If you’re looking to learn about travel and hospitality, consider turning to eCornell’s Keynote Series, and other resources from eCornell. Our team recently attended the Reimagining Travel: Reinventing the Travel Experience & Using Data to Boost Recovery from eCornell online. The learnings and discussion are helpful, not just for the hospitality industry, but all kinds of businesses.
Here’s our top 10 Tips for Hospitality Industry Recovery
- Be clear about your COVID-19 precautions and safety.
- Make sure your guests can easily see the steps you’re taking for COVID-19 safety. Information should be on your website, on your social media, and at your property itself when the guest arrives.
- Provide options for your guests based on their level of comfort.
- Some guests may be ready for face to face interaction. Others will want to be as contactless as possible. Have multiple options available and communicate them clearly.
- Forecasting long term is not beneficial right now, look to the short term 30 – 60 days.
- Revenue management primarily uses historical data, but there is no historical marker for 2020 and its recovery. Look to other demand drivers and data in the near term, such as flight activity data.
- Dive deep to understand your market’s conditions and opportunities.
- Each state, and each city, has their own way of handling COVID-19 precautions and vaccination distribution. Get to know your market’s details closely so you can customize your marketing and approach based on this information.
- Dive deep to understand your potential customers and speak directly to them.
- The decision to travel right now is a very personal one. Get to know who is willing to travel to your business right now. Not just leisure versus business, but their reasons for traveling, their motivations, their concerns. Create content that speaks directly to that. If you need help with content ideas, we can help.
- Emotional appeal, human connections are more important than value proposition.
- Many guests may be traveling due to the incredible deals right now, but there is an emotional driver there. Many people are “seizing the day” because we’ve all seen how quickly things can change. Speak to that emotion, speak to safety, speak to making the most of each moment.
- It is estimated that Gen Z and Millennials will be 50% of all travelers in about 4 years time.
- The oldest Millennials are now approaching their 40’s. The oldest members of Gen Z are approaching their mid 20’s. These two generations grew up with connected devices around them. They tend to prefer to use technology for services like dining, transportation, and hotel stays.
- Mobile technology can still have a human touch, using the right voice, emojis, and thoughtful touches.
- The idea that guests interacting with a business purely through social media, text messaging, and apps being “cold” or “impersonal” is outdated. Using the right tone of voice and tools like emojis and branding, businesses can truly connect via mobile. Using such technology feels safer for many guests, reducing their need for in-person interactions. We’re experts in brand and voice creation, reach out and we’ll help!
- Use data to personalize your guest’s experience from start to finish.
- Mobile technology allows businesses to capture all kinds of data about their customers. Use this data to customize the experience. If you know a customer is a repeat customer, indicate your gratitude. If you receive a special request for their room or dining experience, capture that so future experiences can be personalized. We’ve built lots of successful strategies around data mining.
- Be patient and kind to your teams and your guests.
- Even though things look very hopeful now, we all know everything can change quickly. Be patient with your guests and your teams. Working through constant change and recovery can be hard. Hope is here, use that optimism to help your team and help your guests.
What do you think about these tips for hospitality recovery? If you’re ready to learn more and get moving in the right direction, join us for Hospitality 2021. At Aloft Delray Beach, or online, you’ll experience conversations that will leave you inspired and ready to excel in the new year and beyond. You’ll leave with innovative messaging and strategy takeaways that will get you moving ahead.
