Effects of COVID-19 on hotel industry: a case study of Delhi, India.

Different industries throughout the world face a tough time confronting the pandemic of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), so does the hotel industry. Hence, this research attempts to determine the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the hotel industry in terms of guest retention. The crisis which started in Wuhan, China (December 2019) has spread to the whole world and continues to spread. Although in newspapers, journals, and online media there are few published articles, they are mostly based on secondary data. This study is an attempt to examine the perceptions of hotel employees regarding the effect of COVID-19 on the hotel industry through qualitative analysis. Further, the study attempts to evaluate the crisis preparedness and steps taken to combat COVID-19, and eventually determine the positive outcome of the crisis. This paper presents an overview of the advent of COVID-19 in New Delhi, India, and more importantly, reports on the approaches that hotels employ to sustain during this diffcult time. Through the in-depth interviews with senior employees in six hotels in the national capital city New Delhi, India (four interviews before the lockdown and two interviews during the lockdown). Empirical findings showed that at various phases of the crisis, hotels were taking different approaches to survive. The hotels were introducing strategies for guest retention to create stronger guest relationships. This paper presents the impact of this crisis on hotel employees and how the hotels are reacting to this crisis. The practical and theoretical implications of the study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]