Hospitality de-escalation plan: a model of success in times of COVID-19
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From the moment the state of alarm and the impossibility of travelling was decreed, EMEXS has had only one objective: to be in the hands of our customers. Support them, provide them with key information at a time of misinformation, draw up an action plan according to the situation so as not to spoil all the work done in years and, above all, give confidence to their guests at a time of great uncertainty. And it worked! Want to know more about our formula?
Darwin said that the species that survives is not the strongest or the most intelligent but the one that best adapts to change. And that is what we have done during these weeks: put on new glasses, review from top to bottom all the strategies and tools to move forward and get the best results for our customers.
The entry into the scene of the COVID-19 was a sudden brake on the entire Customer Journey or, as we like to call it, Traveler Booking Decision (TBD): radically, the purchase intention and sales stopped, the cancellations happened massively and, at the same time, investments also stopped (until the OTAs stopped investing). As a result, hotels disappeared from the map, giving way to uncertainty and confinement.
We went from touring the world to traveling 20 times in the hallway. But one thing did not change: although we were locked up, our desire to travel was still there. We didn’t know when or how, but we would. The difficulty: we didn’t have a budget. The challenge: to find a strategy that manages to give visibility to hotels with a minimum expense. Street marketing comes into action.
Street Marketing: Welcome to the "Online Trench"
With the wheel stuck in the early stages of TBD and no movement in sight, a very limited budget and no volume of short-term reserves, creativity becomes our best ally.
From here, it is time to unify efforts and think of a methodology according to this "trench stage". The first step was clear: attack from the starting point to hook the customer and, not aggressively, inject him with the desire to come to our establishment. It is, therefore, to offer the visitor what he expects and for the order he expects but, very important, do it non-invasively.
This emotional connection has been the starting point of our strategy model.
A model that rethinks the concept of Online Hospitality Marketing as it was conceived until now and that part of an expense that must be directly proportional to the evolution of social de-escalation, focusing initial efforts on ensuring that the hotel achieves visibility, on a minimum budget and in a staggered manner, until it can reach a volume of reliable bookings that will not be cancelled.
It is therefore necessary to focus our efforts on aligning with the Revenue department in order to achieve minimum occupancy and RevPar -Revenue Per Available Room or income per available room- for, then return to normal as the establishment reaches an increasingly satisfactory situation.
Decontamination plan. Objective: progressive return to hotel normality
Ensuring that the opening of the hotel occurs with a minimum of guarantees (confirmed reservations) is only possible with a meticulously detailed plan, timed and with a constant analysis of data that culminates in that "return to normal". We find new audiences to attack in many establishments. The medium and long distance internationals are still to be concretized, which leads us to work a lot the national client and the next European, which is the first to move, to, little by little, open segmentation as the situation evolves.
Our de-escalation plan, carefully detailed, has also been shaped according to the evolution of the situation and the needs of each establishment. However, their division of actions into different phases is common to all of them, regardless of when each of them is launched according to the objective markets to work of each.
Data analysis: when predicting potential consumer behavior makes a difference
With breakaway hotels increasing their bookings substantially and urban ones showing signs of recovery, making predictions to evaluate a customer’s future behavior is critical to determining the success of a marketing strategy.
In other words: the importance is in the data. Now, more than ever, we need to be very active with data analysis. Benchmarking, reviewing trends, deciding when to act and how they will be decisive factors for success.
Little by little, with that analysis and as the volume of visits and sales increase, whatever channel, we will be profiling again actions to increase that direct sale and reduce weight to the OTA. Our goal is to get back to the returns we were having with most of our customers, between 1500% and 2000% of ROAS.
At EMEXS Marketing we have very clear the strategy that we must follow right now, we are working on it since this whole situation began.
Has your establishment been affected these months? Do you need to regain visibility? Consult us, I’m sure we have a plan that fits your needs.
