It’s been a tough couple of years for venue owners.
How the pandemic has shifted how people think and plan for travel
How have traveller’s expectations and mindsets shifted over the pandemic? Let’s take a look.
1. Increased importance of safety and hygiene practices for hospitality venues
COVID-19 has put the spotlight on safety and hygiene on your premises. Guests expect safe management measures like social distancing and hygienic measures like the provision of hand sanitizer and frequent cleaning of shared areas to remain post-pandemic. Ensure you have sufficient staff on hand to stick to your cleaning schedule.
Consider how you communicate safety and hygiene measures to your guests throughout their stay from pre-arrival to check-out. Review all your communication materials – from website content, guest brochures, signage and documents to emphasize the steps and rules being taken to make your guests feel safe during their stay.
2. Higher expectations for service standards and how contactless payment technology can support
As tourists make more deliberate travel choices in the face of significant restrictions, they will be less willing to compromise on their hard-fought next trip. Expect guests to have higher expectations of your hospitality service and be more demanding.
To adapt, focus on emphasizing positive guest interactions, seamless check-in, prompt service and top-notch personalized service in both their service staff and venue infrastructure. Technologies like contactless payment solutions, cashless payments and wearable near-field-communication (NFC) devices can help you deliver a digitized, contactless service experience for your guests, while reducing the risk of infection during the pandemic.
3. More scrutiny of a hospitality venue’s sustainability practices.
A global research report by Booking.com shows global travelers want to travel more sustainably in the future and expect the industry to offer more sustainable travel options.
How can you meet these demands? More than 40% of event waste ends up in landfills. With increased awareness of the importance of sustainability, guests will scrutinize how venues adopt sustainability. Adopt paperless technology to reduce paper waste during events, use locally sourced food and products and seek to reuse materials wherever possible.
The pandemic has been a grueling time for the hospitality and events industry. We hope these ideas will help you adapt your operations and business to welcome the changing era of post-pandemic travel. Seen other mindset shifts we can add to this list? We’d love to hear from you!
About PouchNATION
The #1 all-in-one Cashless and Guest Management solution for venues and events to digitize operations and increase guest spend using NFC wearable technology. With operations in 7 countries in Asia, South America, and Australia PouchNATION has already processed using its innovative solution over 2 million of Guests and 100 million USD in transaction value.
