Hospitality Trends And Cases To Watch In 2021
Larry Eppley, Chicago managing partner and Hospitality industry team leader, discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the industry and what recovery may look like going into 2021. With many companies of varying size and access to resources struggling to stay afloat, “There's still going to be plenty of need for relief — aid packages of some sort — and [Eppley is] hopeful that the Biden administration will be able to pull it off better, more successfully and more clearly.”
Eppley also observed that a business’ recovery can be dependent on their flexibility and adaptability to customers’ conduct and concerns. For instance, many hotels have minimized “employee’s interactions with guests” and implemented “digital check-ins and improved air filtration systems,” with some visitors declining daily cleaning services. Eppley predicts, “smaller boutique hotels may grow in popularity and be more resilient to the virus’ dent on the industry than skyscraping convention hotels with their exponential numbers of rooms to fill,” and suggests large hotel groups may need to find another use, “such as office space,” for the huge structures.