By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com)
Married to an Aussie for nearly 40 years, it’s given me a
more informed perspective on how Australia, and New Zealand for that matter,
have faired during this pandemic. Without getting into the statistics, which
you can look up on Google on your own time, it’s plain to see that many
countries in APAC have handled this crisis commendably when compared to those
nations in other parts of the globe. And thus, hoteliers should look down under
for guidance on what’s next for their properties, wherever they are.
Let’s first take a step back and consider two big events in
Australia’s history that will perhaps give more context for why Australia has
done so well, even when compared to other Commonwealth nations that have a
similar system of governance as passed down from the British Empire.
Australia has always been a land of ‘scarcity breeds
ingenuity’. Even before the terraforming efforts of early European settlers,
the continent has been always been hostile to stable living conditions. It’s
about four-fifths desert, with the farmable areas constantly shifting between
floods and droughts (now exacerbated by climate change), and home to some of
the most poisonous animals on the planet.
Aussies are true pioneers as they’ve always had to learn
quickly to survive to the needs of a given environment or time period. Amongst
many other factors, this is perhaps one of the leading undercurrents to explain
why this country was the first nation to give women the right to vote in
federal elections in 1902. And no doubt this attitude of constantly shifting
one’s mindset to adapt to the times has played in a role in how well the
country has responded to the coronavirus crisis.
Second to consider from the annals of history would be the
cane toads. While most of you may recall the joking reference to this event in
a classic episode of The Simpsons, it is perhaps the pinnacle of
examples of the dangerous effects of bringing invasive species into new ecosystems
where no natural predators exist. If you think murder hornets are bad, look
back to the intentional introduction of a handful of cane toads from the
Americas to the Australian mainland in 1935 as a means of improving the sugar
crop. There are now millions of this pest, predominantly in Queensland, and no
clear way to eliminate them because their skin contains toxins that will kill
most would-be predators upon ingestion.
As this introduction occurred several generations ago, it
has influenced Australia’s policy towards the environment and, importantly, its
people’s understanding of the importance of quarantine. Long before COVID-19,
arriving in Australia via any airplane always entailed some form of
disinfecting spray prior to disembarking as well as a highly detailed
questioning of your prior travels at customs. With the cane toads as the
age-old push for strong environmental controls (and amongst other factors as
before), this has meant that, overall, the current generation of Australians
was predisposed to having a better comprehension of the benefits of lockdown
heading into the pandemic.
Those two historic precedents aside, one policy that
Australia has enacted now is one that every hotelier should consider when
mulling over how to strategically reposition a property for the post-Covid
world. In a broad definition of its new policy, the nation requires all
incoming travelers to quarantine for 14 days at a designated hotel, all at the
traveler’s expense for a flat fee of $3000 and with no direct contact to the
outside world during this period. New Zealand goes a step further by requiring
travelers to get a Covid test during this time, with refusal to get tested
resulting in a second 14-day stretch of isolation.
With the push to get the engines of international travel
churning again, this model may be adopted by other nations as a means to
accommodate long-haul arrivals and help get hotels some revenues while still
not inviting new localized surges of coronavirus cases. Particularly as many
properties situated in larger urban markets (that is, popular arrival points
for international travelers) are in dire straits when it comes to servicing
debt, this ‘quarantine hotel’ proposition may present a path to solvency when
faced with no other viable options for generating enough revenues to keep the
doors open.
Still, it’s a double-edged sword. Being known as an
isolation center comes with a hefty amount of reputational baggage that’s
almost irreversible in the public’s eye. That is, once you make the decision to
start harboring quarantining travelers for a fixed fee in order to attain some
more short-term cashflow, you may end up shutting your property off from other
sources of revenue because customers from other segments will come to view your
hotel as a place with an increased likelihood of infection.
In most cases, this represents a binary switch and not one
that should be considered lightly. While it may come to pass that we get out of
this craziness without having to adopt the Australian model on a global scale,
it is nevertheless one possibility that you should be aware of. And certainly
there are other lessons you can learn about hotel management in the post-Covid
world from Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and other APAC nations that have kept
their numbers lower than most, so please keep reading and try to learn from
those who are faring best.
About Larry Mogelsonsky
Larry Mogelonsky
One of the world’s most published writers in hospitality, Larry Mogelonsky
is the principal of Hotel
Mogel Consulting Limited, a Toronto-based consulting practice. His
experience encompasses hotel properties around the world, both branded and
independent, and ranging from luxury and boutique to select-service. Larry is
also on several boards for companies focused on hotel technology. His work
includes five books “Are You an Ostrich or a Llama?” (2012), “Llamas Rule”
(2013), “Hotel Llama” (2015), “The Llama is Inn” (2017) and “The Hotel Mogel”
(2018). You can reach Larry at larry@hotelmogel.com to discuss hotel business
challenges or to book speaking engagements.
Media Contact:
Larry
Mogelonsky
Email: larry@hotelmogel.com
Website: http://hotelmogel.com/
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