Healthcare, bio-sciences, education and construction seem to be the best bets for demand drivers in 2021. Leisure travelers will come depending on the current COVID-19 numbers in both their market area and yours.

Online travel agencies, as they always are, will be a big factor during this recession. All our channels must be open, including discounts of all types, until demand is normalized, perhaps during summer 2021.

To monetize the current demand profile, use aggressive and consistent digital marketing geared to specific groups, such as brand loyalty members or local guests who use your property for food, beverage or rooms for friends and family. Constantly stay in touch and be positive about what you and your team are doing in the community. Facebook can laser-target guests to your page, Instagram allows you to do more fun things and email marketing allows you to personalize your approach to guests.

Invest in revenue-driving campaigns, such as paid search, remarketing and metasearch. This will put you in front of the guests that are still traveling or dreaming of travel soon. When “stay-at-home” orders and quarantines are removed, travelers will be ready to get out of the house and travel for leisure and business immediately. Ergo, be the one that is remembered.

Reactivate all dormant accounts and leads, review your business intelligence reports and opt-in to pay-per-click and pay-to-play offers from reputable third parties. Call every single lead and offer them a socially distant idea—meeting in your boardroom for a handful of team members, include snacks, beverages, food and let them know you just want to be there for them if they need anything.

Meetings and events now come with new challenges today. Hotels must find a way to organize their event space according to social distancing regulations and collaborate effectively with planners in a reopening as well as a potential hybrid meeting format. Room diagramming is a first step as is pairing with a supplier of hybrid meetings.

For those who really want to push the envelope, how about offering COVID-19 rapid testing? If universities, basketball teams and others can do it, why can’t you? Partner with a healthcare organization and offer the tests to guests on check-in. If you make the tests mandatory, you will have volume, costs will likely be reasonable, and guests will either love you or “not so much.” Interestingly, there are many places where testing is still not readily available. You might fill up just because of the tests. This can quickly morph into requiring guests to have proof of vaccine.

Demand from group and corporate travel represents a sizable chunk of roomnights booked, and it is at a much higher rate than leisure demand. It will likely take three to four years to recover these segments to pre-COVID-19 levels. The successful development of multiple vaccines for COVID-19 may return travel to normal conditions sooner than this. Pricing power will have to factor in short-term rentals, new hotel supply and new corporate policies that may or may not encourage business travel.

As for the economy itself, a double-dip recession is still a possibility but will likely be avoided. We must, as a country, use extreme caution during the holidays and winter months as many of us go indoors to warm up. If we do, COVID-19 deaths will have peaked and we can begin to recover from the virus. By March, the warmer weather coupled with a larger number of Americans who receive the vaccine or have had the virus will mitigate the spread. We can only hope that this leads to a strong Q2 with a renewed desire for safe travel.

We can face these challenges head-on. Enhanced hygiene tools can differentiate one hotel from another and the hotels from vacation rentals. Vaccine delivery will have an enormous impact on travel. First, travelers will feel comfortable making trips they would not even consider before taking the vaccine. Second, corporations will allow their team members to travel to events, conventions and on business meetings. Third, consumer confidence will jump to new heights due to pent-up travel demand.

Hang in there. 2021 is here and will be vastly better than 2020.

Robert A. Rauch, CHA, is an internationally recognized hotelier, CEO and founder of RAR Hospitality, a leading hospitality management and consulting firm based in San Diego. Rauch has more than 35 years of hospitality-related management experience in all facets of the industry.

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or its parent company, STR and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.