Hospitality Sector Response to COVID-19: Crisis Management Practices at Novotel London

Research Project
(The hospitality sector response to Covid-19 and crisis management practices)

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Background of research...............................................................................................................3
Research Aim:..............................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives:....................................................................................................................3
Research Questions:.....................................................................................................................3
Research Rationale:......................................................................................................................4
Chapter Overview:.......................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................5
Impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality sector............................................................................5
Response of Novotel London to COVID-19 in terms of crisis management plan......................6
Challenges faced by Novotel London structuring crisis management plans to respond towards
COVID-19 pandemic...................................................................................................................6
Chapter 3: Research Methodology..................................................................................................7
Chapter 4: Analysis and Findings..................................................................................................10
Chapter 5: Recommendations and Suggestion for further work...................................................10
Chapter 6: Conclusion...................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

Chapter 1: Introduction
Background of research
Crisis management is a plan that is structured in order to deal with future uncertainties in
an effective manner. Having suitable crisis management plan is essential for a company to deal
with the impact of sudden events. Here, crisis can occur due to unexpected events which might
have potential risk. Crisis management aims to minimize damages caused to the organization. In
simple words, there is a complete process followed while crisis occur so that situation can be
handled in better and effective manner. In the present time having suitable crisis management
plan is highly crucial with an aim to minimize the adverse impact of future uncertain events. In
case of hospitality industry COVID-19 has been created ample of uncertainties that might have
significant impact on the organization. In this regard, they need to follow suitable crisis
management practices in an appropriate way. In present case, Novotel London has been selected
as organization which is a prestige company of hospitality industry, offers ample of facilities
such as rooms, spa, resort, food, WI-FI and more. The main aim of present study is to analyze
the impact of COVID-19 on hospitality industry along with suitable crisis management practices,
they follow to deal with crisis.
Research Aim:
“To analyze the response of hospitality sector to COVID-19 and crisis management practices”. A
study on Novotel London.
Research Objectives:
 To understand the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality sector.
 To evaluate the response of Novotel London to COVID-19 in terms of crisis management
plan
 To identify the Challenges faced by Novotel London structuring crisis management plans
to respond towards COVID-19 pandemic
Research Questions:
 What is the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality sector?

 What is the response of Novotel London to COVID-19 in terms of crisis management
plan
 What are the challenges faced by Novotel London structuring crisis management plans to
respond towards COVID-19 pandemic?
Research Rationale:
The main aim of conducting present project is to analyze response of hospitality sector
towards COVID-19 pandemic. Further, it also helps in terms of assessing suitable crisis
management practices to deal with crisis in an appropriate way. The current project will provide
helpful in preparing suitable crisis management plan for the betterment of the entity. In personal
context, the project will improve my communication, presentation, data analysis and research
skills to get success & progress In future career.
Chapter Overview:
Chapter One: Introduction- Under this chapter, the initial information of the project is covered
along with aims and objectives of project.
Chapter two: Literature Review- This chapter is likely to include necessary information gathered
from different authors, writers regarding the chosen topic to develop broad understanding about
selected topic.
Chapter three: Research Methodology- This is an important chapter wherein information will be
collected through primary sources using questionnaire.
Chapter Four: Analysis and Findings- Under this, the present information is going to analyze
using suitable charts, graphs, tables and more.
Chapter Five: Recommendations and suggestions for future work-After analyzing the
information, suitable recommendations are developed to improve the research project further.
Chapter Six: Conclusions- This is the final chapter including summarized information of chosen
topic to make the study easier for the readers.

Chapter 2: Literature Review
Impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality sector
According to Gursoy & Chi (2020), COVID-19 has been profoundly affected the
industries by influencing their operations, daily functions and more. It has been disrupted the
business practices drastically as the business entities are not more able to maintain consistency in
their operations to attain pre-defined level of profit margin. Apart from this, it also minimized
the sales & revenue of the company by decreasing the number of customers. During COVID-19,
there was halt on international flights so that it was quite complex for individuals to move from
one place to the other that puts direct impact on the revenue of the company. It is analyzed that
COVID-19 pandemic has been affected each and every sector globally and the hotel industry is
considered as one of the hardest hit sectors. Due to the pandemic, the world’s economy was shut
down suddenly. The pandemic has created a sudden challenge for the entire hospitality industry.
To curb the transmission of deadly virus, suitable measures have been taken by authorities in
terms of community lockdown, social distancing, stay-at-home orders and more. This sudden
pandemic decrease the demand of business (Burhan and et. al, 2021). Nearly all the restaurants
received order to limit their operations and only take away was allowed. Apart from this, stay-at-
home orders facilitate sharp decline in hotel occupancies and revenues. Further, the hospitality
companies were not able to fulfill their daily expense hence they started cost cutting. For this
purpose, they fire ample of staff so that they can minimize salary expenses. Also, pandemic also
minimized the number of visitors within hotel that directly affected their revenue. Even, majority
of the hotels were not able to meet with their daily expense. Therefore, they started to cut down
the salary of staff members.
Now, the reopening process has begun and authorities have started to ease out the
restrictions such as they have been allowed hotels to operate at lower capacity with strict social
distancing guidelines. However, the hospitality industry is recovering slowly but COVID-19 has
still profound impact on operations and functions of hospitality business. In the COVID-19
business environment, hospitality entities were expected to make profound changes in their
operations to ensure safety of employees and customers (Chen and Hang, 2021). Besides this,
customers also not likely to feel comfortable in terms of visiting in restaurants and hotels as they

are still in panic. This affects the revenue and operations of respective business entity in
profound manner.
Response of Novotel London to COVID-19 in terms of crisis management plan
According to Pavlatos, Kostakis and Digkas, (2021), hotel industry is one of the most
adversely affected industry due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. The recovery of the sector
relies on the capacity of the industry to control the impact of pandemic. There is no doubt that
pandemic has been created numerous unprecedented crisis which might differ from industry to
industry. Due to the serious impacts, it has become essential for the hospitality industry to
analyze the economic impact of COVID-19 in the hotel industry along with the impact of
economic policies in order to support the industry profoundly. Here, crisis management might
prove helpful in terms of dealing with severe impacts of pandemic. During crisis management,
Ritz London is likely to structure suitable strategies and plans so that they can deal with sudden
impacts of pandemic in profound manner. During crisis management, they are likely to do
planning using available information so that crisis can be handles appropriately (Tiwari and
Sanjeev, 2021). Further, crisis management is useful in terms of circulating information among
the staff members so that the best possible decisions can be taken. Further, information is helpful
in taking prompt and effective decisions with an aim to minimize the adverse impacts of
COVID-19 pandemic. In case of Ritz London, they structure crisis management plan so that they
can deal with sudden events in order to minimize damages to revenue and resources effectively.
Further, they are also likely to offer suitable training to the workforce so that overall skills and
competencies of worker get enhances and they can contribute in terms of structuring suitable
strategies to deal with future crisis profoundly (Mehta, Kumar and Ramkumar, 2021). Through
crisis management, it is possible to undertake suitable steps proactively so that they can deal with
crisis in an efficient manner. Moreover, crisis management makes the entity enable to deal with
sudden events in a systematic manner. This helps the entity in dealing with future crisis
effectively so that they can earn significant amount of revenue and profit for further betterment.
Challenges faced by Novotel London structuring crisis management plans to respond towards
COVID-19 pandemic
According to Gupta and Sahu, (2021), it is analyzed that COVID-19 has been profoundly
affected the industries by influencing their operations, daily functions and more. It has been