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The hospitality industry took the biggest blow from the Covid-19 pandemic. With demands being deleteriously minimized, hotels were facing both a disaster as well as a crisis. While the hoteliers did not know how to proceed and grow further, nor could they do anything about the COVID-19 situations. The primary focus of the whole world was the safety of people, which included social distancing and isolation that brought a massive hit on the hotels. Fast-forwarding to the beginning of 2021, new hopes arose with new beginnings and the world started adapting to the new normal.
What was this new normal for the hospitality industry?
Showing their true fidelity towards society, hoteliers came out with solutions beyond belief in helping society receive some amount of relief from the worries. The hospitality industry started changing at a rate like never before. One of the largest and most influential industries was on the rise once again and this time it was different.
The world transformed from physical to a whole new digital realm and hoteliers wasted no time in adapting to the same. Below are a few transformations that hoteliers went through to aid in the COVID recovery situations:
1. Going Contactless like never before
With snail-paced re-opening of businesses with restrictions-imposed post lockdown, hotels ensured and adopted contactless ways for their daily operations. These methods helped them to minimize physical contact and prevent transmission of the virus. With the world moving everything online, starting from buying groceries to clothes online, hotels shifted to online bookings where Hotel Channel Managers played a crucial role in re-defining the hotel operations worldwide.
2. Creating real experiences of virtual events
Being away from the normal aspects of life which existed before the pandemic, people longed to get back into the mass or be in the presence of other human beings at least. With physical contact being restricted, the only way was to adapt to virtual events.
Hotel technologies were widely used for virtual events to be held which also helped in promotions of hotels that were still striving to stay afloat in the market.
3. Social Media – the only open-source of socialization
Individuals resorted to social media as one of the means of recreation. Surprisingly, the hotels have also adapted to it. Unknowingly it became vital for hotels to reach customers and tell them how they were adapting to the post-COVID situations. Promoting and marketing on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram increased on a large scale.
4. Mobile friendly to reach everyone everywhere
After the ubiquitous influence of work-from-home, the only device individuals never let go of their hands was and still is their smartphone. Hoteliers turned to hotel technology and went for mobile-friendly apps and websites. This is turn, allowed them to be present in the sights of potential customers by being available on all platforms and all screen sizes.
5. Sharing their stories in the form of blogs
Letting customers know about how they were adapting to the restrictive ways and yet trying to bring out the best of the situation was a crucial part. By writing blogs, hotels not only allowed customers to become aware that they were opening up in new forms but also made customers feel safe assuring them of how they are following COVID protocols and keeping the property sanitized and safe for them to visit.
6. Free bookings and cancellations
With unpredictable lockdown situations, customers were living in constant fear of not being able to go on that long-awaited trip they had planned for. The customers were in a constant dilemma about what if they could not go on the trip and loose the booking money. But hotels did not disappoint their customers by offering free cancellations for bookings.
Conclusion
With freedom becoming the new luxury, there is no doubt; the hospitality industry is going to get bigger & better with time. Though it will take a while to bounce back to pre-covid situations, it is very important for hotels to remain updated with the newest technologies and be ahead of the game.
Contact Us to know more about smart hotel technology. We can help you reach out to more guests to gain a bigger share of the online bookings and revenue.
