In the before COVID world, or as I like to call it BC (before COVID), most hotels were able to amble along by sitting back and waiting for the booking requests to roll into their inbox. In a post-COVID world, the booking requests aren’t necessarily falling into those inboxes. Teams are going to have to find business through their own methods & likely the competitive landscape is going to be vastly more crowded than many anticipated.

Hotels are going to need the tools to do this. Not only have the levels of business changed but likely the buying behaviors have changed & will continue to do so as we move ahead towards the travel resurgence. Being able to track those changes quickly & respond appropriately are key. Big brands & well known chains may not carry the loyalty that it did in BC times. Hospitality sales will understand the competitive landscape across all of those metrics & be ready to respond. 

The USA market demand is already starting to morph. In fact we are already seeing a shift within our travel agency partners, many of whom want to resume in-person sales meetings as soon as they can do so in a safe environment.

When these in-person sales calls begin, travel agencies are going to start with the hotels with whom they have a relationship; reaching out to the sales representatives they know & then filter out from there. Before the race to meet begins, hotel sales teams need to be making friends like they never have before with travel agencies & wholesale partners. This is where the true value of hospitality representation & the relationship rolodex we bring to the table truly shines.

When a hotel or destination stops looking at travel agency business transactionally & starts looking at the holistic value of an agency account, great things start to happen.

I’m Kristen Moore, CEO of Destinations of Distinction & founder of Travel Tea. We offer bespoke hospitality representation & digital marketing channel management to luxury travel brands, successfully driving much deserved revenue to their doorsteps. We work behind the scenes and on the front lines, cultivating relationships and building brand loyalty. If your brand is looking to make the most of this time and beat out your competition with proactivity, let’s talk.