A hotel stay that doesn’t include a breakfast buffet, an in-room minibar and a coffee station would have been inconceivable to many Americans three months ago. But the onset of the coronavirus has prompted a sea change that could alter everything from how guests check in and eat to how rooms are cleaned.
Hotel experts predict that the pandemic will drastically alter hotel stays in coming months, prompting many properties to embrace a host of new practices, up to and including temperature checks upon guests’ arrivals.
“Hotels tend to be a reactive business,” said Chekitan Dev, a professor of marketing and branding at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. “It’s taken COVID-19 for a lot of hotels to take a harder look at safety procedures and to up their game.”
Dev points to safety-conscious procedures enacted in recent days at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City as a prime example of the changes that could be coming soon to hotels across the country.
“We’re a guinea pig,” said Rudy Tauscher, general manager of the Four Seasons. “We’re at the forefront of the hospitality world’s ‘new normal.'”
The Four Seasons’ guinea pig journey began last month, when H. Ty Warner, the property’s owner, said he would open his hotel’s doors to medical professionals working on the COVID-19 battlefront. The announcement set into motion a series of moves that have overhauled the hotel’s standard operating procedure.
“We now have almost no touch points in the entire hotel, which is completely against a hotel’s nature of being hands-on and kind,” Tauscher said. “We used to be known for the human touch — but now we’re all about no touch at all.”
Check-ins and check-outs are performed virtually, with no human-to-human contact. Elevator rides are limited to one guest per car. Room service has been discontinued, and the hotel’s restaurant, bar and complimentary coffee station are closed indefinitely.
The hotel’s new dining option: pre-made boxed meals, available in an industrial refrigerator in the lobby.
“I think it’s safe to say that breakfast buffets and communal tables and the kinds of things that had been traditions at many hotels are going away, for who knows how long,” Tauscher said.
