A conceptualized model of crisis management for small hotel companies

With the increased globalization and interconnectivity, no economy of the world is able to stay immune to recessions. Similarly, recessions and crises are part of normal business cycle and hospitality industry is not an exception to it. Therefore, development of a crisis management system in the field of hospitality management has become very relevant. Several models have been developed to deal with the necessity of implementing successful crisis management strategies in hotel industry. However, no specific model has been conceptualized for small hotel companies, which, because of their peculiarities, require ad hoc crisis management strategies. Indeed, the small hotel companies are less resistant to crises because of inner characteristics: fewer resources and less specialized management. After reviewing the literature and by taking into consideration the specific characteristics of small hotels, a conceptual model is proposed in this paper. The model has been conceptualized in order to provide a highly flexible and universal tool, that can be adopted by various hotels in different countries and that can address different types of crisis, in different stages by using different approaches. This four stage model has been developed especially regarding the preparation stage and the crisis warnings’ detection: Indeed, preparation is the first step to a successfully crisis management strategy. A further ability of this model is linked to the possibility of working with potential crisis and to turn them into business opportunities.