TRENDING
MANAGING THROUGH COVID-19
by HOTELS EDITORS , BHN GROUP
The global hotel industry is experiencing a stress never seen before . As of this writing in early April , owners and operators were in triage mode , making painful reductions in headcount and in many cases closing hotels in hopes of surviving loan defaults and to put themselves in position to rebound when markets start to recover .
HOTELS reached out to readers , with the help of BHN Group , to ask for some of their best ideas for navigating through the crisis , what changes could become permanent when markets reset , and how they are managing their teams and their own lives at an unprecedented moment in time .
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE CRISIS
HOTELS : If you can “ reset ” after COVID-19 calms , what change would you make to your business ?
Puneet Chhatwal , managing director , CEO , The Indian Hotels Co . Ltd ., Mumbai “ A key learning from the ongoing crisis and a change I would like to bring about in our ways of working is to institutionalize a permanent cognitive task force whose responsibility shall be to constantly monitor and assess risks and opportunities , factoring in global volatility and potential challenges to business through various scenarios including health , natural or other disasters . This will enable us to be proactively prepared for exigencies and become the global benchmark of business excellence .”
Laurence Geller , chairman , Geller Capital Partners , Chicago “ Revert back to the 2009-10 protocols and not let anyone ( GMs , chains , channels of distribution ) do the endless slow creep in amenities , people , layers of management , facilities , standards , brand standards and programs without commensurate reductions elsewhere . The creep kills us !”
Mark Lomanno , partner , Kalibri Labs , Rockville , Maryland “ It ’ s a real opportunity to change the whole distribution dynamic . Take out as many of the layers between the guests and the hotel .”
Paul Leone , CEO , The Breakers , Palm Beach , Florida “ I expect that we will devote even
more attention to all matters involving hygiene . We have incredibly high standards , but we plan to implement and sustain even higher hygiene standards .”
Michael Doyle , managing director , executive vice president , CHMWarnick , Beverly , Massachusetts “ In the short term , we will be rethinking how to relaunch our F & B operations — what those will look like and how we can make them more efficient going forward . Long term , we would re-evaluate our service delivery and reposition F & B .”
Shunsuke Yamamoto , chairman , Mystays Hotel Management , Tokyo “ We need to diversify our segment mix more at many of our hotels . Domestic business demand was relatively resilient while inbound from certain countries fell off very quickly .”
14 hotelsmag . com May 2020