Cleaning up the crisis

How hotels have risen to the challenge of keeping guests safe during the pandemic

- HANNAH BRANDLER

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked huge damage on the hospitality industry over the past year, with new strains of the virus creating additional threats at the turn of the decade. Where hotels have been able to stay open, they have had to adapt quickly to new regulations, redesigning spaces and enhancing cleaning to keep guests and staffsafe, all the while trying to maintain some kind of revenue stream through initiatives such as “work from hotel” packages.

Guests too have changed their behaviour. Whereas once they may not have thought much about the work that goes on behind the scenes, now travellers prioritise hygiene when booking. According to a survey carried out in the UK and US by Honeywell in December, 48 per cent of respondents said that enhanced cleanliness or health and safety procedures would motivate them the most to stay in a hotel, while 57 per cent of those in the US cited cleanliness as the top deciding factor for choosing which one to book.

Here we explore the new safety measures that have fundamentally changed the guest experience.

KEEP IT CLEAN

All of the major hotel chains have developed robust new cleaning protocols, reviewing each department and providing staffwith comprehensive safety and hygiene training. For many groups, this meant consulting external experts on keeping guests safe.

In April last year, Marriott International unveiled its Global Cleanliness Council, a body comprising specialists in hospitality, epidemiology, sanitation and protective health and hygiene technology.