The great balancing act

Accommodation agencies have been facing a great balancing act during the past 18 months as they have navigated a plethora of challenges brought about by the Covid-19 crisis. Now as the recovery starts they face several new challenges.

Sian Sayward, director of commercial partnerships and projects at Inntel, and governance director at the HBAA, explains: “We have balanced business as usual, while managing the effects of the pandemic. The pandemic has had the worst impact on our industry – far worse than what most of us have ever seen. Yet it has also presented an opportunity for positive change.”

One of the most persistent hurdles since March 2020 has been availability. Initially, it was very difficult to identify which hotels were open for bookings. Understandably, hotels had to make difficult choices on whether they remained open and, if they did, which facilities they could provide safely and how many guests they could accommodate. This meant the number of available rooms was significantly impacted in nearly every location. Corporate travellers that were used to booking their preferred programme hotels had to find other options, which affected rates and pricing for future programmes.

Susie Christie, director, Infotel Solutions, adds: “More recently, availability has been affected because of the huge rise in demand for leisure business, and this was in all locations, not just UK tourist destinations.”

The introduction of quarantine hotels at airports caused significant disruption to availability, too, while cancellation policies are also an ongoing stumbling block for agencies.

Caroline Whitson, group head of marketing at SilverDoor, says: “The standard practice for property providers prior to the pandemic was to require a cancellation notice period of between seven and 14 days. In many cases, our property providers have significantly reduced these cancellation timeframes voluntarily in order to ensure clients are not penalised for matters outside their control.”

As some of these issues start to disappear, the sector has been hit with fresh challenges.

“We are in a perfect storm of Brexit and Covid recovery as global supply chain issues continue to affect many organisations,” explains Sayward. “Accommodation providers are facing daily issues with shortage of supplies – for F&B and housekeeping etc – coupled with the very scary staff resource issues. Once again, they have to make decisions on what business they can take, and how many rooms they can sell, which given the last 18 months of low to no revenues paints a very sombre picture. This, directly and indirectly, impacts the rest of the supply chain, be it booking agents, OBTs and end-user as rates, availability and service levels are all affected.”

Recruitment and staffing in agencies, hotels and venues is another major obstacle that needs fixing fast.

Justin Dilks, director of business development at arrangeMY says: “Although arrangeMY was one of the few agencies that did not make any redundancies, we have lost staff through furlough because people did not want to wait to come back, and they got new jobs. Recruitment isn’t easy and we are having to re-train staff from other departments to fill gaps in our reservations department.”

These challenges have forced accommodation agencies to adapt in a variety of ways to ensure their survival. Many have re-evaluated and overhauled their businesses from the top down, streamlined processes, invested in new technology, and both upskilled and cross-trained their staff.

New partnerships and mergers have formed, and new initiatives launched, often with a focus on virtual and hybrid event delivery, remote and flexible working, sustainability, risk management, data analysis, and social value, all of which are vital for recovery and beyond.

There has also been a positive shift in client and agency relationships, notes Dilks. He says: “It has become clear that our clients now have a higher value of our support and services, and we will be viewed as less transactional and much more of a partnership.”

Just as the US market is opening up, many accommodation agencies are reporting that business is back with a bang. “There has been a sharp increase in both enquiries and conversions in the last three months - enquiry levels are now at approximately 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels,” says Sayward. “Most enquiries for larger events are for 2022, however, we are also working on some large conferences for Q4 2021. Around 95 per cent of enquiries are for in-person or hybrid events. Most hybrid enquiries are for simple streaming options to a virtual audience. A large proportion of enquiries is for training or team meetings.”

Of course, confidence varies from client to client. The duty of care element is still a huge consideration, especially for larger event enquiries. Yet, lenient cancellations terms from suppliers are supporting the return of events.

This is something Julie Shorrock, managing director of HTS, is witnessing. She says: “Clients have confidence. We're seeing more enquiries now converting, but only for small to medium-sized events. Yet, there's undoubtedly a slower uptake for larger events, but we're confident these will start to return for Q4 and into 2022. We know our clients are ready to return to in-person events because we haven't received any virtual enquiries since the government lifted the final restrictions.”

At SilverDoor, Alex Neale, group head of partner relationships, is seeing “longer total lead times for enquiries, due in part to uncertainty surrounding travel restrictions and the unpredictable nature of government decision-making. In many cases, travellers have plans to relocate or travel but cannot do so until the relevant entry approval is granted. However, once our clients have completed the necessary administration, the gap between booking and travel is shorter.”