Trends in the hospitality business: developing human resources, information technology and financial potential during the pandemic at the present stage

Abstract

The hotel business, faced with the coronavirus pandemic, has received such a degree of uncertainty that, even after a partial economic recovery and the return of at least domestic tourism, it changed the hotel industry so much that the trends and development prospects that existed in the pre-pandemic period have undergone significant changes. The goals of hotel enterprises remained the same — making a profit and expanding their presence in the hotel services market, but the directions of activity to achieve them began to differ greatly from those that were in 2019. The main components, which affected by these changes are work with financial and human resources, as well as a bias in the application and development of new technologies, that is, information and technical potential. The reason was a change in focus from increasing hotel revenues to decreasing costs. The personnel potential of the hotel enterprise received the opportunity to develop through the revision of the requirements for vacancies and standards for the implementation of business processes in the hotel. Thus, the standards will be softer and more adaptable, and the volume of functions performed for one position may expand. In addition, the focus will be placed on employees who are more efficient in mastering new technologies, including remote guest service. The financial potential of a hotel can only develop with the constant use of a logistic approach, namely, constant monitoring of costs to reduce them, the use of personnel as the main resource of the organization in order to constantly develop them. It needs to say that the rules of logistics have already completely moved into the field of hospitality — to serve the right guest at the right time, in the right place, to provide the required number of services of the required quality with minimal costs, using an individual approach.