We caught up with Kai Schomann, MD of hotel representation company Hotel Republic, as part of our Changing Times series of industry views on the unfolding coronavirus outbreak.
Covid-19 has affected us big time. We have spent the last week speaking to all our hoteliers and the situation looks very bad, most of our hotels are closed.
We are the UK sales office for hotels and venues around the world, we have hotels and event venues in main cities like Lisbon, Berlin, New York, Madrid and Amsterdam. We have contracts in place with our hotels, they pay us a monthly fee and in return we go out and sell the hotels to MICE agents and event management companies. We have targets in place and have to deliver a return of investment for each client.
What’s key for hotel republic is that we get the message out that this is only a temporary setback. You’ve got to be optimistic about the future and you’ve got to keep on selling and promoting everything we represent. We can’t just give up and then try to pick up the pieces when this is over. Yes, it’s tough, but it’s the only way and it makes total business sense for us, our hotels as well as for our collective morale.
In order to help our hotels we have now put our contracts on hold for the next three months, our view is that if we are helping our hotels now they will stay with us and keep us as their agent for when things pick up again; we need to support each other. We can’t send invoices to our hotels if they are closed and can’t even pay their own employees. It would be morally wrong.
Thanks a million to the government who is helping us. We have put our employees on furlough from next month so that they can stay with us and help us get back on our feet when everything calms down.
So far we’ve constantly been in contact with our MICE clients, we have used Zoom and FaceTime and emails, we are active on social media etc... that’s the only thing we can do right now. We are also interviewing our hoteliers in different key cities and asking them to explain to us what they are doing and how they see the future. We will send this out to our MICE agents via a newsletter when it is finished.
We hope to be back on the road in July. We then need to make sure we get business for our hotels for the end of the year and for 2021. We have changed the date of our hotel and venue showcase from the 2nd of April to the 12th of November. We can’t wait for that. It will be a big party for sure. We have secured Bongos’ Bingo who will put on one heck of a show after dinner.
Something to look forward to.
Read the rest of the series:
Changing Times: Optimism the keyword for TEN6 Creative
Changing Times: ‘When this blows over we’ll have one hell of a party!’
Changing Times: IMEX America ‘full steam ahead,’ says Bauer
Changing Times: We are all in this together, says ABPCO
Changing Times: "I'm four months pregnant and I've been let go"
Changing Times: "It's not just back to normal after this"
M&IT editor Paul Harvey is a journalist with more than 15 years of experience. He began his career in the local press, working for various titles across the north. Since joining M&IT in 2013, he has become a trusted and respected voice in the sector, championing event professionals and reporting on all aspects of the events industry for the brand.
