Many businesses around the world, including hotels, are currently in the middle of one of the biggest social experiments they’ve ever conducted — working from home. The majority of these offices may have never worked remotely before, especially in the hotel industry where so much work is done on-site. Read here to learn how to effectively communicate when working from home!

We spoke with hoteliers from around the world to share valuable insights and discuss the COVID-19 strategies that are being implemented in hotels. 

Hosted by Helen Skiba, a Key Account Manager at Hotelchamp. Joined by Ric van Holthe tot Echten, previously a Revenue Manager and a Commercial Manager for both independent and chain hotels, and now the owner of Revenue Guru, a revenue management and online marketing consulting company for hotels.

The past couple of weeks have been challenging in many ways. Uncertainty is ever-present in the hospitality sector and many questions are left unanswered. No wonder we tend to overlook how the current circumstances have made many brands more creative and also, stand strong together. Here are 5 ways hotels are showing solidarity during COVID-19:

1. Fleming’s Hotels: Solidarity in times of the coronavirus

Doctors, nurses and other members of the community play a crucial role in the fight against COVID-19.

Uncertainty is the word on everyone’s lips at the moment. While website traffic has taken a hit for hotels everywhere, there are still people coming to your website for a number of reasons.

Hoteliers, we recommend focussing your communication strategy around these three themes, so that website visitors can easily see what they’re looking for on your website:

Inform

Keep your website up-to-date with the latest COVID-19 measures your hotel is implementing.

Hotelchamp’s informative messaging through the roof — hotels are using website notifications to update their guests and potential guests about the Coronavirus

Busy times at Hotelchamp HQ, with many hotels wanting to use informative messaging on their website to keep their guests and potential guests up-to-date in regards to the Coronavirus. Since these updates can change every day, hotels are looking for an easy and flexible way to communicate the latest COVID-19 updates at the hotel.

A demand shock in the travel industry can come from many sources; a financial crisis, health crisis, or political crisis. And as the term suggests, they often can’t be predicted. The initial results can be devastating, and quickly hoteliers will try to reduce the negative impact of the lower demand. Still, while needing to make these decisions, hoteliers will be facing uncertainty and unknowns. We’ve taken a look at what’s happened in the past, and what hoteliers can learn from these previous demand shocks.

The Coronavirus is causing uncertainty in the travel industry. With many unknowns and travellers being more cautious, hotels are already experiencing the negative effects. The reluctance to travel has seen occupancy rates drop dramatically. When situations like this occur, it’s understandable that hoteliers feel the need to take drastic action, with many dropping rates to try and encourage travellers to book. However, this isn’t the only option.

We put together our top four points to consider during the current crisis:

1.

The news of the ITB Berlin 2020’s cancellation was a shock to the travel industry last Friday. As to be expected, the announcement hit many people hard, with thousands of people all around the world preparing to take part in one of the biggest global travel trade shows.

With over 10,000 exhibitors due to take part and over 100,000 trade visitors coming to Berlin, the ripple effect of the late cancellation will be felt throughout Berlin over the coming weeks.

Are “Bleisure” travellers an untapped opportunity for your hotel? Learn about Bleisure travellers, and whether there’s an opportunity for your venue.

What is a Bleisure traveller?

There’s a popular phrase that’s making the rounds that you might have heard: “Bleisure travellers”. Bleisure travellers are business travellers who have either combined or extended their trip for leisure purposes. Often meaning that they’ve added a couple of extra days for leisure at either the beginning or the end of their stay.

In October 2019, an important privacy law changed as an update to Europe’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). This change also effects every hotel website in Europe. The biggest change is that website visitors now have to actively give consent by ticking boxes – those boxes can not be pre-ticked anymore. 

What is the problem, you ask yourself? The problem is bigger than you might think. Research shows that on average only around 10% of visitors give active consent if you ask them to tick all 3 of the most common cookie boxes (Preferences,