2021 is a year full of expectations. While navigating through the uncertainty and hardships of 2020, we have all looked at the new year with hope; hope that things will get better, that our industry will recover, that we will go back to normal, or a slightly different version of it.
The truth is, the situation across the world is still far from ideal and recovery is taking longer than any of us anticipated. Last year we focused on simply surviving, but this year we can shift our efforts towards recovering and rebuilding from the ground up. The journey ahead is still long and uncertain but it is through shared knowledge and collaboration that we can support each other and recover in a healthy, consistent way.
At TrustYou, we launched The Recovery Race in 2020 as a way of gathering insightful resources, data, and advice for the hotel industry. As part of our exclusive campaign, TrustYou experts from different areas provided unique insights into the current state of the industry, as well as their own take on what will contribute to the overall recovery.
We extracted their most valuable advice and summarized them in the following guidelines and recommendations, that we hope will shed some light over the 2021 path:
Focus on guest feedback – what do your guests want?
Our VP of Marketing’s advice is not to lose track of guest feedback. On the contrary, Valerie thinks that this is the best time to actively focus on what your guests are saying, what they want, what they need, and what they expect from their stay. Valerie says that every hotel business should be able to make smart decisions based on guest feedback and adjust where improvements are needed, as well as leverage the positive feedback to promote the hotel to future guests.
Start with the guest experience and build from there
On a similar Note, Afaan, our Senior BI Data Analyst, thinks that recovery depends on our ability to adapt and adjust in a timely manner. With everything changing at such a fast-pace, industry workers need to be flexible and build from the guest experience up. Affan thinks that it’s absolutely vital now to understand what guests want and more importantly, what they need, in order to provide them with a safe and satisfactory experience. This is why thoroughly analyzing guest feedback is one of the best recovery strategies out there.
Put yourself in your guests’ shoes
If there was ever a time to be more empathetic, this is it. TrustYou’s Senior Product Manager, Lorena, thinks that the best strategy right now is for hoteliers to put themselves into their guests’ shows and try to really understand their concerns and needs. This shouldn’t be hard, she says, because they are the same concerns and needs that we all have, as travelers in the pandemic scene. Despite the difficult times that we are facing, the one good outcome is that we are all on the same page: we all need to know that we are safe during our travels, that our voices are heard, and our wellbeing is prioritized.
Don’t wait for better times – take action now
As our Senior Client Success Manager, Vanessa is closely working with our large portfolio of clients and she understands their exact struggle during the pandemic months. She thinks that, while the easiest thing to do right now is to wait for the storm to pass, it’s the actions that are taken especially during the heavy rain that define a businesses’ recovery and set it apart from its competitors. Vanessa thinks that hoteliers who take this downtime to plan, improve, and understand their performance and position on the market, are the ones who will ultimately come on top.
Read, learn, and focus on the human side of the business
Finally, as a Marketing Manager, Laura closely follows the industry’s trajectory, as well as the trends that emerge along the way. Her advice for hoteliers is to keep a close eye on what’s going on because change is inevitable and knowledge in these uncertain times is crucial. You need to understand where you’re standing in order to know where you’re going. Also, while it’s natural to focus on making up for the financial hit taken during this time, make sure not to lose sight of the human side of the business. After all, hospitality is such a people-centric industry and only communication, engagement, and trust will help us get through this.
Make sure to check out our Expert Talks to hear more about our take on the hospitality industry’s recovery and the best ways to achieve it in a healthy way.
Also, join The Recovery Race to have access to more free insights, resources, and advice from the number one guest experience platform! You can request a demo at any time, to learn the ins and outs of our award-winning feedback platform.