Why now is the perfect moment to rebrand your hotel
It is time for a discussion about standpoint shift for hoteliers and similar accommodation providers
The Covid times have taken a whole lot from our lives, but they have also shed light on some new stuff as well. Many of us have been forced to rotate sharply from their standpoints.
This is challenging, even frightening, but also very welcome.
In this article, I discuss this standpoint shift for hoteliers and similar accommodation providers.
The new possibilities await around the corner once the pandemic finally gets under control, but how we’ll identify what is necessary to welcome the post-covid guest — the guest of tomorrow?
Choose the Covid times to rethink your business strategy
We might still be in lockdowns, in whichever country you are living in. If you manage a hotel or a holiday rental, you are probably not having almost any business. This is the perfect time to analyze your hotel organization’s current state, your usual services, and your venue’s activities and rooms’ layout. Finally, also the guest profile you cater to.
If you accept the thought that all these aspects of an operation are under question, then you might be open to some exciting brainstorming. So, let’s do some of it together right now.
To start, try out some simple questions: were you oriented to the sun and sea holidays, event and conference tourism, urban youth, or rural escape? All this sounds still acceptable, but it is all too general and way too uninteresting.
Even before the coronavirus outbreak, customers were less likely to choose their stay by these categories. Many people who start traveling again will want to see change at the place they visit. They will want to see a new mindset at the destination as well as the establishment.
A very good client of mine recently said: everybody has a bed to sleep in — but what else is there when he/she wakes up?
The change you want to show, and most importantly live, is the profound introspection of your organization’s processes and the rescaling of the priorities.
Prepare for the post-covid customer
What was your usual reply when somebody you know used to ask you what type of guests you usually have in your establishment? Were they mostly holidaymakers, families, seniors, couples? Think about your usual guest. What are they possibly up to right now? Do you think they would return to your place as it was, unchanged, while they themselves have gone through such a demanding and long period of reflections during the covid time? I somehow find this very hard. The change in persons demands that change occurs in all other places and events they will once again take part in.
Today, the changed person shows a high level of preoccupancy for their health safety and quality standards. They demand clear and right information ahead of arrival, many of which are not comprised in the usual booking engine process. They will probably not want to see you much in person once they arrive because of the distance they are used to. Rather they will need constant and discrete support during their stay. They will want to know where to move around the property and probably prefer much more “safety zones” like separes. Setting up mindfulness and relaxing corners is also a good idea. We all will need space and time to heal from whatever we have been through during these times.
They will also want new motivating services, new routes, new suggestions, even new meals. Create these programs right now. What used to be group visits, break the offer into individual programs, and make them more flexible. Set new collaborations in your local area since there will be new solutions emerging in the community very soon.
People will be keen on the quality of time they spend during their stay. They have had enough of the same, so offer them something refreshing, especially for their souls.
Make your hotel a sustainable operation
So, where this all desired change comes from? How to make it happen? It is easy to go for a done deal of rebranding. The usual rebranding involves new company colors, a new logo, and a slogan that preferably doesn’t exist only in writing, such as “Find your home away from home with us.”
The change your rebranding should reflect is much more meaningful and demanding. Making your hotel sustainable is the exact pathway you should choose to walk on.
This pause in our lives was a unique opportunity for us to choose a clean start and rethink all the steps of your processes. This change shows that you, as a business owner, are aware of the ongoing crisis on our planet, increased health security issues, and be ready for other similar issues if they were to arise.
The changed mind will drive the future
The psychological effects of the covid times will run the demand for tomorrow. This is for certain. Think much of your visitor’s mind, this will not fool you, nor it will guide you to wrong solutions. The rise in concern about the climate and the general state has shifted many people’s choices. Show them you care, but above all that you are doing something.
Sustainable development and post-corona go hand in hand
Orientate locally as much as possible, choose good points to focus on. Not all can be done at once, and remember: becoming sustainable and running a climate responsible operation present a process.
It is never finished, and it always develops. Accept this and make it into your hotel’s newsletter and on your board to share with your employees.
Choose support for this process in a form of consulting company that is focused exclusively on the sustainability of your business operations in the longterm; you will need it.
A good diversified consulting team should be the right choice because there is much to adapt from the supply chain, resources management, and employees’ training to marketing or tech innovations.
The usual rebranding is often a misleading term. It should only make sense if we consider the “post-covid shift of mind.”
In other words, if there already exists an implemented basis of the sustainable business underlying the strategic rebranding.
Direct bookings give hotels a new chance
Since the guests will need more information, more support, and more special requests, they are inclined to book more directly than before. So far, we have lived in the booking ‘robots’ era — the very few platforms almost had a monopoly over clients’ access to hotels.
However, during the coronavirus pandemic there has already been a proven surge of direct hotel bookings. This is motivational for the individual owners and small businesses — the client is much inclined to contact the hotels directly. This opportunity is a fantastic starting point for communicating clearly and operating sustainably, so the customer really sees it and knows about it.
The Spanish Meliá brand has taken this very seriously and prepared a thorough communication.
This also gives a tremendous chance for a rebranded hotel to attract and keep today’s very much changed client.
Use this changing moment and make the most of it with strategy, good thinking, and a positively charged business that is surely ahead.
