Among all kinds of real estate, hotels and related retail businesses have seen the most disruption due to the pandemic. Neither families nor corporate companies had enough budget to spare on trips and tourism. This led to the hospitality and hotel industry taking a significant hit, with many hotels being closed down for business for months.
According to USA Today reports, even big hotel tycoons like Marriott had more than 25% of their hotels closed worldwide due to the pandemic. This definitely had short-term impacts like loss of jobs and lack of business, and massive loss of money. But these trends and the pandemic had many long-lasting effects too. What were they, and how can better asset management help get through this crisis?
Are you a hotel real estate owner or property manager who is still feeling the grilling effects of the pandemic? Is your business still suffering from the two years of the pandemic even when the COVID cases are going down? Well, you are not alone. The pandemic has left some significant impacts on the hotel industry, but they are not unbeatable.
Find out how you can steer through this problem and become more assertive on the other side of the pandemic.
Impact of COVID-19 on the hotel industry
According to the reports by the US Travel Association, travel expenses were reduced by 42% from 2019 to 2020. That was more than a $500 million loss in business for the hospitality industry. International and corporate stays in hotels suffered the most among these.
But the reports in 2022 look much better. Travel expenses in 2022 have increased by 3% over the 2019 yearly spending, which is a major and positive change after the two years of the pandemic. According to NRP research reports, 2020 was one of the worst years for American hotels. They saw only 44% occupancy till the year-end. This led to a lot of job loss, and many hotels closed doors permanently. The picture looked quite grim for the hotel real estate owners due to this steep fall in business.
Post-pandemic hotel real estate trends
Though the situations were challenging, the pandemic gave rise to many trends in the hotel real estate market and hospitality industry in general. Check them out.
Discounted sales are rising; this includes package deals and long-stay options to attract more customers and let businesses get back some of their money. Many hotels are giving such offers to stay afloat and not permanently close doors.
Virtual customer experience is on the rise. This includes virtual room tours and self-check-in facilities for customers to promote social distancing norms.
Sustainable real estate in the hotel industry is becoming more critical than ever. From energy-efficient projects to health and wellness tours are some of the demands customers have had from tourism ever since the pandemic.
Technology implementation plans to help manage hotels and customer relations virtual project management. From installing the correct CRM software to connecting with customers to using AI-powered devices to upgrade customer services, hotels are going through a lot of changes.
Handling the post-pandemic situation
Recovering from the two years of the negative impacts of the pandemic is not an overnight task. It needs careful strategy and leadership planning, and impeccable management to get a hold over the situation. Here are the best ways you can handle it.
Asset management
The assets you already have has to be rethought and differently used to increase the optimization of resources. You can use AI-powered tools and data analytics to predict customer behaviors and buying patterns. You can also change your hotel renting policies to accommodate the workation crowd. This crowd demands leisure and formal work atmospheres at the same place.
Due to the increase of remote workers, the demand for workation spaces is also increasing. You can revamp your hotel spaces a little to make a workspace inside the hotels and cater to these crowds.
Impactful marketing
The present world of business is all about marketing, especially when it comes to hotels and tourism. You must strategize and market your hotels across social media and promote your USP. Give your customers real-life updates about the COVID safety policies and how you have changed your business to best suit the customers' needs.
Revamping guest and service experience
Followed by the marketing, you also need to make real changes in your hotel services to gain back customer loyalty. Following hygiene norms, social distancing, and staff vaccination are some of the essential things that are a must for hotels to stay in business. You can try to change the layout of your hotels to do this if your old setup does not allow social distancing practices.
Cash flow and financial management
Liquid cash management and stabilizing cash flow are one of the biggest things in the hotel industry to stabilize everyday workflow. Without a stable cash flow, the general financial conditions of the business suffer and disrupt business. You need to employ a proper accountant or integrate back office accounting software to streamline the process and never run out of in-hand cash.
Staff management
With the proper selection of technology in project management, you can easily handle staff management from remote locations. You can keep track of your staffs whereabouts, their sales reports, and their general performances and communicate with them via the software dashboard without constant physical contact.
Employing property and asset managers
If all of these new trends and the added work due to these trends seem a little overwhelming for you to handle, you can easily hire property managers and asset managers to take the load off your shoulders. If you do not have the budget to employ new people for these tasks you can also integrate software solutions into your existing systems to streamline the management process.
Make Asset Management Easier with Assetsoft
Though no predictions or market statistics are sure when the hotel business or its associated hotel real estate will return to its original “pre-pandemic” state. But do not let these new trends intimidate you; rethink your strategy and leadership to keep these trends working to your advantage.
At Assetsoft, we can help you integrate the right technology, plan project management in line with all these trends, and help your business soar. Talk to us soon to find out more about our services.