The overall success of the Covid-19 vaccine (and, crucially, its success against new variants) and pent-up demand saw travel levels return at a much quicker rate than anticipated. As a result, RevPAR levels in both city centre and regional hotels have climbed – in fact: those RevPAR levels have been exceeding 2019’s and the summer season is looking very positive indeed!
However…the report also forecasts some not-so-positive news for the remainder of the year; with many households now facing a well-documented further strain on their disposable income, namely: cost of living increases and inflation – it is expected that this trajectory won’t last into the winter months.
The hospitality industry, unfortunately, is still also facing staffing shortages and supply chain issues too.
Carine Bonnejean, Managing Director of Hotels at Christie & Co, commented:
“Whilst we are now firmly past the Covid crisis, the hotel industry, and the wider real estate market are likely to experience further turbulent times in the months to come.’
So, with this in mind, would it be prudent to be reviewing your tech stack now to ensure that you are enticing/capturing as much trade as you can for the back end of 22/first quarter of 23’?
As a former hotel operator myself for some twenty years – who has had a little more exposure to the real impact of well-placed technology – I say this often:
‘The right amount of tech, coupled with the right number of multi-skilled team members, all delivering a more considered, slick, and authentic offering – that’s the best way forward, for the modern hotelier.’
Technology is a wonderful thing when successfully deployed in tandem with personable, driven team members and it can make all the difference to those revenue streams.
The introduction of the correct hospitality tech has also been proven to increase team retention as not only do those slick systems make the working shift easier – they also encourage environments of multi-tasking and job variety.
(With ‘lack of career progression’ being one of the key drivers for employees to leave the industry, it would stand to reason that exposing them to more areas of your business to improve their learning would be a smart move? This and the adoption of a more flexible approach to working hours).
If you’d like to arrange a strategy call with us to explore how we can further assist you with your business’s tech stack…we’d be delighted to help.
We are truly passionate at HLS about providing hoteliers with a wealth of smart, simple, cloud-based solutions and we have so many examples of where we have really made a difference in those key profit lines and enabled much slicker guest experiences (read some of our customer case studies).
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