Hospitality: what to expect from the second half of 2020?

Before writing this article, I had contact with the leading global CEOs of the hospitality industry about the current situation we are experiencing. Undoubtedly it is one of the most challenging moments that hospitality has ever passed and crucial to its survival.

It is a very complex situation and it has no ready formula and we do not learn in the banks of the college or the MBAs. It requires many difficult decisions to make in companies. What everyone emphasizes in their statements is that we must continue with positive thinking, maintain confidence, because, however difficult this situation presents itself, it will pass.

These world executive giants encourage all of us to continue dedicating ourselves in an engaged way and emphasize to respect what the World Health Organization (WHO) has put to all of us (masks, social distancing, hygiene protocol in general).

In place of predatory competition,

At this time, it is important to recognize that we are a great family in hospitality and together we are even better. Competition is part of the market, but it is increasingly urgent to lower the walls that separate us and build bridges. What Coronavirus is probably showing us is that we’re nobody without the other.

And that means recognizing that your hotel only exists because of that resort, since each client is unique, has their own needs and it is he who will seek the hotel chain. Although we, as competitors, always claim to “pluck” customer from the hotel considered our “enemy”.

Coronavirus came to bring down all these concepts of the industrial, capitalist, wild and predatory era. I have been very insistent that we need to form a global hotel network for the exchange of information and learning. It’s the new normal for the business world.

There are no right answers

Another finding: be humble and recognize that no one has a right answer, except when the vaccine comes out, the tests and this takes time. Therefore, continue to be resilient, strong, patient and trust each other with the transparency that this moment requires.

We should worry at this point is about people’s health, maintain our connections and create others, always with empathy and respect. In everyday practice, the hospitality industry will find out what this new normal is and everything, in time, will settle in.

New customer experiences

What will be necessary, this is to deliver security to our guests, staff and community as a new value in hospitality, a sine qua non condition for the attractiveness of post-Covid customers. With this, it will be necessary to rethink and recreate new experiences for our client so that he feels welcomed, protected and can relax again and enjoy the leisure moments.

After you listen to these high-ranking executives from around the world, you can stop and analyze how serious it is to deliver a service delivery respecting all these future and mandatory rules in hotel operations.

What about the future?

I note that no one has concrete or effective answers as to what the future of hospitality will look like. The fact is that everything has already changed and will change even more in particular standards of hygiene and cleanliness. Many codes of conduct going forward will be developed in hotel environments.

Changes in various areas of the hotel

The way in which food and beverage management is managed (A&B), for example, should provide new forms of experiences with guests with total care and especially avoiding human contact as much as possible. Possibly the restaurants should be restructured with fewer tables, larger rooms and options to work, live, eat inside these more private spaces.

Remember, in the guest’s eyes, having breakfast, lunch or dinner in the room was considered a luxury? It costs even more expensive due to exclusivity. Isn’t it time for you, as a hotel manager, to seek a customized solution and at the same time convey this perception that the guest is cared for, supported and receives all the zeal on the part of the hotel?

The meal may even be system “PF” and with few options, but receiving from the hands of a waiter this food will surely be a new experience for him. Think about it and other ways to reinvent yourself in the small details, in what can generate a new experience, a new look.

Voice command technologies

Transiting within a hotel operation is not an easy task for management to be able to see absolutely everything that must be changed, changed. I believe that many equipment should be removed or replaced to avoid contact. What I can visualize in terms of technology, for example, would be tools by voice command, which would thus avoid direct contact with the machine. Of course they are future investments and they must respect the pocket of each company.

The area of operation in general will have less and less direct contact with the guest, at least at this time when COVID-19 is present in all environments.

In my view, there will be less interaction of the employee of the operation, especially governance and services in general, limiting this contact for safety and health reasons.

Restructuring of internal structures

With this new scenario, there could be a major transformation of the structures of the rooms in the hotels. I believe that the new projects will already be transformed seeking to deliver a structure very different from the current ones.

Architects and designers will have to design differently in hotel operations, valuing larger spaces, thinking especially about the social distancing. Customers may want to enjoy SPA and Fitness in their rooms and no longer in environments loaded with many people, demanding new architectural projects.

Sustainability will be a value for the guest

I also see many opportunities in sustainability situations always focused on the preservation of the environment. In this sense, guests in my opinion will seek hotels with this concept of union of sustainable design, nature, health and well-being.

The hotel industry will return, will recover very slowly and gradually, but who will stand out in the face of all this will be those operations that present hygiene and safety care. Every day I talk to a lot of people, whether hoteliers, suppliers, customers and everyone, without exception, expect hotel operations to offer an even cleaner and safer environment especially for guests who have chosen to stay in their hotel development.

It is no longer the “new normal” that is seen, but effective changes in the aspect of the behaviors of human relations. This will require the adaptation of the hotel sector to the way people interact with each other, use the leisure apparatus of the hotel and even in the area of events and conventions. For these changes, only time will tell how human beings will adapt, but what is certain is that, thanks to the history of our evolution, we are flexible to overcome ourselves and overcome this moment.