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Megan Boley (2020). How hotels are giving back during COVID 19.
The article, “How hotels are giving back during covid-19″ by Megan Boley, published on 20th of May 2020, is editing weekly series that addresses how the hospitality industry is giving back during the pandemic. This article discusses how healthcare professionals have strengthened their relationship with event planners. The article also highlights the great idea of being the best hospitality partner to event planners. The author has also discussed how the hospitality industry has put measures in place in order to provide better services during the pandemic.
Hospitality is one of the industries that have been most affected by the coronavirus pandemic with most of the employees being laid off and eight out of ten rooms being empty. Countless hotels have been closed down and most employees are out of work. The author states that leisure travel will help the travel industry recover in no time. Hotels are generating revenue and gifting healthcare workers future vacations. The hospitality program has formed the “Buy one, Give One” program which is designed to provide revenue to healthcare workers as well as to show gratitude to these workers who have been working tirelessly during the pandemic. This program is also designed to offer collective response to the hospitality industry and provide funds to hotels. Consumers are ready for their next getaways because this program will enable them kick-start their decision to travel once again even with the restrictions. Guests were offered the privilege to visit websites for future travelling at discounted rates and being provided with incentives. A marketing company that specializes in tourism, travel and hospitality partnered to launch the effort. There are more than thirty hospitality brands and hotels participating in this program. The author lists some of the known five star hotels that are participants of the program. They include Clock tower Inn Ventura, Apple Vacations, Catskill Seasons Inn, Library hotel, Red Lions Hotel, The Hazelton Hotel, The Langham, and Travel Impressions among many others. These brands provide loyalty points, gift cards and room nights to healthcare organisations. Also, hoteliers are using beverage and food to create revenue, for marketing and for public relations. Restaurants are collaborating with local communities to offer delivery and carryout services. Hotels are also building strong connections with the local community by offering free delivery to customers in immediate locations. Running the food and beverage is a way of ensuring a smooth transition to more typical businesses. The author says that although it doesn’t bring so much economic benefit, it keeps the engine running so that when things get back to normal, the industry can be ahead of the curve. The Salish Lodge & Spa in Snoqualmie, Washington offers a grab and go cart in front of the hotel to enhance safe walking to the local people. Additionally, hoteliers using food and beverage are taking advantage of this opportunity by donating food to local charities and unemployed people. For example, the Hilton Colon Guayaquil donates to healthcare workers through a foundation while Salish Lodge & Spa donates to the Fare Start food bank in Seattle. The author states that if one considers doing something similar to a hotel, they have to consider if carrying out delivery and carryout services is doable. They have to put into consideration whether they can adapt service standards and the current menu items. The author emphasizes that one has to think of creative ways to revise the menu and having fun packages such as family gatherings, couple anniversary getaways, birthdays, date night dinners and others.
The author also discusses the great ideas of being the best hospitality partner to event planners. First, the venue should get certified for cleaning protocol. Most planners hesitate around cleanliness and safety. To assure planners that a venue is cleaned, investing time and resources has to be considered. Certification programs such as the one from Global Bio Risk Advisory Council help the industry to resume their normal events. This program has consulted the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to teach cleaning personnel how to prepare and respond to diseases and other hazards. Protocols for convention centres and hotels get regular update. Therefore, this program serves as a third wheel that the centres are implementing for the highest cleaning standards safe for events and guests. Having the Global Bio Risk Advisory council acts as an approval that a centre is subscribed to the highest standards for controlling the infectious disease. Number of hotels have signed into the program but it is predicted that more venues and industries will join the accreditation program in the coming days. This will earn the convention centres and hotels a major benefit against the others because they will attract more planners especially in the first stages of resuming to face to face events .Another way to being the best hospitality partner is by pivoting to virtual. Most planners are rescheduling their events to later in the year rather than moving them to 2021 according to North Star Meetings group poll. Also, event planners who are still working are booking events and sourcing while those who aren’t booking at the moment are researching for future events.
The author states that there are several tools that provide website integrations and video tours to connect with planners sourcing venues from homes. There are lists for hotels that offer virtual tours as well as how they are pivoting to partner with planners .Some of the tools that hotels are using to effectively work with planners to facilitate booking during this time include equipping venues with matter port 3D walkthroughs which go beyond photos and 360 degree video. With this walkthroughs, planners are able to know how spaces of venues will look in real life. The 3D space can be embedded right on websites to give planners the tour from Google search. These walkthroughs have potential to increase web engagement and bookings, in accordance to the matter port metrics. They can also help in the booking process by allowing planners to conveniently share their space and property with other planners. It is also a simple way to evaluate qualified leads without having to visit a site. Planners can easily tell if their property is right for the event, allowing them to estimate distance with a virtual tape measure. Another marketing tool that hoteliers can use to connect with planners is the realync virtual tours .This provides clients with virtual experience and help them interact with event spaces and properties. The Hotel at the University of Maryland launched this digital solution to provide their clients with experience and also enable them to interact with the event spaces and properties. Realync allows for creating pre-recorded videos on smartphones as well as customizing the voiceovers. As stated in the hypothesis, this technology can also be used for live video tours that can be done personally or integrated to a website. This tool also has an analytic dashboard to track how video contents perform and get information about people who are watching these videos.