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?

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Tatjana Ahmed
Tatjana Ahmed
Housekeeping Manager at Grand Hyatt Dubai and Functional Specialist Housekeeping for Hyatt Hotels

The revision of cleaning standards in hotels had started immediately with the outbreak of the pandemic as some kind of panic erupted. Traditional cleaning methods and the way rooms are checked and released had to be looked at.

Hotel Housekeepers who keep themselves in the loop on new hygiene practices and are pioneers in the testing and evaluation of new cleaning techniques surely could adapt quickly to new cleaning practices.

In fact, infection control has been a subject for many years and should have been implemented in hotels a long time ago. 

The pandemic has not only brought the basics to light but has urged hotel chains to come up with more rigorous methods of sanitizing their public and private spaces of the hotels, such as the electron static sprayers

Cleaning is no longer a cost center. The pandemic has thought us the value of clean and the importance of well-sanitized guest rooms. A hotel's reputation can quickly go down by not following protocol and having loopholes in the standard cleaning practices. Remember: Housekeeping provides a service with a human touch; they underpin guest's safety and support the business to be successful. Before, during, and after the pandemic.

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