Skip to Main Content
Boston University
  • Bostonia
  • BU Today
  • The Brink
  • University Publications

    • Bostonia
    • BU Today
    • The Brink
  • School & College Publications

    • The Record
Other Publications
BU Today
  • Sections
News, Opinion, Community

Advice from SHA Faculty on How Hard-Hit Hotels Should Communicate during Pandemic

A family takes photos of tulip fields in Lisse, Netherlands

Easter weekend in the Netherlands normally draws large numbers of tourists to enjoy the beauty of the tulips the country is famous for. This family visiting a field of tulips next to the main road in Lisse on Sunday had little company as all nonessential traffic was banned to enforce social distancing and curb the spread of the coronavirus. AP Photo/Peter Dejong

Public Health

Advice from SHA Faculty on How Hard-Hit Hotels Should Communicate during Pandemic

Also in our Coronavirus Monday Roundup: Virtual coffee hour for BU  staff to talk parenting in a pandemic

April 13, 2020
  • BU Today staff
Twitter Facebook

If you have a question or comment related to BU and its response to the COVID-19 crisis, on the subject of the move-out, remote learning, retrieving personal belongings, or anything else, please visit Boston University’s special COVID-19 website. Questions are being answered there by specific departments in a timely fashion. Thank you.
—Doug Most, executive editor, BU Today

Quote of the day:


It is hard to find the words to express my debt to the NHS [National Health Service] for saving my life.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on being released from the hospital after being treated for coronavirus.

Stat of the day:

Coronavirus has revealed that 40% of us can work from home without the world falling apart, and the other 60% should honestly be getting paid a lot more.

— Chad Loder (@chadloder) April 12, 2020

BU News

Coping help for BU employees who are parents, via Zoom

University faculty and staff who have children and may be stressed by what’s happening—whether they’re going to campus every day or working remotely—have a place to come together today, Monday, April 13, from 9 to 10 am, on Zoom. The Faculty & Staff Assistance office will offer a Virtual Coffee Hour for Parents, billed as “a low-stress, no judgment zone for parents to talk about the challenges of social distancing, family togetherness, and for some of us, working remotely, with children of all ages.” It’s a place for parents to come together to share ideas, laugh, and get support. Register here.

Checking in with the hospitality industry

The hospitality industry is one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, as few people are traveling or dining out, even in places where hotels and restaurants are allowed to stay open or shelter anyone other than essential workers. Two School of Hospitality Administration faculty members have penned a guide for those businesses, “Hospitality Communications in a Time of Coronavirus: Tips for Maintaining Trust and Engagement.” Leora Lanz (COM’87), an SHA lecturer and chair of the graduate program, and Makarand Mody, an SHA assistant professor of hospitality marketing, wrote the piece with Marco Ferrari, an Italian branding expert, for the industry website hospitalitynet. It features suggestions for communicating with customers (“Inform all in-house guests regularly—at the point of check-in and throughout the stay—about the measures adopted”), staff (“Keep in mind that associates who are confident in the processes in place at the property level can instruct guests comfortably”), and the media (“Never speculate or respond to hypotheticals. Never say ‘No comment.’ Avoid sarcasm.”).

“Poetry is not a luxury.” These days, face-to-face communication is

Thanks to COVID-19, the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground will host its first-ever virtual Student-Faculty Forum on Tuesday, April 21, exploring the necessity of poetry and the arts in our lives. The event centers around a 1985 essay by writer-activist Audre Lorde titled “Poetry Is Not a Luxury,” about “moving beyond what is, about envisioning, expressing, and grasping things without names, dreaming, freeing oneself of the power structures in which we live.” Register here for the forum on Zoom, which will run from 6:30 to 8 pm. Prior to the event, students are invited to submit their favorite poems as part of the Favorite Poem Project’s Restoration project.


Boston and Beyond News

Living in the city

What will the pandemic’s long-term effect be on America’s cities? After a big move to the suburbs from the post-war 1950s through the 1970s, more recent decades have seen an influx of people seeking what the urban environment has to offer. “The packed stadiums, lively campuses, and vibrant neighborhoods that supply much of the compact city’s energy and charm depend on people being willing to gather,” Tim Logan writes in the Boston Globe, as he wonders how that might change because of the coronavirus and our period of social distancing. “Will it amount to a blip in the decades-long rebound of urban life, or mark the end of an era and the start of a gradual turn to social distancing as a way of life?”


US & Global News

How long to heal the economy? Brace yourself

Officials are already arguing about whether we should be reopening businesses in a few weeks—or a few months. But one expert tells the New York Times that getting the economy back to normal could take up to 18 months. This could be a long, hard road that we have ahead of us,” says Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, who helped lead the response to the 2008 financial crisis as a Treasury Department official.

Latest count of coronavirus cases

United States, 546,874; Massachusetts, 25,475.

Find BU Today’s latest coverage of the pandemic here. The University’s hotline for faculty, staff, students, and visiting scholars to call for referral of their virus-related medical concerns is 617-358-4990.

Related

  • A photo of a career fair at the George Sherman Union

    Jobs

    BU Center for Career Development Increases Help for Students as Economy Worsens

    April 7, 2020

  • A photo of Comm Ave looking down at downtown Boston

    University News

    President Brown Outlines BU’s Path Forward through Pandemic

    April 9, 2020

  • Photo of an empty Campus Center & Student Residence on BU’s Fenway campus on an overcast day. It will now house 75 employees of Boston’s Pine Street Inn, giving rest to the homeless shelter’s pandemic-exhausted staff.

    Coronavirus

    BU to Open Fenway Campus to Pine Street Inn Employees

    April 9, 2020

Explore Related Topics:

  • Coronavirus
  • Share this story

Share

Advice from SHA Faculty on How Hard-Hit Hotels Should Communicate during Pandemic

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • BU Today staff

    BU Today staff Profile

Latest from BU Today

  • Rowing

    BU Rowing Teams Prepare for IRA National Championship Regatta

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Beacon Hill Art Walk

  • In the City

    Getting to Know Your Neighborhood: Davis Square

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: The Light in the Piazza

  • Jobs

    Job-Hunting as a New Graduate: What You Need to Know

  • Education

    What’s Behind the Rise in Violence Against Teachers?

  • Fine Arts

    How I Made This: Jacob Whitchurch (CFA’26)

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Seaport Sweat

  • Film & TV

    Did You Win Free Tickets to See Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning Tonight?

  • COMMENCEMENT 2025

    Experience BU’s 2025 Commencement from a Terrier Point of View

  • Obituaries

    Remembering Leslie Epstein, Pillar of BU’s Creative Writing Program

  • Voices & Opinion

    POV: This Memorial Day, Remember BU’s Fallen Heroes by Visiting the New Online Honor Wall

  • University News

    23 Charles River Campus Faculty Promoted to Full Professor

  • Commencement 2025

    Photos: A Look Back at BU’s Commencement

  • Theatre

    It’s “Prom Season” at Wheelock Family Theatre

  • Things-to-do

    Six Spots to Check Out This Memorial Day in Boston

  • Commencement 2025

    Video: Class of 2025: What We’ll Take with Us as We Begin a New Chapter

  • Health & Medicine

    What Does Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Mean?

  • Watch Now

    BU’s Class of 2025: What Are Your Plans After Graduating?

  • Fitness

    BU Sports Rehab Therapists on Jayson Tatum’s Achilles Injury and Recovery Ahead

Section navigation

  • Sections
  • Must Reads
  • Videos
  • Series
  • Close-ups
  • Archives
  • About + Contact
Get Our Email

Explore Our Publications

Bostonia

Boston University’s Alumni Magazine

BU Today

News, Opinion, Community

The Brink

Pioneering Research from Boston University

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Weibo
  • TikTok
© Boston University. All rights reserved. www.bu.edu
© 2025 Trustees of Boston UniversityPrivacy StatementAccessibility
Boston University
Notice of Non-Discrimination: Boston University prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex or gender, age, national origin, ethnicity, shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, military service, marital, parental, veteran status, or any other legally protected status in any and all educational programs or activities operated by Boston University. Retaliation is also prohibited. Please refer questions or concerns about Title IX, discrimination based on any other status protected by law or BU policy, or retaliation to Boston University’s Executive Director of Equal Opportunity/Title IX Coordinator, at titleix@bu.edu or (617) 358-1796. Read Boston University’s full Notice of Nondiscrimination.
Search
Boston University Masterplate
Advice from SHA Faculty on How Hard-Hit Hotels Should Communicate during Pandemic
0
share this
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.