In the wake of the COVID-19 situation, hoteliers and tourism operators are facing challenging times. Falling under more pressure, hotels are looking for ways to respond quickly in this unpredictable situation… but what courses of action can hoteliers take?
With this question in mind, we recently hosted a webinar specifically for hoteliers in the APAC region where Fiona Gillen and Ivan Cintado from The Hotels Network were joined by Kim Ong and Oliver Shih from D-EDGE. During the one hour session, they discussed current dynamics in the hospitality industry in Asia Pacific along with ideas and tactics hoteliers can employ during this time to optimize their direct booking channel and be prepared to bounce back once demand starts to return.
Ultimately with a full path of recovery in mind, many hotel brands are using this downtime to review their strategic marketing plan, including their direct booking strategy. It’s no time to sit back and see how things unwind. Even if some properties may have closed doors today, your website is still your hotel shop window and offers opportunities that should not be missed. And from what hoteliers in APAC said in our live webinar polls, they know too that it’s time to take action.
71% of the APAC webinar attendees said that in light of the COVID-19 crisis, moving forward their hotel brand would give more focus to their direct booking strategy. In times of low-demand, hotels are inclined to concentrate on their most cost-effective booking channels so it’s not surprising that so many are planning to give more importance to their direct booking channel where there is an opportunity to achieve lower customer acquisition costs compared to third-party bookings.
During the webinar, we also asked listeners what actions they have taken on their hotel website during the COVID-19 crisis. It was great to hear that so many hoteliers are being proactive, with only 9% saying they had not made any specific changes to their website. With flexibility so critical to reassuring guests in these uncertain times, a resounding 86% said that they were already promoting flexible rates and cancellation policies on their website. 63% were communicating regular updates about the COVID-19 situation and 44% were promoting special deals and packages. Although 34% felt the need to discount rates, it’s reassuring to hear that not everyone has gone down this road because an aggressive pricing strategy could make it even more difficult for hotels to recover in the long run.
Did you miss the APAC webinar? Don’t worry, check out the discussion by watching the full webinar here. We are also running a series of webinars for local markets around the world – find more details and register here.