As we endure coronavirus, it is no shock that the hospitality industry is suffering. The CDC is highly encouraging travelers to delay or cancel nonessential trips. With a huge drop in travel, there has been a large decline in hotel bookings as well. It is said that this novel pandemic has already had a more severe economic impact on the hotel industry than the September 11th terrorist attacks and the Great Recession combined.
With much worry from the industry and from guests, your hotel team holds an important role in keeping everyone feeling safe.
As we all navigate through this difficult time, make sure your hotel is taking the necessary steps to remain prepared:
Stay Up To Date
There are endless resources to stay updated on the status of coronavirus. With so much changing every day, it is essential to stay on top of the latest news. Organize a team of people on your staff that will serve as a communication source for other employees and guests. Having accurate information during this crisis is crucial in order to decide what your next steps will be. Guests will appreciate your team’s willingness to keep them safe and informed.
Get In Touch With Your Suppliers
Make sure your hotel has everything it needs to support the health and wellbeing of your team and guests. From extra cleaning supplies to everyday items such as key cards, it is better to stock up then run out before receiving another shipment. Get in touch with us. Whether you are a new customer or you have done business with us for years, know that our team is here for you. We will support you in any way we can. We have added a warehousing program in order to help ease cash flow issues, while allowing the price breaks with normal order quantities.
Be Creative With Your Services
If your regulars are not booking, give them something to get excited about. Offer gift cards or certificates for all of your hotel’s great amenities. Guests can treat themselves or a loved one to a much-needed spa day, or a fancy dinner at your best restaurant. When this pandemic slows down, people will be craving this type of enjoyment. Our team can provide your hotel with plastic magstripe gift cards that mimic the design of key cards. We also offer a less expensive option through gift certificates. Work with our graphic artists to create a special look for your hotel.
“It’s not that purchasing gift cards is going to save a restaurant outright from permanent closure, says Ralph Brennan of the famed Brennan’s in New Orleans, but combined with other support, it can offer a certain amount of liquidity, mostly for small neighborhood restaurants. Having shepherded his restaurants through Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Brennan is familiar with having to rebuild operations, but he sees the uncertainty of the current climate as daunting, even with community support.” Read more here.
Preparation is key to mitigating potential loss. While we don’t know how long this pandemic will last, we can control how we react.
In order to keep our team healthy and safe, we have taken precautions, and all team members that are not needed in producing or warehousing activities are working from home. Further, we have built additional redundancy in our supply network. Although we have not experienced any significant delays in our supply chain, we will continue to monitor changes and will utilize alternate vendors if needed to ensure we can hold to our normal lead times. We are in close contact with our shipping partners and will advise our customers of any widespread issues affecting delivery.
We know that this is a time of change and uncertainty, so we encourage you to reach out to us at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns about us, our team, or our products.
