What I would now do when staying at your hotel - Part 1
Dear Hotel Manager,
In the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak subsiding, and, after choosing to stay at your hotel, as you’re soon-to-be guest, there are a few steps I would take to protect myself, my family, my fellow guests and your staff, when staying at your hotel. This is by no means, a vote of ‘no confidence’ on your assurance that the hotel is taking proper precautions to ensure the safety of guests and staff. Instead, I strongly believe, those who stay in any hotel from now onwards, must also play a huge part in supporting the efforts of the host hotel.
Obviously, my family and I would continue to practice social distancing when we walk into your hotel. We would avoid touching any door handles and other objects that others may have touched. Having a person open the door at the entrance to the hotel would be useful - even better is when the doors, operating on sensors, open automatically. Failing which, please have a hand sanitiser installed close by.
To complete my check-in formalities, my order of preference would be to do a ‘self-check-in’, and, in the absence of these kiosks, be presented with a ‘tablet’. Understandably, I would expect that all forms of ‘touch screens’ are sanitized / cleaned thoroughly with a ‘wipe’ after each use. In any case, I will be carrying my personal stock of ‘wipes’ as well as a pen- should you require me to fill up a registration form. If I may advise you, with a certain lack of modesty, please do have a stock of clean pens available at the front desk, for guests who may not be as ‘far thinking’ as myself.
My next course of action is to get to my room - again refraining from touching objects unless I really have to. When using the hotel lift, I will be a model of patience; waiting for one, that is at best, empty and carries just a few of us. Instead of using my finger, I would push the lift button with my faithful pen and should you install a sanitiser in every elevator landing area – brilliant. If the room allocated is a couple of floors above the lobby level, I would not hesitate to take the stairways (without touching the railings), be it going up or when coming down; and never mind if your gym is closed.
Beyond that, the next obvious question is whether my hotel room is truly safe. And one of the most important factors in determining the safety of a hotel room with regard to COVID-19 is how long the virus can survive on surfaces. I do hope your housekeeping staff in particular, know that the COVID-19 coronavirus can survive up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard (though it is much diminished after 3 hours), and up to 2 to 3 days on plastic and stainless steel. (Do hope the plastic room key card your staff gave me was unused and clean?).
In the past, the first thing I did, when entering any hotel room was to check out the toilet/bathroom. Now of course I will wash my hands no sooner I enter the room, since despite my best efforts, they may have still picked up germs on my journey to the hotel, from surfaces in the lobby, the ride up the elevator, even from handling the key card. Thereafter, I might consider wiping down surfaces with a disinfectant a good idea. My wife may well do this chore as women generally make excellent housekeepers.
The most-touched objects and surfaces are the critical areas to address, including door handles, light & lamp switches, bathroom faucets, and toilet flush handles, alarm clocks, hair dryers, TV / AC remote controls and any item that you naturally might reach for. Some extreme measures include not drinking from any glasses or cups in the room. Heck no, I will not bring along my own glasses / cups though I would thoroughly wash what is in my room. Maybe, bringing my own pillowcase could be a safer option.
I generally take of the bedspreads within the hour of entering my hotel room - for several reasons. Bedspreads are hardly cleaned every day. When you start to think of all the things people may put on their bed, like for instance, a suitcase (which I have done several times), you really begin to question the cleanliness. Another of my pet throwaway is the comforter. They may look innocently inviting; but when I know that comforters in certain hotels are washed sometimes as few as 6 times annually, and unlike linen not between guests stay - only the foolhardy would argue with me.
Also, if any hotel staff has handled my luggage, I will disinfect the handles and/or straps or whatever part might have been touched.
Between the hotel meeting the government guidelines and you doing your due diligence in sanitizing, remember I too will be maximizing the safety of your room and lessening the chance of any exposure to my family, myself and of course to your employees.
I will write on how I intend helping you help me keep safe when eating, drinking and relaxing in your hotel in my next letter. Until then, I hope you would share these thoughts with your staff, and reassure them, that just as much as they plan to care for me and my family, we too will help them… make that happen.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, ex-Hotelier
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