Hotel operators, who recall past cycles when booming growth came after business downturns “have to get over the idea that things are going to get back to the way they were,” said Lalia Rach, the dean of the hospitality program at the Tisch Center.

Every couple of months, I like to take the temperature of the hotel business because, like most business travelers, I generally like the way domestic hotels steadily improved services for about a decade. On Monday, I spoke with two experts at New York University Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management. Both say the hotel industry needs to think differently about how it does business, even after it gets back to a firmer financial footing.

Hotel operators, who recall past cycles when booming growth came after business downturns “have to get over the idea that things are going to get back to the way they were,” said Lalia Rach, the dean of the hospitality program at the Tisch Center.

She sees a number of hurdles once hotels start to recover, including improving person-to-person service, which has slipped as many hotels laid off staff and added extra work for those still on the job.

“They’ve cut so much labor that there is perhaps the question, ‘Do they really still have a customer service attitude?’ ” she said. “Do people still understand they’re in the hospitality industry?”

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