Supporting travel agents
“Both travel agents and hotels have existed for decades. As much as any hotel wants to have customers dealing with them, we are going to co-exist in the space. We will always work with the travel agents. They cannot be pulled out of the guest’s journey,” around 2-3 years for us to reach pre-COVID occupancy, the domestic consumption would really play out. However, there will be more changes happening.
– Jatin Khanna
are going to take a beating as everyone’s concern is going to be safety norms, which will be a little challenging for homestays and they are going to be stressed. However, once the vaccine is out and this will be behind us, they will come back because people do want to get the local experience. It is not the end of this industry, but it will be a pause.”
Talking about the processes required for walk-in guests, he says, “I don’t think we are testing enough in India for everybody to have a test certificate saying they are COVID-negative. Hence, walk-in guests would follow the
However, would the safety procedures allow leisure guests to roam around the hotel, pool and spa freely? Khanna answers, saying, “If you have proper safety procedures in place and you are following guidelines, whether it’s in the spa or pool, there is no harm. It’s very important to note that at some point, hotels will get patients who could be and the Merger & Acquisitions (M&A) space is going to get very active in the immediate postCOVID scenario. When it comes to rates, the revenue managers today must understand how to package rates. The smarter they bundle and package the rates to put out the offering, the better they can make the customer doesn’t have the runway to manage cash flows for the next 12-15 months, they will be in stress.”
Lamba, on the other hand, says, “I think, one of the issues that is going to come up even for corporate travel is that companies globally would have to
Forecasting trends, Lamba shares, “Hotels are going to see some big pain this year because occupancies are going to drop by almost 30-35% for the year and RevPAR is going to drop by almost 60%. The optimistic view is that it will take us 2 years to recover, while the pessimistic view is that it would take us four."