What hotels must do to rise from recession

This article has been published on December 11, 2009 by Dr Des O'Mahony.
It deals with the influence on the overal economic situation in the hospitality industry and its ocnseuquences on the hotels' strategies.

The article is actually based on certain point of view of the evolution of hotel markets. Indeed, hotel industry goes through cylcles of peaks and troughs, which tend to be 7-10 years ones, depending on location. As it may be observed that there is a certain level out starting in 2009, the author explains hospitality industry might expect a recovery 'in mid to late 2010'.

This cycle basis might in certain way brings some comfort to hoteliers, as they might be able to foresee the future of their business, and act to boost it; adjusting for instance to the trends of the moment, trying to seize the opportunities.

Consumers also have a different behaviour in such hars times. They are now used to book directly on the internet boooking engines, being this way able to compare the offers and evaluate the real value of the products.

Even though the recovery in the hospitality industry is starting, the consumers are keeping this new behaviour.

So the current opportunity for hoteliers is now to work on these online bookings and above all, not letting it being managed by a third parties. Indeed, it is the key of their future recovery, so they absolutely need to manage it it on their own, without loosing any control. Otherwise, they might 'damage their long term viability'.

But it might be difficult for weaker hotels to seize this opportunity since it is more expensive...

So we can wonder which are the future of independant hotels for instance, or ones which could be considered as 'weaker'.