Although the travel and tourism industry has been decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic, little research has empirically examined the types and effectiveness of the hotel’s industry’s responses. To examine common response strategies within the hotel industry and assess their effectiveness, two studies were conducted. Study 1 included a hybrid approach involving deductive and inductive thematic analyses to evaluate a large volume of news articles. Five broad themes emerged: revenue management, crisis communication, alternative approaches to service delivery, human resource management, and corporate social responsibility. Drawing upon protection motivation theory, Study 2 involved a pre-test, pilot study, and main experimental study to investigate the effectiveness of three customer-oriented response strategies. Results showed that reassuring crisis communication and contactless services can foster consumer confidence and response efficacy, leading to positive customer attitudes and booking intentions. Crisis communication and price discount were found to influence consumers’ attitudes and booking intentions directly
