How to prepare for reopening your Hotel. (Part 1)
As the world is feeling the relief, travel is on their mind. The past months, year people have being staying home or in their own country as travel was impossible. As vaccinations are on their way, Covid cases are dropping, people starting to dream and plan their holidays,
Revenue, sales, and marketing
The first wave of post-pandemic travel may come across as a giant battle for market share, but don’t let that distract you from the fundamental need to pursue profitability. Even though a full recovery won’t happen overnight, it’s still critical to maintain a close eye on the interplay between revenue, sales, and marketing. The end of the pandemic will test these collaborative relationships, as these three important teams must work together to align individual tactics with broader strategies.
After a year of low-to-no revenues, it’s a battle for bookings, break-evens, and profits. To unite towards this common goal, revenue strategy, sales outreach, and marketing offers should work together to optimize revenue across your entire operation.
Plan a reopening kick off and frequent coordination
Each department’s priorities should be complementary so the rush for market share doesn’t damage pricing power long-term. To avoid siloed departments cannibalizing each other’s revenues, take special care to re-establish effective communication with a kickoff meeting to define strategy and align tactics.
Committing to more frequent communication is also advisable. With revenue setting prices, marketing launching campaigns, and sales fielding RFPs, silos will lead to suboptimal revenues. Marketing needs to know what revenue is doing (and vice versa) to ensure that strategies are in sync, while sales may be under pressure to begin generating inbound group interest.
MAP YOUR SEGMENTS
Think of your road to recovery like a map: some segments will likely return first, so you want to identify and target those audiences within your shared reopening strategy. This ensures each team can adjust tactics accordingly. As you consider which of these segments to target first, look at your data. You can then test different audience/offer matchups to pursue the most promising segments first.
REINTRODUCE YOURSELF
With the onset of the pandemic, group travel disappeared, corporate travel slowed, and hospitality staff were furloughed. It may be an understatement, but reestablishing these relationships will require a bit of a jumpstart.
Marketing may also need to reengage loyalty members with a cohesive marketing campaign. It’s almost like we’ve all lost our collective travel memory, and need a reminder about the brands we used to love. That said, there’s a considerable market share opportunity. Marketing should be aggressive in reaching out to new segments that may not have typically been frequent guests.
MAINTAIN (AND REFINE) MESSAGING
There’s a permanent shift in expectations around health and safety. To give your guests the confidence to book, continue messaging about your cleaning protocols and how you are taking care of both guests and staff. Even as the pandemic subsides, you’ll want guests to be confident in your property’s sanitation processes. Moving forward, savvy travelers will prioritize health and wellness, so promoting that message can make all the difference.
As far as customer messaging touch points, ensure you are clearly displaying copy about current protocols on your website, in booking details, on your social media profiles, and in periodic updates online. You want to maintain a high level of focus on cleanliness in a visible way for the foreseeable future.
To target the types of “pandemic relief” travel that’s likely to occur this summer, home in on family reunions, visits with friends, and bucket list adventures. Themes of “refresh, rejuvenate, reset, restart” will be especially poignant, so put those appealing spa packages front and center!
Weary travelers are relishing the opportunity for some “me time.” Active adventures will also be popular. After being cooped up inside for a year, travelers will be looking for fun ways to get outside, enjoy nature, and experience once-in-a-lifetime adventures.
Find ways to highlight these themes in your reopening marketing campaigns to appeal to these core travel desires.
Next step preparing your operations…..
source: cendyn.com
