The first quarter of 2021 is not going to be profitable, fun or exciting. But the second quarter will come up quickly and, having been through six recessions in the hospitality industry, I see all the signs of a recovery are finally here.

Whether we operate a hotel, restaurant or tourism-related business, our performance numbers likely depressed sharply this past year. Before we jump into some quick fixes, we must take some slow, deep breaths to appreciate ourselves. Without a positive attitude, a return to normal is difficult, and it will show up in how we interact with our teams.

It is time to prepare for a robust recovery. Once the weather turns, there will be many who have been vaccinated and others who will have gained immunity, and many will change their behaviors. No, employment and spending will not be at 2019 levels and travel will not be strong until summer, but it will pick up nicely by April. It is time to be optimistic and to prepare to win the market share war and turn losses into profits.

Our government has approved and is sending out money in the form of the Paycheck Protection Program and round two of federal stimulus. Getting that money forgiven requires 60% of it to be used for payroll. It is hard to hire our staff back unless we have significant maintenance, cleaning or other work to provide them or are willing to go through some additional training before we get busy and actually need more employees.

An asset management review of our property will indicate plenty of opportunities to spend, and training and development is paramount to coming back strong. Most likely we have negotiated better deals with vendors and cut out non-essential activities. There is no need to go back to 2019 spending. Keep spending flat and resist hiring middle-management as our employees will shine and be able to grow if trained by top management now.

If we have not tried digital marketing during this recession, now is the time to start. A great newsletter, coupled with sharp digital/social media strategies can set us up for success quickly. Pay-per-click will come back strong and event marketing will now be largely hybrid events.

Our clients need to have events and we can make it easy for them to host with some basic knowledge. Optimizing our websites, online channels and profiles are all critical to get started. Distancing in floor plans, sanitization stations and video technology ensures clients that we have the ability to pull off a hybrid meeting. Sales calls are not in-person today, but online platforms make these calls easy. Sure, our sales team will have to know what industries are ready to book. These now include healthcare, construction and government, but life sciences and communications technology will also come back soon. The last part of the sales puzzle is knowing what the guests and clients want. Safety and security are both critical.

With our salespeople cranking up the volume, revenue management is coming back. There haven’t really been any revenues to manage but there will be soon. And what a perfect time to break down the silos of these three jobs of marketing, sales and revenue management.

If we have already flattened the organization, a good general manager can manage all three of these functions as one team — perhaps as one person.

The breadth and depth of information readily available is amazing. We all know that our budgets have been wrong for the last 10 months but now is the time to revise our 2021 for reality. Stay lean, unleash our top people to do the work in the trenches and when we are ready to put that federal stimulus money to work, our teams can train the rookies to become rock stars.

Enjoy 2021. I guarantee it will be way more fun than 2020!

Robert A. Rauch, CHA, is an internationally-recognized hotelier, CEO and founder of RAR Hospitality.

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