The Great Reset: Hospitality Redefined

COVID-19 has been a transformational stressor and accelerator for hospitality. The crisis has also magnified the existence and impact of pre-existing challenges and issues (e.g., technology evolution and climate change) and intensified the need for urgent industry action. This chapter identifies and discusses the major changes taking place in hospitality by clustering them into the following categories: the hospitality offerings; the safety, cleanliness and hygiene protocols; the servicescape design; employees management; and brand communication and marketing. The chapter also analyses both the immediate and long-term implications of these changes for the industry, with the purpose to start a debate and inspire research directed to the re-imagination and the re-setting of the hospitality industry. Overall, COVID-19 imposed changes affect the core DNA of hospitality by resetting our understandings and practices of the essence of hospitality. The chapter concludes by discussing how the crisis directs all hospitality stakeholders to rethink and re-imagine their business and social practices, which in turn reform hospitality in the next normal.