It has been at least 3 months now since Covid-19 started to have an impact on countries outside China. In this time a lot has happened and the world is a very different place to the start of 2020.
Issues in America and this week’s announcement of new Ebola cases in Africa does not help an already difficult situation but despite these we seem to be seeing early signs of a recovery to the hospitality industry.
With lockdowns beginning to ease across the world and infection and death rates generally slowing, consumer confidence in travel is growing. Also we are seeing an increased appetite to get back to the office from those that have been furloughed or working from home for quite some time.
A desire to get back to work and get businesses back to strength is certainly taking hold and we are seeing an increase in domestic travel, especially corporate travel at this time. It can be difficult to quantify the return but we are seeing volumes of bookings and cleanings increasing by 20-40% which is encouraging when international travel has not yet returned.
More interesting however is the different behaviours we are seeing through this. Longer bookings and higher value stays seem to be taking the lead as consumers seek some level of stability rather than short term casual bookings.
Marriot recently announced that they are now seeing 40% occupancy in China and 20% in the US. Clearly these numbers are still low but a strong recovery from the 7-8% they were seeing at the bottom of the curve and this lines up with all the other signals we are seeing in the market. We would expect short let properties to bounce back faster than hotels due to social distancing. but having said that, the recent political issues in the UK have certainly lessened consumer confidence in the government guidance. Social distancing is not being maintained by everyone as photographs from tourist spots around the UK on social media this past weekend demonstrate clearly.
It is still too early to be suggesting we will see a full recovery within a short time frame but early signs across the world seem to be that the recovery is on the way and when international travel reopens in June & July we should expect a further surge. Once this surge occurs it will be critical to have strong cleanliness standards and that is why we recently launched our SafeStay service to ensure all of our clients have the highest standards of cleaning during this pandemic.
If you need a partner to service your property portfolio to the highest degree and help to get your business back to strength get in touch today.
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