What hoteliers should invest in – 2022

Times are changing rapidly. Are you ready to adapt? Here’s what hoteliers should invest in this year.

Marketing

Since the begining of the pandemic, bookings made directly with hotels have grown exponentially. The uncertain times meant that potential clients took extra steps to connect directly with hotels to answer their concerns. But, as business goes back to normal, this might start to change and direct bookings will probably go down again.

OTAs are already injecting a lot of their budget into marketing trying to get back the bookings they lost during the pandemic. According to Phocuswire, Booking Holdings spent around $974 million on marketing in the final quarter of 2021. A big jump from the $386 million spent in the same quarter in 2020. To fight this you’ll want to invest in your own marketing efforts.

Your best bet is to take a look at your website and check if you’re turning visitors into guests. You might not be able to match the efforts of the OTA giants, but you can at least make sure your audience has direct and easy access to you so they can effortlesly book directly.

Staffing

In 2022, approximately 6.2 million employees were laid off from hotels. As restrictions relax and business went closer to normal, only a third of those jobs were recovered.

Hospitality workers decided it wasn’t worth it to go back under the same conditions so now more than ever you need to put effort in attracting new talent. Once they join your team, you need to retain them so make sure to keep them motivated to be part of your business.

Automation

The pandemic brought new social interaction and travel conditions, but also labor and cost constraints. Because of that, the adoption of AI technologies and automation is to be expected.

Virtual Assistants, Chat Bots, Big Data and others will help hoteliers to keep constant communication with guests as demand increases. As the number of visitors go up at a higher rate than staff members, technology will play a special part to give guests the best and most effective service possible.

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