Essence of warmth and hospitality needs to remain intact: Julian Ayers

When asked about his views on the adaptation of new designs of hotels in the future, he said, “People’s expectations of the hotels continue to change constantly.” He further said, “New designs, new technology needs to come in. The important thing is that we do not destroy the design in order to make it completely safe, it should remain welcoming and easy for guests.”

According to him, with the incorporation of technology-friendly designs for a safer environment, the essence of welcoming should not vanish from the hotels.

Relating to ‘Going Touchless’, Ayers highlighted how technology is taking over to provide services through screens or other elements and the need of hotels to be tech-savvy is the future course of action.

On regaining consumer confidence, he stated “Hotels are probably one of the safest places. There is a huge amount of effort put in by brands to make sure the guests have a hygienic and safe experience.” He informed that Hyatt has collaborated with GBAC (Global Biorisk Advisory Council) to provide special training to the entire staff. 

Moving ahead he said, “Events have a huge human element of guests where they are meeting relatives after a very long time. So social distancing will be difficult. At the same time, hotel staff has to be kept safe.” Ayers also added that just how ‘Namaste’ is a part of our muscle memory, hygienic wellbeing also needs to be imbibed in our DNA. 

Ayers mentioned about the significant role of social media during these unprecedented times. The posts and videos give an insight to the guests of the initiatives take by all the brands for a completely safe environment. The guests gain a huge amount of confidence when they know that everything around them is being sanitized and well maintained. He said, “There is a huge amount of effort from all the brands for creating a safe environment.”

Ending on a positive note he said, “At all times we are delivering that care to our guests and our guests should have confidence in our products and understand that we have their best wellbeing at heart.”