Some Do’s and Don’ts for the short term

1. Don’t stress over your occupancy levels. There is absolutely nothing you can do to incentivize more
customers to come and stay in your hotel where borders are closed, flights grounded, draconian travel
restrictions making foreign arrivals impossible – no rate discount, no creative package, no special services
will overcome these short term blocks to business.
2. Do focus on customer relations and long-term good will. Have a liberal cancellation policy – in fact, I
would recommend you set polices as simple and easy as possible, no deposits, no penalties, no strings
attached.
3. Do focus on employee relations. Make every effort to keep as many of your staff employed as possible. It
can be a good opportunity to start projects – projects that you have been meaning to do that can now be
done by your staff at a loose end without guests to care for.
4. Do enlist members of your team to research all government assistance programs that may be available
and help colleagues apply for any benefits that they discover – unemployment insurance, rent relief, debt
relief, etc.
5. Build a stronger team by setting up cross-training programs. Have housekeeping staff learn kitchen
techniques, or waiting staff learn how to clean and prepare a guest room, or front office staff learn with the
sales team how to prepare a quote or put a package together. Cross training can be both fun and will build
a stronger team as each team member better understands each other’s role in the business. Make it fun
perhaps by bringing in competitive elements, perhaps cooking competitions in a Masterchef style, or
cleaning and preparing rooms against the clock.
6. Don’t allow your property to slip off the travellers’ radar. Maintain your online presence and positions as
much to keep your property visible. When travel does bounce back, you want to be sure your property is
clearly in mind and findable and bookable.
7. Keep your social media up to date and do be sure to boost travellers’ confidence by letting them see how
seriously you and your team are taking the virus risk – Secret Retreats will be sharing with you a pledge that
will help reinforce this message.
8. Email to your entire guest database to inform them of what you and your team are doing to mitigate and
manage the crisis. This will keep you on the radar and assure them that you are taking the situation
seriously. A key message is that you are maintaining and providing a safe environment for guests, staff and
your community. Let them know that once they are ready to travel again, your property is and always will be
a safe place to come and stay and you and your team are ready to welcome them (pending travel
restrictions, closures etc). The Secret Retreats Pledge (to follow) will help you with this.
9. Acknowledge the crisis on your public pages – website, social media. Post a message sharing empathy,
updating on the measures you are putting in place to ensure your guests and staff stay safe in your
property and inform them of when you are ready to welcome them all back (restrictions, closures vary etc).
The Mid-term recommendations…

1. Do focus on customer segments that may still be able to travel and use your facilities despite the crisis –
the short-haul travelers and those within driving distance of your property such as ex-pats and residents.
Encourage these groups to escape the daily worries with a retreat to your property or boat for a staycation.
2. Do promote to locals who understand the true environment in your region/country. Offer them a package
that creates a desire to get out of the house – good room rate and value adds such has F&B and Spa
discounts – where CDC / local regulations allow. An attractive package may be all that’s needed to
persuade people to make a retreat from the stresses and worries of this crisis.
3. Don’t sacrifice your rate integrity – it is a short race to the bottom in the rate war, and always a long
climb to get rates back up. Create packages, promotions and offers instead to keep visible and in the race
for the bookings and maintain your rankings (in OTAs etc) and in so doing you will preserve your BARs to
maintain your rate integrity.
4. Don’t sacrifice customer good will. Have a liberal cancellation policy that focuses on maintaining
customer good will. The long-term value of your customer relations is much more important than the few
extra dollars you will collect in cancellation fees.
5. Use the lower occupancies to reward your guests who are still travelling with upgrades. The more
luxurious stay experience should lead to loyalty from these guests and well-earned positive stay reviews.

The long term Do’s and Don’ts

Start thinking about your recovery plan now.

What customer segments will return the fastest?

What can we offer to win these guests in these markets?
1. Create a relationship with every customer that cancelled a reservation with you. With every cancellation
confirmation include a bounce back offer for a future stay. These are all good potential clients for then the
world starts to travel again.
2. Contact all your group, wedding and event customers who cancelled and offer an incentive to rebook at a
later date. Get some futures on the books and offer flexible cancellations policies should the situation take
longer to resolve.
3. Prepare your promotional messages now and plan to release them as soon as things begin to normalize.
Also prepare to release updates on operations and safety protocols (guests will be very sensitive to travel
safety particularly in respect to deep cleaning and sanitization procedures in place at the property or no
board the boat) – a new guest expectation.
4. Focus on the future and be sure to hit the ground running when the time is right and beat your
competitors out of the starting block.
5. In the short term and mid-term your goal is to maintain customer relations, generate incremental cash
flow wherever possible, cover fixed costs and keep as many people employed as possible. In the long term
your goal is to recover and scale back up faster than your competitive set and if successful all stakeholders
will be pleased – employees, management team, the brand and owners.
6. Also, take this down time to consider reorganizing department structures, staff training, team building
and plan and strategize for when travel starts to bounce back and we return to ‘normal’ so your business is
more efficient, better organized and more stream-lined.
7. The downtime is also a golden opportunity to look at your sustainability practices and add to and
enhance all the sustainability actions you do within your property and your community. With staff available
with more time on their hands it is the perfect time to train, study and work on your sustainability actions. If
you haven’t already, put a team together to act as the Green Team at your property to manage, monitor
and implement the property’s sustainable practices. Ensure your monitoring (energy efficiency, waste and
water management, product sourcing, policies) is in place. Ensure lessons are being learned from your
monitoring processes and efficiency is improving. Ensure the knowledge on these practices is being shared
across the team to build on in-house team motivation.
One thing is for sure, the world will travel again.
There will be differences, there will be different expectations from your guests, but business will return.
AND the more prepared you are with -
i. a clear and well considered rate strategy
ii. unique and interesting travel product with solid value propositions
iii. trained and motivated teams
iv. sustainable and responsible travel actions and policies in place
v. slick and improved operational procedures
- then once the world begins to turn again you will be ahead of your compset and well placed to win the
business.

Don’t hesitate to come to the Secret Retreats community and Secret Retreats team with any questions or
to discuss and help you plan any of the above ideas and actions.