With hotels re-opening, how safe is a hotel stay, during COVID-19?

With the lockdown over now, many people are itching to travel again—and wondering whether it will be safe to stay in a hotel during COVID-19? Unfortunately, there's no real ‘yes-or-no’ answer to the question of whether it's safe to travel right now - let alone stay in a hotel.

Staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from getting sick. But if you really are keen to ‘take a break’ away from home to stay in a hotel, make sure that your hotel is taking the pandemic seriously.

Checking into a hotel does carry a degree of risk and the risk is greater when you check-in to a hotel that is busy, crowded and where social distancing is difficult or not practiced properly.

 Here are a few ‘red flags’ you need to be aware of.

1. Consider where you want to go. Is it to a popular vacation area or to a more isolated area? A vacation area, particularly a ‘hot spot’ will attract large visitor foot traffic from different areas and the risk of viral transmission could be significantly high. But if visiting a more isolated area, the risk is far less. More people more risk – stands to reason.
2. Once you have decided where you are going, selecting a hotel will be dependent on your own personal comfort, affordability and confidence level that the hotel you’re staying is safe. How do you do that needs to be carefully evaluated.
3. Check websites for what steps hotels are taking to protect guests Stay at a reputable place that discloses its cleaning tactics to the public - like what some of the larger hotels are doing right now.
4. The housekeeping in hotel rooms can also be an issue. You can be checked into a room that was occupied until 2-3 hours prior to your arrival, same-day. That’s not good and hotels with a small room inventory, in pursuit of business at any cost, may well cut corners.
5. Ideally, the hotel must exhibit a stepped up cleaning and sanitising routine. Failing which, it must commit to a ‘Booking buffer’ to create a longer period. A booking buffer is where visitors are booked into a room after it has been kept vacant for three days. Basically, experts predict the end of the shelf life for the virus at that point in time – so all surfaces are safe to touch by then. Keeping a room vacant for 72 hours may prove difficult to many hotels when demand builds up. However, a 24 hour booking buffer is minimum.

Apart from the above, you need to swing towards hotels that operate with decreased occupancy, (a hotel that boasts ‘We’re running full all the time’ is a ‘no go’). Other positive aspects include frequent disinfecting, digital check-in with digital keys, and 24-hour vacancy between guest departures and contactless touchpoints.

You need to ask yourself these questions before traveling as selecting the ‘right’ hotel is important.

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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