Understanding anti-covid policies and its relation to consumer choices in budget hotels in India

Abstract

After more than a year, India slowly unfolds its wings to fly back high. The economy is gradually gaining momentum, and businesses are slowly pushing towards normal. The hospitality industry is also opening slowly but still waiting for its customers to turn up. Even though they faced heavy losses, the premium hotels had the pocket size to withstand the brunt of covid, whereas the budget hotels had to suffer a lot even to sustain their businesses. They waited till the economy opened up and for the Government to relax the travel and lockdown restrictions. As soon as the Government relaxed, these budget hotels tried to implement the best possible anti covid policies and tried advertising them as a safer to stay. Customers did not mind the high cost since their health took precedence. The premium hotels did not worry much about the cost due to high margins, whereas budget hotels had to worry about that. The customers of budget hotels expect the best possible service at pocket-friendly rates, which constrained the budget hotels financially and made them choose which service they have to give to their customers from the arena of safety measures. Some of the choices worked, and some did not. In this project, we will look into what anti-covid policies have allured more customers and what did not via qualitative and quantitative analysis.