We’re getting a lot of questions about what folks should be doing right now. The challenge is that a lot of properties are down to minimal occupancy and minimum staff,  and marketers are unsure when real recovery will begin or when they should start rolling out campaigns to drive future bookings. Fuel reached out to our friends at Milestone who had written an amazing blog post containing sage advice on how you should be spending your time.

Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List

You can also download How Hotels Can Navigate Troubled Times

SHOW NOTES:
Meet Tammy Carlisle is the Head of Hospitality at Milestone
Original Blog from Tammy: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/now-time-tammie-carlisle/
1. Now is the time to get your foundation in order. We are all working with less. How can you be more efficient? Now is the time to look at systems, processes and what you do with your day with an eye for improvement.
Many of us put off vitally important tasks because we are “too busy”. Now is the time to think about what is important. It could be as simple as creating better segmentation in your CRM, cleaning up your data, or creating better attribution modeling. Or it might be a larger project like creating that new website, changing your PMS or upgrading your Booking engine. Something you’ve been wanting to do but hadn’t because you didn’t have the time.

• quote “In the rush to get back to normal be sure to take some time to think about what you are rushing back to”
• Think of your systems
• What are the bottlenecks/inefficiencies
• Ideas
• Create marketing/content calendar
• Segmentation in CRM
• Run Audits (Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 103 – 6 Hotel Website Audits That Will Save You From Losing Money)

 
2. Now is the time to stay positive. I can grumble about the rain or I can grab an umbrella.  But either way, the rain is coming. Focus on the good right now. I work out of an office and travel a lot. Staying home has been an adjustment to say the least. But I am spending more time with my family. Setting up virtual coffee dates with friends, colleagues and clients. I’m actually spending more time connecting. I’ve also seen communities come together and do great things. I’m encouraged by all of the businesses donating to food banks, shelters and hospitals during this time.

• Daily “positive” briefings – only good stuff, work and otherwise
• Weekly happy hour with friends
• Virtual coffee dates with clients
• Virtual happy hour with colleagues

 
3. Now is the time to be good to yourself. Self-care is very important but easy to forget. Take a minute to breathe, get some exercise, read a book, or do whatever brings you joy.
This bullet was prompted because a friend asked me the day before I wrote this what I was doing for self-care.  My answer – “does eating count”.
Exercise

• Walking around the block
• Yoga

Meditation

• Monterey Bay Aquarium – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7s3BEh8ijI
• Headspace / Calm – Apps

Read a Book

• Atomic Habits – James Cleary

 
4. Now is the time to stay educated. That class you’ve always wanted to take (virtually of course). The subject you’d like to become more proficient at. Now is the time to hone your skills and learn new things. My topics of choice – time management, sales, and sewing. What are yours?
So much free and low-cost content right now

• Fuel Podcast
• This Week in Hospitality Marketing
• HSMAI – free content, certification programs – CHDM, CRME, Business Acumen
• Moz Academy https://moz.com/training – free until May 31
• Sales Gravy – classes as low as $5.00
• Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University – https://www.daveramsey.com/fpu – 14 day free trial
• Khan Academy – https://www.khanacademy.org
• YouTube

 
5. Now is the time to get creative. What can you innovate to help your business thrive? I’ve seen hotels offer day rates for people who can’t work from home, have a safe place to stay and food locations turn into “no-touch” grocery stores – order online, drive up, pop the trunk and get groceries. Fox turned to iRacing and broadcast a virtual race this weekend featuring many Nascar stars including some that had retired. This fan was very happy to watch.
Restaurants offering gofundme pages and using the money to help feed medical professionals – $100/10 medical professionals. https://www.paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2020/03/22/these-local-restaurants-are-donating-meals-to-people-in-need-heres-how-to-help
Hotels in NYC lodging health care workers
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-30/empty-hotels-pivot-to-virus-battle-as-n-y-lodges-health-workers
eNascar/iRacing
 
6. Now is the time to come together. Yesterday, the entire Milestone Inc team came together from three different countries and multiple cities to meet and discuss strategies of how to help our clients through this difficult time.
#weareallinthistogether
Network – Reach out to connections – virtual coffee chats
Teaching us to get connected in a whole new way
How can you help –

• Volunteer
• Give Blood
• Stay Home 🙂

 
LISTENER FEEDBACK
Hi All,
Been loving the super tactical podcast episodes lately!
Quick question – I’ve read a few places that updating your GMB listing to be “temporarily closed” or just closed aren’t showing in the map, and ranking could potentially suffer. Do you guys have any insight on this? I was considering just doing a post, or potentially just putting in “special hours” (which seems to be super tedious), instead…. I don’t want to hurt our listings for when we do get back up and running. Our hotels are all still open, but this is for all our restaurants and Spa which are currently closed.
Thanks, team!
Emily (Sparrow Hotels)
========================

In The Newsaroos:     

• Gogle no longer penalizing businesses for termporary closings

========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to @_travelboom or info@travelboommarketing.com.
 
IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE