Summary A short section that introduces the principle issues, outlines the conclusions from analyses, and details the main recommendations. 10% (approx. 100 words)
Consumer Analysis Provide a critical consumer analysis using Cognitive Behavioral concepts and theories and independent academic literature research of why and how customers behave as they currently do. 40% (approx. 1000 words)
Marketing Plan & Implications Present your proposed solution that states a resolution or opportunity justified by CB theories and concepts. Also, provide critical projections of how consumer behavior will change after the implementation. 40% (approx. 1000 words)
Marketing Implications, Budgeting, and Limitations Provide critical analysis of the marketing strategy issues and problems with the implementation of the proposal and include other supporting information (e.g., budget, implementation plan, evaluation plan, etc.)
Industry Analysis: ( brief description about the hotel industry / lodging industry and covid problems).
The hotel industry is subdivision of the hospitality industry that specializes in providing customers with lodging services. There is a variety of hotel types which can be categorized through the well-known star rating. revenue is measured through these three 3 factors which include revenue per available room (RevPAR), average daily rate (ADR), and occupancy rates all of which have seen growth over the past decade. A broad variety of facilities and services are provided by the hospitality industry, such as hotels, restaurants, dining services, and conference centers. Hotels, motels, resorts, and bed and breakfasts are part of the lodging industry.
As travel restrictions and lockdown measures spread across the globe, Critical global responses to control the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic have included travel restrictions, and social distancing orders. Most countries around the world have imposed partial or complete border closures, with travel bans affecting most of the world’s population. With millions suddenly unemployed, uncertainty over economic recovery, and global fears of continuing COVID-19 spread and its future waves, the hospitality industry was among the first industries affected, and it will be among the last industries to recover.
Strategies to flatten the COVID-19 curve such as community lockdowns, social distancing, stay-at-home orders, travel and mobility restrictions have resulted in temporary closure of many hospitality businesses and significantly decreased the demand for businesses that were allowed to continue to operate (Bartik et al., 2020). Restrictions placed on travel and stay-at-home orders issued by the authorities led to sharp decline in hotel occupancies and revenues.
While the hospitality industry is slowly recovering, the COVID-19 crisis continues to exert profound impacts on how hospitality businesses operate. Hospitality businesses are expected to make substantial changes to their operations in the COVID-19 business environment in order to ensure employees’ and customers’ health and safety, and enhance customers’ willingness to patronize their business (Gössling et al., 2020).
With the implementation of travel restrictions to curb the spread of the disease, international and domestic tourism came to a halt. It was estimated that the global revenue of the travel and tourism industry would drop by 17 percent in 2020. In particular, the impact of the coronavirus on the lodging industry has been severe. Monthly hotel revenue per available room worldwide severely dropped across all regions, as did average daily rates and occupancy.
the survival of many hospitality businesses heavily depends on increasing the demand for their services and products. Thus, figuring out what will make customers return is essential and this requires intensive research efforts. The industry and the academia are in urgent need of behavioral and operational hospitality marketing and management research to guide the hospitality operations in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.
It is thus essential for hoteliers to address changes in consumer demand following the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic and restore travelers’ confidence. As the COVID-19 crisis is likely to have unprecedented effects on hotels around the world, researchers should work to strengthen theory and knowledge in this crucial hospitality sector to help hotels become more resilient and achieve effective post disaster recovery.
These days, consumers are more aware than ever of the importance of planetary and personal health. As a result, larger trends that were already reshaping the accommodation industry have been further cemented as a result of the pandemic. Some of the current trends resulting from the pandemic are contactless technology, high hygiene standards, and increased domestic travel or “staycations”.
Consumer analysis: ( 900 words)
There are two main types of hotel goers
- Leisure Travelers:
This category consists of travelers going on a vacation from work or everyday life, during vacation they aim to relax and experience new cultures and locations, Global leisure tourism spending reached 4715 billion dollars in 2019.
Leisure travelers want a safe and secure hotel. Families with children are attracted to hotels with special programs, such as those where kids stay free in the same room as the parents, eat free in the hotel’s restaurant or receive a special amenity package of toys and treats. Some hotels go as far as providing supervised activities for children while the parents participate in sports, go shopping or lounge at the pool. The price range for these customers goes from budget friendly to upscale.
Leisure travel, in contrast, is characterized by
leisure experiences which, as described above,
may be recreational, creative, or a combination.
Leisure travel, in contrast, is characterized by
leisure experiences which, as described above,
may be recreational, creative, or a combination.
Leisure travel, in contrast, is characterized by
leisure experiences which, as described above,
may be recreational, creative, or a combination.
Leisure travel, in contrast, is characterized by
leisure experiences which, as described above,
may be recreational, creative, or a combination.
- Business Travelers:
Businesspeople travel for a variety of reasons — to attend sales meetings, give presentations, organize events and meet with other members of the company in different locations. The business traveler is conscious of price, but more concerned with a convenient location, ease of access and business-related amenities. Hotels that rely on business travelers have the highest occupancy during the weekdays.
The experiences of business travelers are focused
on the agenda of the meetings they have traveled
to attend and/or the business-related phenomena
they have traveled to observe or interact with.
The experiences of business travelers are focused
on the agenda of the meetings they have traveled
to attend and/or the business-related phenomena
they have traveled to observe or interact with.
In the context of COVID-19 and the progressively disaster-prone world, the hospitality industry must develop a framework for understanding and implementing disaster management strategies (Chan et al., 2019).
Around 18% of the customers will only feel comfortable to travel to a destination and stay at a hotel when that destination has very few COVID-19 cases and could test, trace, and isolate COVID-19 cases.
Marketing solutions and implementations: ( 900 words )
1- Loyalty programs:
One method to boost Partnering with credit card companies and other third-party vendors for guests to earn loyalty points for spends toward status and other attractive perks. This encourages people to spend their points.
Discounts for vaccinated people:
Despite being recognized as one of the most successful public health measures, vaccination is perceived as unsafe and unnecessary by a growing number of individuals. Lack of confidence in vaccines is now considered a threat to the success of vaccination programs. Vaccine hesitancy is believed to be responsible for decreasing vaccine coverage and an increasing risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks and epidemics.
In efforts to promote the vaccine, hotels could collaborate with the government and offer discounts or attractive offers to those who received the vaccine.
2- Staycation:
A Renewed Focus on Local Customers
Many hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes and other hospitality industry businesses primarily appeal to international customers through their marketing efforts. However, with COVID reducing international travel, one of the biggest hospitality marketing trends involves placing a renewed focus on local custom instead.
This may mean prioritising the kind of facilities that will appeal to local residents, such as saunas, gyms, massage services and food delivery. Some companies in the industry are having success through offering food delivery as an experience, combining well-presented food with add-ons, such as candles, music playlists or other freebies.
Cafes, hotels and similar businesses may also be able to appeal on the basis of offering wi-fi for remote work
For the short term, many beach hotels and resorts have offered ‘’staycation’’/ “daycation” deals and discounts to entice foot traffic. As hotels reopen, aggressive room rates to achieve high occupancy coupled with an increased supply of hotels in the region could negatively impact profitability and diminish owners’ returns given that the purchasing power of tourists is likely to remain bleak. For hotels, hygiene and safety are critical factors in generating future demand. This will likely increase health and safety spend; however, hoteliers cannot compromise on these costs for sustaining their business. These factors are a key consideration whilst budgeting and forecasting going forward.
We have all seen hotel rooms turned into work-from-home spaces and even private dining rooms. Patios, lawns, poolside decks, and parking lots have become al fresco restaurants. The changes may be viewed as temporary, but will the need occur again? We know that hotels and restaurants are responding in the short term, but how is the situation affecting future plans, renovations, furnishings, and new hotel design?
3- Hygiene and cleanliness
The importance of hotel cleanliness and hygiene has become particularly salient as of late because COVID-19 can be spread by touching surfaces contaminated with the virus (WHO, 2020b).
After the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, the Korean hotel industry installed new hygiene equipment and offered employees education programs concerning health awareness (Kim et al., 2005).
Additionally, as a higher level of cleanliness may require investments in technology, equipment and resources, future studies should also consider to what extent different types of hotels should improve their sanitization practices. The notion of hygiene can extend beyond sanitization to encompass broader aspects of health care. Customers are likely to become more concerned about general health-care access when planning trips following the COVID-19 pandemic, such as how to seek medical care if they fall ill. On a personal level, guests tend to prioritize their health and hygiene, such as through a healthy diet and sleep hygiene, as lines of defense against diseases. Hotel-centric health-care considerations are thus discussed in the following section.
While preliminary findings indicate that visible sanitizing efforts (such as hand sanitizers at the entry, staff wearing masks and gloves), implementing social distancing, limiting the number of customers served, more rigorous and frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces in common areas, and employee training of health and safety protocols are the most important safety precautions customers expect from a restaurant and a hotel (Gursoy et al., 2020),
Second, hygiene and cleanliness are essential to successful hotel operations and have garnered increased attention after public health crises such as the 2003 SARS outbreak (Kim et al., 2005). Specifically, hygiene and cleanliness have been widely discussed in terms of the hotel industry recovery (Chien and Law, 2003; Henderson and Ng, 2004; Lo et al., 2006). Studies show that customers are influenced by hygiene and cleanliness conditions when making purchase decisions in a service environment.
Exceptional hygiene standards, contactless service, and enough space for social distancing have become essential requirements to those seeking overnight accommodation. Businesses have had to adapt quickly to these changing trends in order to survive. Many accommodation services are still struggling in the face of travel restrictions but, as more consumers turn to local travel, this may yet improve.
Conclusion
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019, industries have been plagued by uncertainties, and this scenario is especially evident in the tourism and hospitality industry. Hotels are still struggling to keep their doors open and are unable to rehire all their staff, let alone make mortgage payments, due to the historic drop in travel demand. In fact, 82% say they have been unable to obtain additional debt relief from their lenders beyond the end of this year. More than half of respondents (59%) said they are in danger of foreclosure on their hotel(s).
The global panic associated with COVID-19 may have enduring consequences on travel. Effective strategies are necessitated to boost travelers’ confidence and to help businesses recover in a timely manner after this public health crisis. The hotel industry’s resilience and sustainability can be solidified by addressing diverse consumption needs and taking steps to transform adversity into opportunity.
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