As the world starts to reopen, consumers will slowly return to traveling in a world that may be waiting for a vaccine for some time yet. Managing the threat of local outbreaks is ever-present. It is now becoming each hotels' worst nightmare that a guest may be able to prove that an infection was contracted in the hotel and worse still - that a hotel will become associated and identified with an outbreak or a hotspot. 

While clean rooms have emerged as a competitive advantage, managing the perception that rooms are clean and sterilized has emerged as even more important than the actual quality of cleaning itself. 

While room attendants and supervisors have traditionally moved around discreetly to be as invisible as possible, is it time that they now become frontline public relations ambassadors to proudly show off the cleaning effort and visibly engage with guests (at a 6-foot distance) on the floors?

Optii Solutions Pty Ltd

This viewpoint is co-created with Optii Solutions Inc.
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Soenke Weiss
Soenke Weiss
Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Optii Solutions Pty Ltd

The expectation of a cleanroom has evolved from one that is 'dust and debris free' to one that is 'germ-free'. Even a sticker seal in the door cannot ensure that trust. The value for hotels however lies in turning a guest's trust into confidence that a germ-free environment awaits them in their room.

So how can we instill that confidence? One option is for an independent body to provide regular auditing and testing, with those test results having the visibility to come to a prospective guest's attention. This body does not exist yet and hotels are still building trust based on either a self-assessment of service and obvious advertising work, negating the efficiency of those measures.

Humans trust what they observe and see the most. 

Observing room and public area attendants at work may therefore be the most effective way to convert trust into confidence - confidence that a hotel is taking their duty of care seriously and guests are therefore in good hands, being able to trust the hotel with their life.

We should no longer try to hide the activities of our cleaning team but make their activities obvious. As guests walk through a corridor we want them to observe attendants in clean uniform wearing the appropriate PPE, we want to ensure that room service trays, dirty linen bags, and other used items are hygienically handled and out of sight, we want the tools visible and teach our people not to discreetly disappear when a guest approaches but proudly show off the care they take, all while stepping aside to provide appropriate distance. We may even place a sign outside the room to advise that we are creating a clean and virus-free environment for the next arriving guest. Only when we enable a guest to observe the care we take with their own eyes, will we be able to turn an expectation into trust and then confidence. The confidence that they are safe.

And by the way - the same goes for public area attendants - only that they are even more visible. It may even be argued that a visible cleaner in the lobby area is just as important as an ambassador for the hotel as an engaging doorman!

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