Fear & Quarantining in COVID-19: How Consumers' Concerns Impact Hospitality & Travel

IDC recently conducted a survey of 1500+ U.S. consumers to gauge how the COVID-19 pandemic was influencing behavior across healthcare, retail, banking and hospitality and gain insight to what characteristics will define the new normal for brands dealing with a consumer base wary of germs and craving transparency.

The study reveals that 86% of consumers are concerned or very concerned about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). These concerns are driving the majority to forego travel during the outbreak in addition to changing where they will look to stay upon resuming travel as well as how they will interact with restaurants.

Key takeaways from this data include:

* Guests' top fear about resuming travel is contracting the virus. To assuage this concern, brands must be prepared to report cleaning protocols and practices with guests on a regular basis.

* Guests will seek out brands that are transparent with their responses to COVID-19. The preferred method of receiving updates is email. However younger demographics (18-24) are more likely to want SMS texts or mobile app alerts.

* Travelers will align quality and brand name recognition with cleanliness and safety in the aftermath of the outbreak. They will seek out four-star or above establishments and will forego homeshares in favor of hotels.

* Diners will seek out contactless options, but are less trusting of third-party delivery than in-house delivery teams.

Further analysis of COVID-19's impact on hospitality & travel can be found here.