Think Staycations and Cleanliness Theater for COVID Travel
There are two terms to mull over for how the travel will change in the near future and both relate to the heightened sense of agoraphobia and fear of unhygienic spaces. And those hotels that are able to figure out these two terms apply in a post-COVID world will indeed see their occupancies return.
First to understand is the fear instilled in people's minds from all this panic that will linger for long after the all clear is given. Call it 'post coronavirus stress disorder' (PCSD). What this means is that your newly adopted hygiene standards put in place to address COVID-19 will likely have to remain in perpetuity - no matter the cost increase to sustain them - lest you trigger someone with PCSD.
People of all ages will almost irreversibly uphold a heightened sensitivity for proper cleaning practices in public areas or practically any other space utilized by strangers. And they will inevitably judge your property on this, whether consciously or not. That is, a lack of pristine sanitization SOPs will lead to strongly negative reviews unlike in months or years past where a guest may have let it slide or only docked a single star.
This brings us to the concept of 'cleanliness theater' based upon the previously established counterpart of 'security theater'. The latter is a well-documented practice whereby it is not only about any crime-prevention updates you make but also ensuring that people see those countermeasures in place so they can feel safer. There are numerous examples of security theater in modern use to illustrate the point.
Simplest would perhaps be the decision between setting up a hidden camera to monitor an area versus installing a larger one protruding out from the ceiling with several conspicuous blinking lights to indicate that it's turned on. Both accomplish the goal of allowing guards to observe the space, but only the latter is visible to the passersby. For regular people this means they know they are being watched and thus have a heightened sense of protection because a team will immediately see when something is wrong. For any potential lawbreakers, this is also a deterrent because they know there is surveillance.
Some cleanliness theater operational changes might include consistent reminders to your loyalty base about what steps you have taken to increase hygiene onsite, having your custodial staff clean public areas during the morning or afternoon busy periods instead of only during the middle of the night when your lobby is empty, having all your servers or front desk clerks wear gloves at as part of their uniforms and perhaps even putting hand sanitizers or disinfecting wipes in the guestrooms.
We all know that online reviews are a major influencer for booking and that they reflect the number of return visits you receive, so letting guests mark you down for cleaning errors is an ever-riskier venture, especially if a guest is in a PCSD state of mind. Applying a bit of cleanliness theater will help.
The next term is more well-known but still nevertheless critical. Staycations will work best for boutique properties or B&Bs in rural towns and remote locations with negligible group business.
This is because the small guestroom size will be interpreted as fewer overall guests and therefore a greatly reduced possibility of one of those guests being sick - a safe haven for locals who want a vacation but are fearful of airports. Regardless of size or segment, by focusing on staycations and hyper-local markets for groups, there is a very good chance that any property can carry on through this with as short a disruption as possible.
While things may look bleak right now, the night is darkest just before the dawn. Never stop working and use this downtime to handle all those long overdue projects or technological implementations you never got around to completing.
