City hotels are far from dead. They are simply needing to transform their offer to include more innovative and community-inspired activities, ventures and items to address the changing needs of their clientele.
NB: This is a post from EHL Insights
In spite of many hazards, with crises also come new opportunities. While many hotels had already begun their digital revolution and were thinking about innovative and innovative organization methods, the pandemic has turned this will to become a genuine must.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter and stay up to date
Thereby, the pandemic deals a capacity for hotels to reorganize their method by, for instance, booking areas for hybrid reunions or momentary working spaces, and offering customized products and services in line with their clients brand-new requirements. Even though hotels did as much as they could to adjust to this specific scenario, they remain highly competitive with short-term leasings or serviced-apartments enabling more privacy, personal kitchens, bigger areas, socially distancing capability and a cleaner environment. Additionally, everyone straight or indirectly involved in the sector agrees that after the pandemic, the level of what is called business tourist will not return to how it used to be and will take years to recover.
Finding methods to much better generate income from and commercialize different offers is compulsory, as clients habits have actually developed and now consist of non-room services and products such as eating in a dining establishment, drinking at a bar, benefitting from check outs, bundles and activities. This change of habits does not just regard customers, but the requirements of each person. People have actually adjusted to brand-new ways of working, and concepts such as online shopping, catering services or take-out and shipment by hotels, restaurants, or even supermarket have actually become the standard.
As Accenture rightfully points it in its report, the entire travel industry has been restructured by the pandemic, with a brand-new type of demand caused by the generalization of teleworking. As a result, services worldwide have recognized that a non-negligible number of meetings may actually happen essentially, conserving them significant costs and time. Even though in person encounters will remain as important, they will know a following drop that may be filled by leisure travel. Nevertheless, it needs to be remembered that the gap in company clients developed by Covid-19 will not quickly be filled, as the marketplace will be even more competitive. To sum it up utilizing the words of Accenture, ” All players in the market are now contending for a bigger slice of a smaller sized pie”. It is even more vital for business hotels to stay imaginative and quickly implement techniques that will draw in brand-new clients and satisfy old clients new requirements.
Innotour task: The Future of City Hotels in Switzerland
The EHL Institute of Customer Experience Management is presently associated with the task funded by Innotour “The Future of City Hotels in Switzerland” which unites experts and academics from the tourist market in Western Switzerland (Association Romande des Hôteliers (ARH), Geneva Tourism and the Institute of Tourism at HES-SO Valais-Wallis) to establish potential survival strategies for the tourism and hospitality sector.
The very first stage of the job was to issue a survey to hoteliers in Swiss cities in order to get a first peek on how the market was impacted by Covid-19. The research study checked out the ways in which the hotel spaces released by the loss of customers could be reassigned or changed, and how hoteliers might reinvent their fundamental organization design to satisfy their clients needs and possibly target brand-new sort of customers. The 2nd stage of the project concentrated on creating concepts for the future of the city hotels by organizing a number of think tanks and an online contest. The third stage is ongoing and checking out in details the concepts created throughout stage II. A specific number of concepts will be chosen and focus groups will accompany hoteliers to develop together a way to implement those ideas. The next action will be to synthetize all the inputs, validate the ideas, and present them in a playbook that will accompany hoteliers in their shift.
To accompany city hotels that lost a majority of their (service) customers, an intersectoral and multisectoral technique is necessary. Uniting essential players from numerous backgrounds allows for a proficiency and knowledge both in theory and practice to efficiently reach the typical goals and objectives for the future of any market. A technique considering all elements of a company– sustainable, economically feasible and resilient for all stakeholders– will help put in place the very best brief- and long-lasting techniques to foster competitiveness by supporting hoteliers to reinvent their service designs towards the generation of brand-new avenues of appearance and profits. The task might promote innovation for company hotels in the urban context not only for the whole Swiss touristic sector, however also internationally, as the market has been similarly affected worldwide.
Check out rest of the article at EHL Insights
The research looked into the ways in which the hotel spaces freed by the loss of customers could be reassigned or transformed, and how hoteliers could transform their basic organization model to satisfy their clients needs and potentially target new kinds of consumers.
To accompany city hotels that lost a majority of their (business) clients, an intersectoral and multisectoral approach is required. The project might foster development for organization hotels in the urban context not only for the whole Swiss touristic sector, however also worldwide, as the industry has been similarly affected worldwide.
Thus, the pandemic deals a capacity for hotels to restructure their strategy by, for example, scheduling locations for hybrid reunions or momentary working areas, and offering personalized items and services in line with their customers new needs. It is even more important for business hotels to stay imaginative and quickly implement strategies that will attract new customers and fulfill old clients brand-new needs.
