Forget spas and bars – hotels flaunt housekeeping to lure back travellers

When Beau Phillips checked into a hotel near Toledo recently, a table in front of the counter barricaded him from getting too close to the clerk, who wore a mask and stood behind a plastic window.

“The key is gently tossed at you from three feet away,” said Phillips, a public affairs executive who was staying at a Radisson Country Inn & Suites while visiting family.

The hotel’s breakfast buffet was gone, the fitness centre closed, elevators limited to two riders. And to reduce the risk of an in-person visit, after Phillips left his room each day, no housekeeper came in to make the bed.

The pandemic has plunged the hotel industry into a historic downturn. Average hotel occupancy dipped as low as 22% in late March, and had risen to a still miserable 48.1% the week ending 25 July, according to STR, a market research firm.

So hotels nationwide have embarked on a transformation of the most basic ways they run their business, aimed at showing would-be travellers they understand where they’re at: terrified.

Some new research suggests travellers might have a point. A study scheduled for publication in September in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, but already made public by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its website, found that people infected with the coronavirus shed it on pillow cases, duvet covers, sheets, light switches, bathroom doors and faucet handles.

Ali Solehria, a concierge at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner, took calls from behind a new plexiglass panel. Picture: Alyssa Schukar / The New York Times

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, in its new “Count on Us” pandemic marketing campaign, heralds the use of “hospital grade” cleaning products. It is putting on overt shows of sanitation: Housekeepers now linger and clean around the lobby, conspicuously wiping down public areas, luggage carts, door knobs and the counter.

“In the past, we may have cleaned hotels overnight because you didn’t necessarily want to see people cleaning,” said Lisa Checchio, the chief marketing officer of Wyndham, the franchise parent of Wyndham, Days Inn, Super 8, La Quinta and more than a dozen other major brands among its 6,000 domestic hotels.

Hilton’s new programme (marketing name: “CleanStay”) includes a partnership to use Lysol cleaning products that requires individual hotels to use the company’s products and display the Lysol logo prominently.

Room cleanings include extra time spent on “high-touch areas” such as light and climate control switches, handles and knobs, telephones and clocks. And, of course, the remote control “which has one of the highest ick factors or perceived ick factors”, said Phil Cordell, Hilton’s global head of new brand development.

Rooms are sealed after cleanings at the Hilton. Picture: Alyssa Schukar / The New York Times

He recalled that one guest wrapped the plastic lining from the ice bucket around the remote control before using it. “People are understandably freaked out or hyper aware,” Cordell said.

All the attention to sanitation has created other issues. Since the masks employees are required to wear shroud smiles, Hilton has been experimenting with hand gestures to express warmth and welcome.

“One is a very simple wave. In some cultures, it could be a bow,” Cordell said. “It could be hats off but with no hat – but that could look kind of weird – or a hand over heart.”

Choice Hotels, a conglomerate that owns brands including Quality Inn and EconoLodge, found in surveys that travellers wanted prepackaged breakfasts, not buffets, and that any fruit should be the kind that peels.

It also found that would-be guests wanted outdoor space and so it revamped websites of its upscale Cambria brands to highlight photographs of pools and rooftop decks. Some hotels are requiring reservations for the pool to keep density low.

Placards remind guests to maintain distance. Picture: Alyssa Schukar / The New York Times

Given the industry’s dire economic crisis, some of the changes it’s adopting cost little, or even save money, said Bjorn Hanson, former dean of hospitality at New York University who spent years working in the industry.

For instance, he said, hotels can save money on housekeeping by not cleaning rooms every night, or by promising not to put guests in adjoining rooms, as some hotels have done (in reality, there’s not enough occupancy to have high density anyway). “Safety doesn’t necessarily cost money,” he said.

Some would-be travellers say they’re just not ready to return, no matter the assurances.

“I’ve stayed at nice hotels in the past and found something sticky. If I found something sticky now it would send me to the moon,” said Kevin Mercuri, chief executive of a New York public relations firm.

He and colleagues recently decided against visiting a client in Georgia partly to avoid hotels.

For people who choose to travel, one perk comes at the expense of the hotels: the price. STR, the market research firm, projects the average cost of a nightly stay in 2020 will wind up at $103 (R1,787), down from $131 a year ago. In July, the average rate was $97.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.