How to successfully reopen your property after the pandemic

With vaccines rolling out and travel corridors opening, people are getting ready to leave home again, and the question on most hoteliers' minds is how to reopen in time for the recovery.

Things will not simply go back to how they were. Guests' expectations, attitudes and habits have changed, and a property that wants to do well has to change with them. Below is what that means, how one operator came through the worst of it, and the steps worth taking before you open the doors again.

What the new normal means for hoteliers

Before you set a reopening date, be clear on how travellers' priorities have shifted. Over the past year, many people have chosen to drive rather than fly, and that habit is likely to last, which means more domestic guests than before. Big social gatherings and large group tours are out of favour, so smaller experiences built for families and small groups will sell better.

Above all, guests expect higher standards of health, safety and hygiene, and they want a sense of control over their surroundings. That will shape where they stay and what they do once they arrive. The properties that read these changes early and act on them are the ones most likely to recover, and some will come out stronger.

How one hostel kept its doors open

Pepe's House was founded by a Colombian couple who started with a small Airbnb in Colombia in 2015, opened a hostel in Cuenca, Ecuador, in 2017, and opened a micro hotel and hostel in Guayaquil a week before restrictions began in March 2020. We asked them how they handled it.

When Ecuador closed its borders in mid-March 2020, consulates were calling their citizens home. The couple helped their guests arrange flights and refunded the bookings, and some travellers chose to leave the rest of their payment with the hostel. For the first few weeks, the only priority was looking after the team. Within about two months, the focus had to shift to keeping the business alive. Rather than end the leases on the buildings they rented, they agreed new terms with the owners and set themselves one simple goal: if they were still operating in March 2021, they had survived.

They were. The Cuenca property never closed, and the one in Guayaquil was closed for almost two months. They hosted stranded foreign travellers, government workers, business travellers and local tourists, while big brands and many small properties around them shut down. The whole team took the government's biosafety training for hospitality, and the business earned two safety certifications, one of them the Safe Travels stamp.

They are wary of the word reinvention, but they adapted almost everything. Dorms became private rooms until the rules changed. They reopened the café bar, started movie nights on the terrace for local people, set up high-speed internet for digital nomads, rebuilt the website and marketed to business and domestic travellers far more than before, since most of their guests had come from abroad. And they never stopped doing revenue management, running promotions, using their hotel software and improving the building. They expect domestic travel to stay important, with international guests returning first from countries where vaccination has gone well.

Turn shared rooms into private ones

Hostels have been among the hardest hit, because shared space and a sociable atmosphere are much of what they sell. One of the most common changes, often required by local rules, is to sell dorms as private rooms. Hostelling Scotland, for example, reopened its youth hostels at the end of May 2021 on a private-room-only basis.

For a four- or six-bed room this is easy: no change to the layout or the number of beds, just a different way of selling it. Larger dorms are harder. A partition wall can split one big room into two private ones, but not every budget allows for building work. If yours doesn't, reduce the capacity instead.

Work at reduced capacity

Leaving every other bed empty keeps guests apart without any renovation, and it can even become a selling point: a guaranteed bottom bunk.

The same thinking applies to dining rooms, kitchens, lounges and smoking areas. Mark every second seat as unavailable, or rearrange the furniture so there is proper distance between tables. In a dining room, staggered meal times give every guest a turn at the space. How far to reduce capacity, if at all, depends on local rules, how much space you have, the kind of guests you host and how much they care about health and safety.

Tell guests what you have done

Travellers who were carefree about health before are cautious now, and safety and hygiene come first when they choose where to stay. Make every measure clear before they book: extra cleaning, distancing, hand sanitiser, staff training, reduced capacity. Put it on your website and your OTA listings, and repeat it in the confirmation email. A recognised scheme helps too: the World Travel & Tourism Council's Safe Travels stamp, launched in 2020, shows guests that you follow published health and hygiene protocols.

Use technology to reduce contact

Self check-in has been one of the most popular changes since the pandemic began. Ask your PMS provider whether it offers self check-in, or connects to a service that does.

You can cover much of it without new software. Send every guest an automatic message after booking that asks for their travel document details and anything else you need for check-in. Follow it with instructions for getting in, the Wi-Fi password and the house rules, and take payment online before arrival. In thelobbyboy, confirmation emails can carry arrival guides and door codes, and a payment link lets the guest pay without coming to the desk.

QR codes are a free option for any property. Make one with a free generator, link it to a page on your website, print it and test it with a phone before you put it up. In rooms, it can lead to the house rules and the Wi-Fi details. At reception, to tips on where to eat and what to do nearby. In a restaurant or bar, a code on each table can replace the printed menu.

Be ready before the first guest arrives

Rules can change with little warning, so follow local and international news and be ready to welcome guests as soon as you are allowed. That means the building clean and in order, with clear signs that tell guests what is expected of them. Check every OTA account so your listings, rates and availability are up to date. Train the team on every new procedure, and have the systems you need to run the business set up and working before the first booking comes in.

Reasons for hope

Recovery is coming, and the properties that adapt will be part of it. When Expedia Group Media Solutions released its first Travel Recovery Trend Report in April 2021, it described people as eager to start travelling again. The road back will not be easy. Understanding how guests have changed, learning from operators who have come through it and, above all, being prepared give a property its best chance.