How do hotels treat the additional housekeeping cost during COVID-19?
The industry has no choice but to spend the money to regain the trust to travel. The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to influence housekeeping for a long time. Until then, the hotel have no choice but to bear whatever costs it takes to make it safe and clean..If it is branded, it would likely fall on the owner not the brand. In whichever case, the cost of not doing it can be worse.
People will want to travel, initially somewhere not too far. Most importantly, they will want to stay in a hotel that is safe. Then there is the ‘affordability’ factor – especially at a time the global economy is shattered.
The majority of hotels will attempt to reduce expenditure to the bone except for spending on safety. It can, however, go horribly wrong should quality and standards be compromised. Remember, social media has not been affected by the coronavirus. Some hotels may treat it as another cost of operations and factor it into the room rate. If you are confident about raising rates, do so, and let the market decide.
A major hotel group has toyed with the idea of adding a COVID-19 fee, as a percentage to the bill. Whilst the industry is persuading people that it is safe to travel, to tell them the exact opposite; that the hotel is clean only if they pay a surcharge sends a wrong message. The danger here is that if one major global hotel group adopts this approach, it could open the door for others to follow.
As seen in the aftermath of an act of terrorism, we will observe phases of travel growth leading eventually to the return to pre-COVID levels. We can then expect the more rigorous virus-specific measures to be less evident. This is not to say that the importance of cleaning will not lurk in guests’ minds but that it alone, will not be the absolute ‘visual’ cue.
Eventually, the delicate balance between doing too much versus doing too little, will need to be frequently reviewed over the next several months. Making the hotel safe should be the ultimate goal, where profitability is a bonus. And that requires a re-examination of the entire business model and value proposition – at least for now or until a vaccine is discovered.
Looking beyond the recovery, the best solution for an acceptable level of sanitation, though, may not be derived from an increased frequency of cleaning specific surfaces, but rather from removing the need to constantly wipe these materials down in the first place.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
The above article is from our video series “19-Hospitality Related Questions on Covid-19", which can be viewed on our Youtube channel here Why not take a moment to share your experience with us, or if you have a question you'd like answered, get in touch through reachus@hospitalitysrilanka.com We hope to hear from you, and in the meantime, check out our social media feeds on Facebook and Instagram.
Shafeek Wahab - Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka |
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