Italy [as far as the virus]. In tourism it will be a strong impact. It’s not like September 11 – I was working then – not any country came to zero, zero reservations, zero people, zero flights. It’s a catastrophe. Everyone is thinking about taking care of the domestic market, even if it’s not enough for all the hoteliers. For example, I think personally the seaside and the mountain [areas] will do a fantastic summer season with the internal market. I don’t think we will have many people coming from abroad. Our position now is everything will be restarting in fall with traffic of people coming from other countries, but normal will take a few years. So we are concentrating on what we can do internally.
Q: Have you started to think about specific strategies for a post-coronavirus world in Florence, for example around revenue management?
Everything will change, but no one is thinking now about what it will be because we don’t know. We have to see. Going back from zero it’s different than the economic crisis of 2008 when people were still traveling. They had less money, so rates were lower, but they were still traveling so it was different. Now I don’t know what my revenue system will tell me when we reopen. We will have to start from zero, because something like that has never happened. Even the previous year will count as zero because the whole situation has changed. But nobody is thinking about revenue right now. Nobody in our talks is even mentioning that. The focus is when are we going to reopen. That’s it. Personally what I do to stay in touch - because obviously you feel like a prisoner in your apartment - I have a video chat every night with my staff. And people are giving me a lot of new ideas. For example, one of the hotels we have we may decide to change it for one year and to make it a villa for parties, because it’s in the middle of a park and every activity – like weddings – was postponed to the fall. People will need to go out. We are lucky our hotels, one is in the middle of a park, one has a fantastic rooftop terrace. So we will do everything we can for locals. Then we are asking the government to do a strong campaign about Italy as a country – not now – now nobody will come here. But we are lucky this country is in the middle of the dream of every single traveler in the world. Florence, Venice, Milan, Rome will be back. I’m sure of that. We have time to think of new ideas!
After a week of reassuring staff things will be fine and then reassuring hoteliers because you are president, yesterday after I closed the hotel I was coming back to my apartment, there was one hotelier who wrote me a text message. I can tell you I cried for nearly an hour. It is a very stressful period.
]]>How can your hotel make money in the current economic downturn?]]>Margaret Mastrogiacomo - NextGuesthttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/16/How-can-your-hotel-make-money-in-the-current-economic-downturnhttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/16/How-can-your-hotel-make-money-in-the-current-economic-downturnMon, 16 Mar 2020 17:08:39 +0000
Crisis Management is a critical component of any successful digital strategy. During times of crisis, hotels need to thoughtfully and swiftly develop a prevention plan, communicate to employees and guests, and make critical shifts to revenue management and digital strategies to ensure success.
With Coronavirus (COVID-19) continuing to spread, it's important for hotels to have an action plan in place that addresses both the current state and the potential future impact if the situation continues to worsen. Overall, your hotel should arm itself with an internal Coronavirus response team which includes a member from every department critical to your business. This team should be responsible for keeping a pulse on the evolving landscape, continually brainstorming adjustments to strategy, and presenting to internal stakeholders to take action.
Once you have your internal response team in place, below are the most important considerations when planning for COVID-19. For the full, comprehensive COVID-19 Hotel Action Plan & Checklist, download our whitepaper.
Developing & Communicating a Prevention Plan:
Develop a Prevention Plan: Document a prevention plan that protects employees and guests while on property to put potential guests at ease and to help ensure a positive, safe experience at your hotel.
Train all employees on the Prevention Plan and communication: Once your hotel has documented your prevention plan, begin training employees to ensure everyone is aligned on the measures that need to be taken. It is also important to ensure there is one unified message across your brand presence and employee communication. Provide employees guidelines on exactly how they should communicate your prevention plan to guests, acquaintances, and across social channels should the topic arise.
Reassure existing and potential guests: As people become more reluctant to travel as COVID-19 continues to spread, it is important for your hotel to address that there is a prevention plan in place across critical channels such as your website, social media, and email. For hotels in destinations that have been highly impacted, consider waiving cancellation fees and communicating this in your messaging across channels. For hotels in destinations that have not been highly impacted, simply reassure guests of the prevention plan in place.
Handling upcoming reservations and cancellations: For upcoming reservations while COVID-19 is still active, consider emailing future guests to inform them of your hotel's prevention plan, provide tips for their upcoming stay, and link to any FAQs. If your hotel is in a destination that is minimally impacted, put upcoming guests' minds at ease that there have been limited or no cases. For cancellations, consider modifying your cancellation confirmation email to prompt guests to book a future stay at a discounted rate. Also consider working with your CRM provider to create a cancellation bounce back email within two weeks of cancellation that promotes an advanced purchase offer or a gift card offer with an added monetary bonus if the impact of COVID-19 continues to worsen.
Preparing your Digital Strategy:
Assess the impact of COVID-19 on your business: Begin assessing the current impact that COVID-19 has made on your business. Explore key metrics such as year over year occupancy, revenue, ADR, and length of stay. Analyze market trends such as tourism to your destination, business from your top feeder markets, and of course, monitor the impact of COVID-19 on your destination. While it is hard to confidently project the impact of COVID-19, identifying historical macro trends of similar outbreaks (SARs, H1N1) and analyzing their impact on tourism and past business for your hotel, is one way to make an educated forecast.
Book direct perks and reservation abandonment are critical: During times of crisis, it is important to focus on your most cost-effective booking channels. Ensure that book direct perks are prominently displayed throughout your website. Your website should also have a strong reservation abandonment strategy in place to ensure you are recovering as many direct bookings as possible.
Evaluate fly-In markets that remain strong: If your hotel relies on fly-in feeder markets, consider adjusting your digital marketing strategy to account for a decrease in air travel from some markets and focus on markets that remain viable. To start, determine which fly-in feeder markets do not have travel bans and are still potentially traveling to your market. Analyze your hotel's own fly-in market data by exploring top feeder markets in website insights, bookings, and third-party sources like Sojern flight data to identify viable markets. Then, adjust targeting and strategy to focus on fly-in markets free of travel bans that are still showcasing intent.
Target domestic travel, local drive-in markets, and promote staycations: Marketing to local feeder markets and promoting staycations can potentially combat occupancy issues by reaching locals that are hesitant to travel abroad. While locals may be hesitant to risk flying, especially to destinations that are highly impacted, they may be open to a local getaway and willing to spend more than usual due to limited travel options to other destinations. Consider including F&B credits, complimentary parking, late checkout, and tickets to local museums and experiences in your staycation package.
Focus on length of stay offers, upselling ancillary offerings, and promoting premium room types: With travel demand down, your hotel's digital strategy should focus on increasing revenue from every booking. Consider launching length of stay offers such as book two nights get the third night 30% off, or packages that inspire business travelers to extend for leisure while they are already in your destination. Upselling dining, spa, and other ancillary revenue opportunities are also critical to maximizing revenue. Finally, other critical strategies include focusing on promoting higher ADR room types, and advanced purchase offers that promote future stays.
Market to loyalty members: Loyalty means trust, and marketing to loyalty members who have a strong relationship with your brand is critical during times when people are anxious to travel. Packages should include exclusive perks like room upgrades, welcome amenities, and other surprise and delight inclusions.
Utilize personalization: If you are utilizing website personalization technology, personalize messaging for local markets focused on staycations, personalize messaging for highly impacted markets focused on waiving cancellations, and personalize messaging for minimally-impacted markets focused on the prevention plan in place and reassuring guests.
]]>Crisis planning for hotels: Best practices in communication, revenue management, and marketing]]>Nancy Huang - Pegasushttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/16/Crisis-planning-for-hotels-Best-practices-in-communication-revenue-management-and-marketinghttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2020/03/16/Crisis-planning-for-hotels-Best-practices-in-communication-revenue-management-and-marketingMon, 16 Mar 2020 16:51:54 +0000
Experts say that COVID-19 could be the biggest shock to tourism since 9/11. The coronavirus outbreak has not only impacted travel in affected regions; it’s caused the cancellation of the world’s biggest exhibitions, including our own ITB Berlin.
More widely, we’re seeing travel restrictions to certain regions and a huge downturn in tourism, especially in Europe and Asia. The biggest downtown by far is happening in China, where the ministry of transport announced that Chinese tourists had taken 73% fewer trips over the lunar new year holiday in 2020 compared with 2019.
Tourists are also traveling with trepidation — the threat of the coronavirus means that cruise ships or hotels are suddenly having to enforce strict quarantines. Knowing how to handle this kind of situation (including managing concerns from anxious guests) is a tall order that requires careful planning.
In these deeply challenging times, how can hotels manage the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak? And what wider lessons might be applied to future crisis management?
Crisis communication tips for hotels
Panic and misinformation can quickly spread in a crisis. If your hotel is placed under quarantine due to the coronavirus, clear and consistent communication will be vital — both internally and externally. Here are a few crisis communication tips to bear in mind:
Internal communication
First, ensure you have a solid internal communication plan in place. Your staff should be up-to-date on the latest news, your own crisis plan procedures, and ready to deal with “what if…” scenarios. Give them the opportunity to voice their own concerns and ask follow-up questions, and be sure to reiterate that employee health and safety is of utmost importance.
Your customer-facing staff also need to be ready to answer questions from guests. Consider carrying out role-play scenarios to prepare staff for a potential influx of questions from flustered and agitated guests (and possibly media outlets too). Above all, your staff will need to remain calm and clear to allay concerns where possible.
It’s also essential that the answers your staff give are consistent. In the event of a highly stressful situation (such as a quarantine), the last thing you want is a mixed message being communicated by different members of your team.
Finally, make sure your internal communication plan is easily accessible via your own systems. Your staff should have a resource to check the information they’re disseminating is correct.
Guest communication during crisis periods
When crafting a communication plan for guests, be sure to cover not just current and upcoming guests, but also recently checked-out guests, particularly if it involves a public health situation like the coronavirus outbreak. Aim to be as transparent about the situation as possible without inciting panic or giving away private guest information.
In your communication plan, remember to cover all possible channels of communication, including email, text, phone, and social media channels. In addition, update the homepage of your website with the most relevant news and information using a temporary page banner or a news section of the site, but do not replace your existing content with a temporary page or message. This is a major SEO no-no.
For an ongoing crisis, you may want to create an additional dedicated page that is SEO optimized (e.g. “Information about the coronavirus outbreak at ABC Hotel”) and consistently updated with the latest news. This can help to counter any negative news media that may be showing up when potential travelers are searching your hotel on Google.
Our post on how hotels can mitigate the digital impact of natural disasters offers more essential communication tips, including:
How to announce a temporary closureHow to maintain your organic search rankings during a closureNurturing reviews to maintain your hotel’s online visibility
Adjusting your revenue and marketing strategy for crisis periods
It’s inevitable that hotels will experience a downturn during crisis periods, whether it’s a sudden drop from a major event cancellation (like ITB Berlin), or a gradual but accelerated downturn based on an ongoing situation (like increasing travel restrictions to areas affected by coronavirus). As a revenue manager, you’ll want to ensure that you’re managing the fallout properly. Some tips:
Create an event within the Revenue Management System (RMS): This will help maintain an accurate forecast with the decrease of transient demand, and any cancellation of group bookings.
Review booking cancellations: Is your leisure segment decreasing? Are you seeing a downturn from OTA or corporate business? In the event of a crisis, you’ll need to determine if cancellation patterns are arising from specific market segments and then address these accordingly.
Room night pick up: If your hotel has an increase in productivity, understand where the business is coming from, and from what channel. You can then aggressively market at the geographic regions (and use the specific channels) that are likely to drive more bookings, potentially compensating for a downturn in business from other market segments.
Monitor airline flights for cancellations: By staying up-to-date with airline cancellations, you can prevent throwing away marketing dollars on regions where there’s going to be a huge drop-off in tourists to your destination.
Setting rates during crisis periods
As many hotel revenue managers learned the hard way during past economic downturns, dropping rates during times of crisis can greatly affect your RevPAR. It can be difficult to recover from this, so instead focus on figuring out how you can add value for your guests in other ways, such as offering packages for longer stays, promotions targeted at domestic guests or guests from unrestricted markets, or flexible cancellation policies.
Revenue managers using tools such as Pegasus CRS’s Dynamic Pricing Rules can easily maintain their standard rate plans while applying rules to create special offers that can lift demand in strategic ways.
For example, if tourism from key geographic markets like China is down, you can encourage domestic or intercontinental travel by using geographic pricing rules to create package offers for tourists from those markets.
For travelers that might be worried about visiting your hotel market due to a crisis, you can utilize lead-time promotions (for example, 20% off of stays booked 60+ days in advance) to start creating demand for the future when the crisis is likely to be over. These promotions could also be backed by more flexible booking policies that allow for waived cancellation or change fees should the area still be affected by the crisis.
Once you’ve set your special offers in place on your website and booking engine, you’ll want to ensure that you have a marketing budget set aside to start driving both awareness of your property and bookings on your site.
Investing in digital marketing
When you start to see that demand is recovering from the crisis and starting to rise in your own market, it’s time to start investing in marketing again. Don’t wait too long for rooms to start filling up through your third-party channels—aggressive direct channel marketing to your website can help you gain traction quickly and make up for the lost revenue during the downturn.
Top-of-funnel strategy
As interest in your destination picks up again, it’s worth heavily investing in the awareness phase of booking (known as top-of-funnel marketing). Bear in mind that there’ll be heavy competition for broad search terms (e.g. “hotels in London”). To generate top-of-funnel awareness, you’ll want to stretch your marketing dollars by focusing on channels such as display networks, as well as TripAdvisor and Kayak CPM metasearch campaigns.
In particular, TripAdvisor can be a particularly useful channel for creating awareness and drumming up interest, particularly if your guests have been leaving good reviews about how your hotel handled the recent crisis.
Targeted bottom-funnel marketing
An important marketing tactic for driving bottom-funnel conversions is using tools such as Google Customer Match to personally target travelers most likely to book again: your former guests. Customer Match lets you upload a list of guest emails (that you’ve already collected and have permission to market to) and then specifically target those people with either display or search ads offering a promotional rate.
Be prepared for the unexpected
While the coronavirus is the big concern of the moment, tourism and travel demand is always at the mercy of uncontrollable events, including natural disasters and weather events such as the recent hurricane-force winds in Europe. As such, it’s crucial that your hotel is prepared for the unexpected. If you need help with your revenue or marketing strategy in the event of a crisis, ask us how we can help your hotel to be “digitally” prepared.
]]>How to increase your hotel website conversion rate]]>D-Edgehttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2019/10/23/How-to-increase-your-hotel-website-conversion-ratehttps://www.hotelariadigital.pt/single-post/2019/10/23/How-to-increase-your-hotel-website-conversion-rateMon, 24 Feb 2020 17:42:00 +0000