HOSPA CEO Jane Pendlebury outlines the basics of the HOSPA recovery package – which is centred on advice aimed at helping hoteliers and other hospitality businesses maximise their recovery.
Of course, you don’t need me to tell you how tough the last year has been for hospitality. Most of us have experienced first-hand the difficulties of simply trying to survive during a time of heavily impacted (if not non-existent) trade. For many hospitality businesses, it’s proved too much, and we’ve lost some wonderful establishments through the extreme trials and tribulations imposed on us by the coronavirus crisis. For the rest of the industry, it’s mainly been a case of grimly hanging on.
Now though, the end is finally in sight and we have a definite date to aim for. Those of us blessed with an outdoor area can look to open up some form of offering by the 12th April, while the rest of us must wait until the 17th May to continue trading again. It seems such a long way away though, and again, it may prove too far for some. But, despite this, it does at least leave us with a date to aim for and a definitive point for us to get ourselves fully prepped and fully ready.
It’s with this in mind, and with our eyes firmly on the future, that here at HOSPA we’ve orchestrated a series of advice pieces to help hoteliers and other hospitality providers get fully prepared to not just reopen their doors, but to actively thrive once they’ve done so.
With an imminent tsunami of demand on the near horizon, there’s no better time to capitalise on this and maximise revenues, and it’s set to provide a fantastic opportunity for hoteliers to claw back some of the lost revenue of the last year. Consequently then, we need to fully examine all areas of the business to ensure they’re finely tuned and ready to go.
At HOSPA, as an organisation, we’re able to call upon a wealth of top industry talent, and we want to use that to our members’ advantage by giving this talent the platform to impart knowledge and insight that will help hoteliers and others stay on top and ahead of the game to reap the revenue rewards.
The platform we envisage will consist of a series of videos, only a few minutes in length, but backed with actionable, valuable advice from industry experts, across a variety of fields, who will deliver expert guidance and instruction as to how you can make sure you’re perfectly placed to fully embrace the process of recovery once we’re back open and back trading. There will be the option to click for more detail on the advice too.
Although many of us may be feeling a degree of despair at how far away reopening still is, it does, at least, give us the time to organise everything to ensure our houses are fully in order. Taking on board the advice of our industry experts, you can look to implement this within your operations and shore up any potential weak spots. The key topics will cover finance, revenue management, marketing, technology, asset management, sustainability and more.
We have several contributors already lined up and we’ve had lots of interest from people keen to take part – both members and sponsors – but we’re always open to more. So, if you feel you have something to offer to help others in the industry, then do please get in touch.
However, for now, keep an eye on our socials or visit www.hospa.org/recovery to watch the advice as it gets uploaded video by video. There’s some great know-how set to come.