After 2 months of Ash Cloud disruption, we have seen a lot of the hotels we deal with gain (from customers who extended their stay), and some lose (from groups & individuals that cancelled their bookings). Some of those that have lost business, they have been lucky enough to move these bookings into future months, but some of the very unlucky few’s clients have decided not to rebook, as the leadership of the booking company has become tentative and not keen to travel if they cannot get back to their home country easily.
In this morning’s E-Hotelier we see the Great Hotels Organisation launch its Ash Cloud Cancellation Policy. At a glance this is designed to re-enforce consumer confidence – the customer will not be charged for their hotel room, should their travel be affected by the Ash Cloud.
Given the harsh cancellation policies that are usually attached to most larger conference bookings – do you think the same strategy will work for Conference Bookings to restore confidence? It is all well and good to move a few bedroom bookings due to cancellations, but large conference business (and especially those bookings with a lot of rooms attached)? We have been very impressed with the way the hotels we work with have adapted to the problem of the Ash Cloud – their flexibility deserves a lot of praise, but eventually it will have a knock on effect to budgeting and forecasting, with a lot of pressure being put on the busiest part of the year to deliver the lost revenue. Where does this flexibility end? On the client side – Have you started to see some of the more demanding clients request their own Ash Cloud clauses in contracts for big conference and group business? How are the bigger conference agents handling this new blight on the business, in an already tough market?
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