01/05/2020
What next for Hotels & Restaurants....Post Covid19???
Covid-19 disturbed not only the hospitality industry, but it affected everyone’s life and every type of industry with a few exceptions. Even though the life becomes normal, may be after two to three weeks, but it will take long time to get erased from the minds of the people.
The hotels & Restaurants needs to review once again the way they conduct and do their business. Hygiene and Sanitary will be of high priority to the guests besides safety and comfort. Hygiene and sanitary practices should be visible and USP of the hotel.
Social distance is important to mitigate the impact of Covid-19. This means that hotels needs to redesign their queuing systems during check in and check out. Hotel lobby seating need to be re-arranged. May be sofas need to be replaced with the single seaters.
The restaurant seating layout and way buffet spread need to be changed. This will result in reduction of covers in the restaurant. This will effect on restaurant sales. Increasing price is not a solution in the present situation. May be restaurant timings need to adjusted, to accommodate every guest.
Social distancing will effect banquets and conventions. For example, a venue that can accommodate 300 guests earlier will not accommodate 300 guests now. This will drop. This will effect Banquet Revenue.
The new hotels, which are getting ready to open soon, need to think about their hotel design once again, and the existing hotels need to revise their capex, considering Covid-19 measures.
All the doors in the public areas, may have to replace with automatic sliding doors, sensors etc. This is to avoid human touch, steel handles and doorknobs.
At the lobby entrance, disinfectant tunnel next to baggage scanners will be required. All the guests coming inside the hotel will pass thru the disinfectant tunnel. It goes near the staff entrance too. All the staff, visitors, suppliers, contractors enters thru disinfectant tunnel.
Wet napkins, aromatic sanitizers at the reception desk, instead of welcome drinks.
Hand sanitizer facility at every elevator landing area. This will help guest to clean their hand before getting inside the elevator, pressing the service buttons, and disinfects his hands once steping out of the elevator.
Along with guest supplies in the room, add mask and gloves. Along with hair shampoo bottle, conditioner bottle add perfumed hand sanitizer bottle in the kit.
Room attendants to carry Bio Spray disinfectant machine along with vacuum cleaner. Upon guest check out every room to be disinfected, as we do room cleaning.
UV light on-once the guest check out from the room.
Staff awareness and hygiene practices followed by them in their personal life and by the hotel is very important. May be frequent health check and certifications are important. Need to be documented and filed, for any legal issues that might come up.
May be a time will come, we may have to display a certificate outside our hotel or on the hotel website, “ COVID-19 FREE HOTEL”, as we say five star hotel or ISO certified hotel....
I request kindly share this post with others and write your suggestions as well to increase the understanding to become more vigilant and aware whenever operations starts in Hospitality Industry.
Regards
Sudhir Banga
G&G Hospitality Consultants
