In this episode of the Suite Spot, we continue our discussion on COVID-19 and the virus’s impact on the hotel industry. Host Ryan Embree welcomes Jason Lee, Vice President of Product & Technology, back to the Suite Spot to get his perspective and insights on this unprecedented global crisis. With years of experience as a hotel owner and general manager, Jason shares the similarities and differences between this crisis and those from the past, like 9/11 or the Great Recession. Ryan and Jason give tips and ideas on how to reassure your hotel’s guests and future travelers utilizing social media, online reviews, and review responses. They provide some thoughtful advice on how to “stay in the today” and control what you can in these uncertain times. If you are looking for help with a hotel action plan during this time, reach out to us by phone or text at 407-984-7455. Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. We are continuing our educational content on the current COVID-19 situation that our industry is in, our nation, and globally is in. So for this discussion today, I figured I'd pull in a little backup, a very seasoned veteran of the hospitality industry. You've heard his voice many times here on the Suite Spot, that is Mr. Jason Lee, he is our vice president of product development and technology who joins me remotely. So usually we're in the office together, but Jason, I appreciate you taking the time to join me today. Jason Lee: Awesome. Thank you for having me, Ryan. Yeah, it is a departure from being able to look you in the eye, but I do appreciate you having me on. Ryan Embree: Yeah, absolutely and we'll kind of jump right into it. As I mentioned before, you know, we did an episode in the past about the beginning steps to this situation. It's been a couple of weeks since, so I figured, let's go ahead and get you in here. You've been on both sides of the front desk as a general manager, owner, and then on the other side working with Travel Media Group, you know, so I wanted to get your input on, because you've been through this, you've been through some sort of crisis, whether that's something like 2001 in 9/11 or the 2008 financial crisis, you know, we have those ebbs and flows in our industry and in our economy. How is this crisis, this COVID-19 crisis, in 2020 different from maybe those that you've experienced before? Jason Lee: Well, I mean, I think there's the good and the bad of the situation and the bad is just how drastic the occupancy swing was. So in other areas, like even during 9/11, there was obviously a huge swing in travel in general, so people didn't want to travel. The people didn't have money or didn't have as much discretionary money at the 2008 financial crisis, but in this case, it's something where it's a full shutdown of everything, you know, so it's a shutdown of restaurants, its a shutdown of travel, of just movement - so that's the bad side. The bad side is like how drastic of a cut it is. The good side, unlike the other ones, is that there is a clear end in sight. And even though it may not seem clear from maybe nightly news or from the stuff you read, there is a clear end from every country that's experienced this, where you see the path back and this is something that is temporary. It's something that has an end and so it's understanding that and being able to weather this time period. So with the financial crisis, the uncertainty and like the literal like cut of discretionary money or people's uncertainty about their financial future,