Marriott Hotels: Measuring Occupancy with Zero Demand

How do you even measure demand when there is no occupancy?

We have specialists in that field, in revenue management, where they are actually in contact with all the hospitality industry, to see exactly what demand is. Everybody is waiting, actually. Everyone is saying, okay, they said 11th May, so maybe I will start booking for the next month, because I will have to travel and we will see how it goes. We’re really waiting for that date, to have the real pace of booking. Right now, yes, you can book for next week, but then if the government says we’re not going to open, then you’re going to cancel.

I think, even then, as you said, no one is flying, no one is moving, so it’s almost as if demand is, pick a number; no one knows.

We will focus a lot on the local business. I live in France, so I have the information from the government and what they are saying and here, a lot of people would love to travel again. The first idea we will have is what we get from the locals. Then we will see how the Schengen area will reopen and the airlines start flying. Daily contact, weekly contact with airline companies, to see what the trends are. How is it going in their industry? As much as we are in contact with the customers, we are also in contact with our colleagues in the hospitality industry and the business travel industry as well as the different tourism offices and airlines.

So you’ll be focusing on targeting, obviously in France, French customers coming to the coast and really pricing for the local customer, in a way?

Yes and really looking forward to hosting them in the hotels. Local customers will be the first target, for the country customers, and then we’ll see how, within Schengen, the barometer of how people will travel. If people can start travelling from Belgium to France, then we’ll be happy to welcome them in France and vice versa; or to Italy or Spain. Local customers are the first target.