How hotels will change after Covid
Hygiene initiatives and contactless technology are just the start of the hotel design revolution, says Qin Xie
Coronavirus has changed travel in so many previously unimaginable ways. There's the visible, like having to wear masks on flights or needing to show a negative Covid test result before you're allowed to enter a country. Then there's the subtle, like destinations embracing technology and data to help with crowd control. Arguably, some of the biggest changes have taken place in the hotel industry - though as a guest, you'll probably only have noticed the disappearance of the breakfast buffet. In the UK, for example, hotels are undergoing deeper cleans and some will even leave rooms to go fallow for a short stint between guests. Globally, the promise to ban single-use plastics has been delayed for many properties.