If you’ve been on social media lately, you probably have seen the word 'uncertain' used frequently and less than a month ago, we never could have predicted the world would come to a complete halt, while difficult times lie ahead for the hospitality industry, normality will eventually return.

What is certain is that your business needs to retain guest loyalty.

With negative news about the global economy dominating the headlines, it is easy to get overwhelmed and ignore recovery. However, there are steps hoteliers should take to prepare for business when the storm ends.

If possible, maintain pricing

After the 2008 financial crisis, hotels made dramatic price-drops. It resulted in hotels losing revenue and struggling to recover their ADR. It’s important for hoteliers to stick together and monitor the surrounding market, while making sure to maintain prices in the area.

“Studies have shown that hotels that are the fastest to drop their rates and who drop their rates the deepest can be the last ones to recover when demand comes back,” said Dan Skodol, a hospitality and travel industry revenue management expert.

It’s will take hotel industry years to recover the money from 2019. Ensure that when the demand returns, you’re not losing out on additional revenue.

Encourage postponements, not cancellations

While your first instinct may be to start waiving fees, try to encourage postponements instead. Whenever guests make inevitable cancellation request, encourage a later booking date at no extra cost.

You should still include refundable rates. At the end of this, people will remember the hotels that accommodated their needs. In fact, the ease of process (or lack of) during a guests cancellations process can be far more impactful than their actual stay. With that said, you can still offer non-refundable packages at a discount.

Audit your marketing collateral and create content for future use

If you’ve been looking to enhance your content performance, now may be the perfect time to audit your assets. Once you’ve found ways to repurpose old marketing material, you can also create new content. You can record new videos of your property, get videos of guests discussing your brand and hosting webinars. In fact, 91 percent of professionals say webinars are their favorite format for learning.

In conclusion

Ralph Hollister, Analyst, Travel & Tourism at GlobalData, offered his views: “It is imperative that hotels across the globe remember how they have overcome a range of past crises such as natural disasters, the SARS outbreak and acts of terrorism when thinking through their strategies to handle the COVID-19 crisis.”

Although our current climate has bred fear and concern among hoteliers, it’s important to remember that this is going to pass. Right now, it’s important to find ways to stay above water and plan ahead.

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