What Hotels Can Learn From Airbnb’s Response to the COVID-19 Crisis: Matthieu Mauguin, PrivateDeal

In the early days of the pandemic, Airbnb made headlines when an internal email to their employees regarding layoffs and restructuring was released. It was widely seen as a positive example of empathetic leadership and used as an example of how senior leaders in hospitality should conduct themselves in light of the turmoil in the industry. Shortly after, the company rapidly made changes to their customer offerings, website, booking policy and a host of other updates in order to hold back the tide of cancellations and anemic future bookings.

On this episode, Matthieu Mauguin, Digital Marketing Manager at PrivateDeal, a Swiss company providing an innovative negotiation solution for hotels to drive more direct bookings, dives in to the actions that Airbnb took in the early days of the pandemic and what hotels can learn as the industry continues to battle the current environment.

Effective communication, marketing, innovation, quick reaction… these are all principles that are more important than ever.

On this episode we discuss:

• The services that PrivateDeal provides hotels (2:45)
  
• How Airbnb approached the COVID-19 crisis (7:50)
  
• Reservation cancellation policies: Airbnb vs OTAs (10:44)
  
• Does “Brand” get in the way of authentic communication? (13:40)
  
• What hotels should be doing to increase their length of stay? (17:40)
  
• Competing against OTAs to improve direct bookings (20:24)
  

About Matthieu

Matthieu Mauguin is the digital marketing manager for PrivateDeal, a Swiss company providing an innovative negotiation solution for hotels. After graduating in Marketing & Management, Matthieu decided to enter the travel industry and now helps hoteliers drive more direct bookings with PrivateDeal.

Links

Website: www.privatedeal.com 

PrivateDeal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/privatedeal-sa/

Matthieu Mauguin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthieu-mauguin-4077a8136/

What Hotels Can Learn from Airbnb: https://insights.ehotelier.com/insights/2020/09/24/what-hotels-can-learn-from-airbnbs-response-to-the-covid-19-crisis/

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