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As the travel industry continues to be shaken up by Covid-19, many hospitality sectors are fighting to stay afloat. The potential job loss of the hotel and tourism industry is projected to be over 50 million, but businesses that pivot and adapt will become resilient enough to withstand these dramatic industry shifts.
So how can your company work toward resilience during these unpredictable and challenging times? Below, 15 members of Forbes Real Estate Council explain what hospitality professionals can do to set themselves up for lasting success through the rest of the pandemic and beyond.
1. Leverage Automation Tools
Take advantage of automation tools to operate at peak productivity with a leaner team. Automation tools can be used for guest communication, staff management, pricing, payments, cleaning tasks and more. These tools streamline internal operations, save your team time on the most repetitive aspects of their jobs and speed up response rate, which ultimately results in positive guest experiences and glowing reviews. – Vered Schwarz, Guesty
2. Demonstrate Your Commitment To Health And Safety
Showcase how you are putting the health and safety of guests as a priority. People still want to travel. They are also extra cautious about cleaning procedures. Describe measures that are taken before, during and after guests arrive to help build trust with travelers. – Chris Bounds, Invested Agents
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3. Make Strategic Forecasts
Get a sense of strategic forecasting. Think red, yellow and green revenue outcomes at specific dates in the future. Then work backward from those outcomes in terms of investment and cost structure decisions today. – Clark Twiddy, Twiddy & Company
4. Establish And Strengthen Client Relationships
Whatever the circumstances are, there will be ups and downs with the market and with business. Hospitality professionals can build resiliency by establishing and strengthening relationships with their client base. Stay top of mind. Provide valuable information in the interim. Be a source for inspiration and updates. Staying connected will ensure you are the one they chose when the time is right. – Michelle Risi, Royal LePage Connect Realty
5. Build Trust Through Transparency
Take extra steps to build trust with customers by providing more transparency. With the uncertainty and misinformation surrounding the pandemic, building and showcasing trust with your customers will help you earn more business and thrive during the pandemic and well after. – Ron Costa, The Eighty Two Group
6. Become Customer-Centric
Work on getting lean, building up your customer entanglement process and being proactive with your base. We will get through these challenges, and the most efficient businesses that are customer-centric will thrive on the other side. – Chris Roberts, Sterling Rhino Capital
7. Build Multiple Revenue Sources
Building up multiple sources of revenue allows for the distribution of risk and increased revenue. A little creativity will boost your location’s ADR. Think of things like repurposing shared spaces to co-working spaces, maximizing food and beverage offerings or outreach and integration in the community. Don’t just be hospitality, create options. Authentic cross-selling and making things bespoke is a win-win. – Charles Argianas, Argianas & Associates, Inc.
8. Focus On The Guest Experience
Hospitality is about the guest. Only by focusing on guest experience will hospitality and hospitality real estate return to its prominence. Social distancing is creating new opportunities to serve guests, especially on the luxury side of the market. Resorts and hospitality pros that come up with unique and Covid-friendly ways of serving guests at a high level will continue to thrive. – Blake Plumley, BluWater Capital LLC
9. Reimagine Your Existing Spaces
They can expand their focus to think about different types of short-term rentals. This starts by reimagining how existing spaces might be used in a post-pandemic world. Moving forward, this diversification will help ensure hospitality companies are more agile and better equipped for future disruptions. – Kevin Markarian, Marker Real Estate
10. Educate Your Customers
The main emphasis will be on educating your customers on the steps you have taken to make their stay safe. Sharing this will be a big step towards building confidence as we come back to normalcy after the vaccine. – Chander Mishra, Accel Equity Group LLC
11. Pivot To Meet The Needs Of Others
As always, the key to success within the short-term rental industry and the hospitality sector is flexibility and adaptability. As people are traveling less for leisure, Airbnb hosts can transform their properties into business rentals or into long-term rentals that match the needs of professionals working remotely. This will help boost occupancy rates, which is a major determinant of income. – Taylor Valore, Mashvisor
12. Consider Unconventional Clientele
Hospitality professionals are coming up with innovative solutions to think outside the box. As people continue to scale back their travel, the focus is on virtual. Professionals are utilizing unique features such as chefs providing cooking demonstrations or bartenders giving mixology lessons. Although not conventional, these alternatives will help the industry to continue to deliver key services. – Don Wenner, DLP Real Estate Capital
13. Prioritize Planning, Transparency And Communication
This is a transitional time, so it is important to evaluate revenue production and allocation to keep the company running for the employees, vendors, shareholders and ultimately, the consumers. While sometimes the focus should be on increasing the bottom line, the focus of today should be on planning, transparency and communication. – Marco Del Zotto, LIV | Sotheby’s International Realty – Breckenridge CO
14. Diversify Your Customer Base
The answer is diversification. Providing accommodations that cater to executives who do short-term travel (one to six months) and professionals who are looking for 30-plus day stays in a new city prior to signing a longer-term lease. Traveling nurses and traveling emergency workers can also provide diversified revenue streams for hotels which would otherwise have reduced revenue during travel lockdowns. – Deniz Kahramaner, Altasa
15. Provide Incentives To Attract Consumers
Hospitality professionals need to provide incentives and think outside the box to attract consumers. They may need to consider consolidating to minimize costs and increase the bottom line for the time being. Doing more with less seems to be a popular theme in the service industry. Again though, it’s all about attention to your customer. The more focused you can be toward your customer, the better. – Blake Montgomery, Chinowth & Cohen Realtors