The unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on tourism and hospitality industry has changed travellers’ behaviour and tourist expectations. Given these uncertain circumstances, it is difficult to imagine a full recovery of the sector in the foreseeable future. This shift in the hospitality sector requires sustainable considerations while embracing the new dimension of health and safety.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, sustainability must be the new norm for every part of the tourism sector. Spurred by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) global travel safety protocols, many advanced economies are developing similar measures to safely reopen their travel sectors. However, implementing these protocols will entail significant business restructuring, infrastructure adjustments, and employee retraining in hotels. Some proposed measures, such as introducing digital and contactless payments, and other integrated technologies to enable automation, at hotels could prove helpful.
What does sustainable recovery mean?
Before we get to the guidelines, it is imperative to understand what sustainability really means. To put it simply, in the context of recovery, sustainability is more than environment management, it is also about economic progress and social development.
When we talk about sustainable recovery for hotels, we are referring to a responsible recovery while emphasising on the importance of future-proofing businesses for growth and resilience.
Now, let us look at some guidelines for hotels to develop sustainable strategies that are not just a "green marketing" effort, but a long-term competitive advantage and cost-saving opportunity.
#1 Prioritise Health and Safety
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a requirement for the recovery of the hospitality industry is a rigorous commitment to health and safety for guests. Hotels and venues need to keep cleanliness, social distancing and safer venue sourcing top-of-mind, with a strong focus on the needs and responsibilities of planners and corporate travel managers. Nevertheless, there is a lot to consider when making your hotel or venue the safest it can be. Reducing face-to-face contact, ensuring safer site visits, and managing social distancing are just a few hurdles hotel managers need to overcome to create a safe and healthy environment for both guests and staff.
One key question a planner will ask during the sourcing process is what key protocols are in place to keep your hotel or venue safe and clean. While cleanliness and sanitisation have always been important, the pandemic has called for greater stringency in protocols and thoroughness; from hotel rooms and restaurants to event space. Whereas a thin layer of dust on a radiator may have been excused pre-COVID-19, nowadays this dust could draw concerns as to the overall standard of cleaning. Hotels and venues, as a result, will need to demonstrate to guests and planners how they plan to enhance cleanliness protocols, what training their staff will receive and what methods they are using.
#2 Reassure Planners about your Venue’s Safety
The economy might be opening again, but that doesn’t mean people will feel comfortable travelling or conducting site visits in-person. Planner needs are changing, with a primary focus being guest safety. This will likely affect your marketing and sales strategy as we head into a post-pandemic world. Hotels will need to reassess their buyers’ priorities, responsibilities and challenges, then provide them with options and solutions to demonstrate that meetings and events can be safe.
One of the most significant changes in planner and guest behaviour may have been caused by the world’s shift to virtual communication. Meeting on Zoom or Skype has become the norm. And this comfort with technology is likely to continue past the pandemic. Allowing a planner or venue sourcing manager to visit your venue from the comfort of their living room makes sourcing safer for the planner, and as a result, it’s is a great way to attract more group business! And while the meeting or event will take place at your venue, virtual tours will show planners that you’re going to extra lengths to make their meetings and events work, while prioritising safety.
#3 Invest in Retraining your Staff
With a clear set of guidelines, the challenge of integrating authentic, sustainable development into your hotel operation can be broken down into manageable pieces. For hotels that already have environmental policies in place, now is the ideal time to reconsider them from the ground up and collaborate with all stakeholders to improve and sustain them.
Proper sustainability needs hospitality worker engagement. Employees should be at the centre of a sustainable development mission statement. Empowering employees attract more talent and build a hotel’s brand. When frontline staff are empowered and engaged, they become sustainability ambassadors. They connect and interact more positively with guests.
Digital skills training will become increasingly important as more economies embrace technological and digital solutions to attract and enhance the tourist experience as well as to adapt to health and safety measures.
Even if the financial side of the business does not allow acting upon such activities right now, it is time to lay the groundwork and build a clear structural framework. Only then can you think about the next steps.
Venues and hotels must also start considering more work from home options for their teams. Businesses now realise that they can trust employees to work remotely, savings on rental and utility costs from the offices are just an added plus.
#4 Focus on Local Sourcing
With travel restrictions, some flights still grounded and people afraid of travelling, one of the key areas hoteliers need to focus on is local sourcing. Make sure to pay attention to and nurture your local relationships. Focussing on building relationships with local vendors is viewed as a more strategic way to do business in the future. Additionally, working closely with CVBs or DMOs can prove to be fruitful when business picks up and meetings begin again.
Measuring the amount of the cost savings and the competitive advantage is not an easy task especially in uncertain times such as these. Local sourcing can benefit hotels in the long run by providing strong supplier relationships that ensure consistent quality, availability, and price for the goods and services which are essential or at least relevant to the hotel’s long-term business objectives. Moreover, Hotels with in-house restaurants can provide a major boost to local agriculture by sourcing their foods locally. Local vendors could provide fresher choices for food and beverage requirements, and by sustaining the local economy, vendor relationships might provide a ready source of supply in times of scarcity.
#5 Revamp your F&B Services
Restarting your F&B operations may seem like a daunting task. How will you keep tables, cutlery and crockery disinfected? How will staff stay at a comfortable distance from guests, while providing exceptional customer service? Fortunately, some technologies allow for contactless communication and service. Having tablets on tables, disinfected after every use, where guests can order, is a great way to reduce face to face contact. Phone apps could also be utilised for the same purpose.
Venue managers should also challenge chefs to be innovative, and make local, native seasonal foods the cornerstone of their menus. For instance, changing a couple of your daily specials to vegetarian could be beneficial for both the environment and your profit margin. You can also support sustainable gardening practices by establishing a process to compost waste and donating leftover food to local and national food banks.
Put these guidelines to good use!
When following these guidelines, bear in mind that, as with any other innovation, the approach adopted must be aligned with the way your business behaves. Additionally, these approaches should not be globalised, because at the end of the day, being sustainable varies depending on where you are located in the world. Hotels ought to be asking themselves how they want to be remembered once the crisis is over. Will they be proactively generating new ideas to achieve higher levels of cleanliness, safety, and sustainability? Or will they be following the tried and tested actions of others?
We encourage you to think critically about the advantages of a real, top-down commitment to sustainability in your business.
To learn about green initiatives and sustainable best practices, read Sustainable Hotel Ideas: 25 Ways to Go Green
