•Refining a pandemic crisis management framework in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.•Identifying strategic responses of the hotel sector based on global news media.•Analyzing appropriate strategies for hotels in each crisis phase.•Showing the influences of contextual factors (e.g., government, hotel resources)•Technological advancement and business innovation can support hotel resilience. The Covid-19 pandemic has long-lasting impacts that require the hotel sector to revise, innovate and transform their businesses. However, the literature related to this area remains vastly under-developed. Based on 219 articles collected from global news media and an integrated crisis management framework, this research note map out "strategic responses" from the hotel sector and suggest implications for hotels to address the evolving pandemic situation. Three modifications were proposed to refine and further develop a pandemic crisis management framework.