5 Ways to Protect Your Hotel Business During COVID 19

COVID 19 has impacted the travel industry in a big way. The hotel industry is experiencing a particularly difficult time for business. In such a situation, how can you protect your hotel business and adapt to the new normal? Here are five important things you can do right away:

1. Find the Right Hotel Revenue Management Strategy

• A robust hotel revenue management strategy must begin with demand forecasting and pricing strategy.
• When faced with a consistently low demand you should choose a dynamic pricing strategy. Hotel Dynamic pricing refers to a change in room prices according to an algorithm based on factors such as occupancy, seasonality, and competitor pricing.
• Advanced hotel revenue management should be focused on cost analysis, smart pricing, and timely promotions.

2. Controlling Costs

• One of the key elements of protecting your hotel business in these pandemic times is to cut unnecessary costs and control your spending.
• This may be done by cutting down on food purchasing as per occupancy, reducing instances of overstaffing, etc.
• The above measures can secure cash flow for hotel businesses which is important for the long run.

3. Marketing Strategy

• This is a good time for hotel businesses to chalk out marketing strategies to attract new customers.
• Offering rooms at discounted rates, promoting online bookings and free services like drop off at the airport can be very useful for a good word of mouth.
• Online promotion and social media presence are key to maintain a good brand recall in the hotel industry during this time.
• Hotels should start work on branding campaigns with tools like content marketing and social media marketing to improve outreach.

4. Start a “Safety First” Campaign

• Implement a no-compromise safety strategy across divisions and ensure that it is followed religiously by the staff.
• Design and implement a marketing campaign that focuses on your hotel’s efforts to ensure safety and hygiene for all guests.
• Talk about your hotel’s safety measures on social media and other marketing channels.

5. Adopt Technology and Automation

• During COVID 19, one of the best strategies for hotel businesses is to adopt new technologies for daily operations.
• Hotels can adopt mobile apps which can help digitise guest services, cut staffing costs and improve operational efficiency in the long term.
• Using emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence to implement dynamic pricing and online bookings can significantly raise occupancy.

Even with social distancing norms in place, there is a lot that hotels can do to protect their business during these challenging times. Strategies like digital marketing, hotel dynamic pricing and re-thinking the target audience are key to the survival of hotels during COVID 19. Effective revenue management, which includes cost control and dynamic pricing strategies, can have a long-term effect in securing the hotel’s finances. The hotel businesses that focus on the right opportunities now may emerge successful in the end.

Guest Article by Karan Iyer

Karan Iyer is an end-to-end digital marketer and blogger who inherently understands the hotel industry with his hospitality background. Karan knows how to convert the pain points and challenges of the hotel industry into business opportunities, and that's what he writes about for his readers. He also shares industry trends, insights and news to help his readers stay up-to-date.