Adam wasn’t wearing rose-colored glasses. While acknowledging widespread erosion of RevPAR, occupancy and other key metrics that have occurred throughout the course of the pandemic, he also noted the positive developments that point to an inevitable recovery. Vaccine distribution is underway around the world, for example, and travel confidence remains low but is beginning to trend upward in the United States and Europe.
   But the secret weapon, according to Adam, is something intangible but powerful — what he calls “relational equity.” “The reason that virtual meetings and virtual workplaces have worked as well as they have is because they are built on a foundation of in-person relationships that we have developed over years,” Adam told our HSMAI audience. “Eventually, those need to be replenished. We can’t continue to live off the relational equity we built up through in-person time together. The reason you’re functioning as well as you are remotely is because you have the trust and the relationships that you’ve built up over years in person.”
   It’s helpful to understand that this is something all of our future guests, customers and clients are experiencing. And it’s on each of us to make sure we’re best positioned to cash in on the relational equity they’ve been banking over the last year.
   The articles in the HSMAI section of this issue of Hospitality Upgrade are a good place to start, with Caryl Helsel focusing on commercial strategies for recovery, Kelly McGuire making the case for increased revenue automation, Michael Goldrich exploring the unique demands of hotel marketing, Cindy Estis Green with Gorka Amian confronting the “sobering reality” of 2020 and the implications for 2021, and Larry and Adam Mogelonsky analyzing the implications of the Airbnb IPO for our industry.
   Keep these perspectives in mind as we make our way into the second year of the pandemic crisis — and fulfill the promise of our own relational equity.
 
Enjoy these articles and stay inspired!




Robert A. Gilbert