Lindley Cotton | GCommerce Solutions | President
Starting today, March 13th, GCommerce is instituting a mandatory work-from-home policy for at least the next week. Since the situation is fluid, we will be re-assessing the need for employees to stay home on a weekly basis.
I think we are all blown away by how fast this has escalated. Whether you believe that COVID-19 is dangerous or not, it has forced all of us to think about our social responsibility. I read a fantastic article yesterday morning that talked about social responsibility and how every day matters in implementing social distancing. GCommerce is fortunate to provide hotel marketing services that can be done from anywhere, but many companies and their employees are not as lucky. It’s important for all of us to be sensitive to that and help in any way we can.
Last week I released our then-current tips for how hoteliers can traverse this volatile climate. Here are a few reminders and a few updates:
- CPCs are rising because there is less demand so you need to focus your budget on your drive market. Most people do not want to travel by plane right now so targeting fly markets is not a good use of your media dollars right now.
- Update messaging throughout all campaigns to call out any reviews around the cleanliness of the hotel. Leverage insights from your reputation management tools to pull in quotes and testimonials about the cleanliness of your property.
- Take a stance. Many properties are asking the question, “Do we acknowledge the crisis?” Yes. Own it. That doesn’t mean you have to prove how often you are cleaning the rooms. Just be honest with your audience. Show vulnerability and show compassion for those impacted. You can do this through a blog, an email campaign, or social posts. Honestly, all of the above is probably best.
- Focus on weddings, since the “big day” will rarely be postponed. Again, stay true to the drive market audience. Destination weddings will see a decline over the next few months.
- Give guests more flexibility with lenient cancellation policies. You don’t want to create a bad reputation now and have to live with that once this dies down.
- Keep your ADR intact by adding value. Whether you can offer free breakfast or extra cleaning supplies, now is the time to get creative with your packaging.
If you’d like help identifying ways to help your hotel or property, we’re offering a free phone consultation, no strings attached. We’ll interview you about your specific situation, your historical business mix and talk about actionable things you can do to drive bookings.
Most properties will not see a strong ROAS over the next 30 days (if any at all). The hope is if we are all socially responsible now, in about 45 days, the virus will be mitigated and businesses can start to go back to normal.
In the meantime, we are here. Call us. We’ll get through it together.
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