Crisis Management: Preparing Your hospitality and travel for Coronavirus (COVID-19)

How Coronavirus has impacted hotel and travel industry?

Just a week before, the World Health Organization declared Coronavirus as a pandemic, and it first showed its sign in December 2019. Initial indications started showing when Chinese travelers started visiting the traditional tourist destinations.





Impact of Coronavirus Outbreaks on Hotels:





As the number of confirmed cases continue to rise, governments and various companies all over the world are taking the necessary steps to address the epidemic.





The impact has already been felt in cities where the epidemic has struck first, it has been affecting an array of businesses and their different verticals from hospitality, to cruise, to air, and even tour operators. Something positive for all the people who are reading this is that the publication by the European Commission of a communication has proposed a coordinated economic response to the COVID-19 as it is a very difficult period for not just one country’s economy but the global economy.bal economy.







The communication that they have come up outlines the commission’s immediate response to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. They have recognized that these days the most affected sectors are tourism, health, transport, especially the airline industry.





Covid 19 Impact on Hotel Industry:





The situation has become so momentous that the travel agents and tour operators (who are a central part of the tourism value chain) are facing a lot of pressure from all sides. They have paid and even booked travel services for all of their customers and have made full or part payments. However, due to the virus, many travelers are canceling their trips and want refunds that cancel out the possibility of travel agents getting their money back from the service suppliers.





One might think that all of this is limited to just China and Southeast Asia but it is increasingly spreading across the globe according to research done by RateGain. In an in depth research about the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry that showcased that the room revenue trend (for all the booking made in the month for the same month) is facing a steep decline with a 16% month over the month of Jan-Feb 2020 and by over 9% for any date in the upcoming 12 months.





These finding were made keeping in mind the bookings processed by RateGain in over 90 countries with more than 50 hotel properties between 1st January 2020 to February 29th, 2020 which confirms the fact that while booking trends in the last few weeks has decreased, although the number of cancellation has also increased globally by 53% year-over-year.





Not just that but RateGain ( travel technology company ) is helping over 13,000 brands that come under travel and hospitality, including 25 out of the top 30 OTAs, leading airlines, 23 of the top 30 hotel chains, largest tour operators, and all the top car rental brands.





RateGain's easy to deploy and AI-powered solutions are crucial assets for any travel brand that wants to prepare themselves for any kind of challenges and identify new opportunities for revenue generation





Some of the tips and suggestions to support your business are:





● Create a prevention plan- Make a prevention plan that consists of protecting your employees and guests while on the property as this will provide a breather to the potential guests and help ensure a safe and positive experience at your property.





● Make sure to provide training to all of your employees about the prevention plan and the communication- Once you have a full-fledged prevention plan, right after that make sure you make your employees aware of them by training them so that everyone is on the same page. They should know how to communicate with the guests and across all the social media channels.





● Provide reassurance to the existing and potential guests- With more and more people becoming reluctant to travel as Coronavirus continues to spread, it is of paramount importance for your hotel or airlines to address the fact that you have a prevention plan across all the channels such as website, social media, and email.





● Employ analytics driven software to manage your channels effectively, take necessary steps to offset the drop in bookings from international OTAs and discover new demand channels