This has been a wild 12 months and in all honesty the coming year looks to be just as challenging. What we have seen in the last year from a business standpoint is the number of businesses which have been forced to switch things up and get creative with regards to their operations. Corporate housing is a great example of this and when it comes to Covid corporate housing New York has very much changed from the hustle and bustle places that they once were.
These changes of course have been necessary and here is how the industry has reacted.
Charitable
When New York was the epicenter of the virus back in early April, we quickly saw a great many in the private sector coming to the aid of so many in the public sector who were battling the virus. What we saw from corporate housing companies at that stage was that they gave up those rooms and those properties to healthcare workers to stay, those in particular who were forced to stay away from their family as a result. This was an incredible act of kindness and those who took this step deserve to be lauded for it.
New Routines and Regulations
Slowly but surely things did nice again open up last year and when this happened with the corporate housing companies, they were forced to do things under new conditions. What we saw was a massive increase in deep sanitization and cleaning, training given to management and staff about the new ways of working and an altogether different accommodation option with tighter, yet necessary restrictions.
New Marketing
These companies had to invest in marketing owing to the fact that they were struggling to get people through the doors, and to let people know that there were back up and running. Much like so many businesses however, the marketing had to be done with the right tone, because of the savage nature of the virus and the impact which it was having, and still is having, on people. This marketing was less about ‘look what luxuries we can offer you’ and much more about ‘look at the steps which we have taken to keep you all safe’. This was necessary and another big change which those within this industry had to make.
Bigger Investment
There were a number of companies who took the opportunity during the downtime to get some much needed work done on their properties, gambling that things would be reopened. Those who have done this appear to have made very smart decisions and they not only were able to provide jobs fro painters and builders who perhaps couldn’t work elsewhere, they were also able to get all of this done without having to take any of their properties out of action, because that was something which had already happened.
This, like so many others, was an industry that was hit hard by the pandemic and had to be creative to get through it.