With No End to the Pandemic in Sight What Can Hotels Expect?: Say Yes To Travel

On this episode of Say Yes To Travel, host Sarah Dandashy sat down with Calvin Tilokee, the Director of Revenue Management at a 5 star boutique hotel in New York City to discuss the current state of the hotel industry. Numbers are down everywhere, but major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago have been hit particularly hard. With a good number of hotels opting to close, the few that remain open are seeing anywhere from 5-11% occupancies. These numbers are unprecedented! Some hotels have laid off their employees, others have been furloughed, and there are a few that are able to make sure with a bare minimum.

With no end of the Stay at Home mandate in sight, this is a scary time for hoteliers. What does the future hold? How will things change? What can we expect? Though there is some speculation on how this all will play out, with a long 18 month recovery, there is still much that is up in the air. Calvin shares his insights on what lessons we can learn from Covid-19.

The travel and tourism sector makes up 1/10th of the global job market. The hit is taking will inevitably have a huge economic impact that will take years to fully recover.

Regardless of when we are able to go back to work, this will be a slow climb back to the bustling travel world we once knew–anywhere from 18-24 months.

New protocols will likely develop from this, especially new cleaning requirements and possible hybrid roles to cut costs until occupancy comes back.

Business travelers will be the first to get back on the road and travel. Leisure travelers, influenced by financial struggles and COVID-19 wariness, will trickle back into the market.

It is safe to assume that domestic travel and roadtrips will be popular in the months after resolving the Pandemic.

Say Yes To Travel has a new episode every Thursday!