How the Recession Affected the Hotel Industry
What is a recession? A recession is when the economic activity falls and the gross domestic product decreases for two consecutive quarters. Who was affected by a recession? The recession has affected most business from all over the world including the hotel industry. The less affected hotels were those in global markets and those that give out their services to leisure travelers. Leisure travelers continued traveling every year even during the recession.
As we mentioned above, the least affected hotels were those that cater to leisure travelers. On the other hand, business travelers changed their perspective on the amount of money to spend and the amount of trips to make. Some businesses are canceling meetings which are usually held in another country and are instead made using technology, like video conferencing. Video conferencing is quite cheap considering the expenses usually incurred when traveling which include flight, accommodation, food etc.
The most hotel businesses that had to change their traveling plans were those from the United States and from United Kingdom. Europe seems to have been less affected by a recession. Travelers continued traveling normally during this period and only saw a slightly less amount of traveling bookings made
How to survive a recession?
– Write a business plan and project how you are going to market and plan business expenditure correctly during the recession.
– Implement aggressive marketing. Make travelers think that they need to travel. Do your market strategy correctly and you will see good results.
– Cut out any unnecessary costs and invest in good expenditure.
– You may opt to rent equipment if you need to purchase new ones, it will be cheaper.
– Make on-line research, and surveys to check out and consider your competition. What do you need to do to win over them and keep clientele happy and maybe generate new businesses?
– Keep your current customers happy. Customer retention is very important since it will generate new business in the future. Previous customers will return back and will also spread the word about your hotel.
– Know your strengths and build on them.
Be smart in your business, carefully inspect every aspect of the running of the hotel and you will survive a recession.