Sanitization and Safety will be key to Promote Industry Post Covid19
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy
Our country is collectively fighting an unprecedented problem and unfortunately, our industry is hit the hardest. The hospitality industry is dominantly people-based and for the same reason, it’s hit the hardest by a pandemic which has ‘Social distancing’ as its fundamental solution. The situation calls for everyone to come together and experience the power of the collective.
For obvious reasons, the industry is going to undergo some temporary and some very very permanent changes. The focus is going to completely shift on hygiene, cleanliness, and sanitization. To say that ethical hygiene is going to be the new trend will not be an exaggeration. Sanitizers, along with overall hygiene, will be the new priority for travellers. Corporates while contracting will certainly want to make sure the hotel is meeting the highest standards of safety. New races would not be of lower rates with higher service but of lower rates with the highest safety standards.
Labels like ‘Sanitized for you’ would need to be placed by the Housekeeping teams on all room elements like glassware, toiletries, etc. Hotels will need to focus on reassuring the guests about their safety. Creative solutions like antibacterial doorknobs will be welcomed by guests and sheaths (covers for high touch products) will no longer be optional. A concise concept to reinform guest confidence and assure them of high hygiene standards could be by following the ‘Engineering Gold Standards’. Few things on top of my mind:
* Air quality: Maintain the right air quality inside the hotel would automatically make the guests feel at ease. Air quality within the hotel must be distinguishably better than outside.
* Water quality: Maintain right pH levels and PPM levels in the water used by guests
* Decibel Level: Make sure the decibel levels in rooms fall into the appropriate brackets
* Reflectance quality of linen: Linen is one of the first elements which can make your break guest’s opinion. Clean linen with high reflectance quality becomes vital to build confidence
* Area per person: Focus on space management and review metrics like ‘area per person’ to practice physical distancing smoothly. Space management at multiple levels and overall interior designing of hotels will need to be ‘Social distancing’-themed.
* Lux levels: Appropriate light in rooms and public places to elevate mood
* Moreover, small details like the orientation of AC ducts in hotels should be placed mindfully in a way that direct air-flow does not affect the guests. Learning from a recent event in a restaurant, where three families were affected by one due to the AC ducts which gushed heavy air-flow directly on the two people after passing through the COVID positive person.
On the other side of COVID-19, hotels, as well as guests, will adopt new patterns and new demands will rise. Virtual escapism is going to be the new trend, along with new trends of inter-country/domestic travel and shorter stays for business. Moreover, I strongly resonate with few points experts have been saying.
Health food will gain even more importance with a large part of the audience to boost immunity. Welcome drinks will no longer be fruit juices and royal Khus, rather an immunity-boosting ‘Hot lemon water with raw honey’ would be preferred.
Fittest and sharpest MIGHT come back sooner but we can’t say for sure. Simply because this unprecedented pandemic has changed the definition of ‘Fittest’ and ‘Sharpest’ for the industry. A well-established hotel chain might take longer to come back than an independent hotel based on the clientele that they serve. Since domestic and local travel is bound to recover way earlier than international travel- the ‘fit and sharp’ hotels in a ‘pre-COVID’ world might or might not still be the same in a ‘post-COVID’ world. As I like to summarize it - ‘Big in the heart’ will not work as efficiently in a post-COVID world as ‘Big in mind’. The imminent global slow down would have to be viewed in various stages by hotel teams- the first being to survive, then to gradually revive and last to steadily drive!
Hotels should focus and invest in developing user-friendly interfaces to carry out virtual check-ins. On-arrival in-person meetings by Managers for guests would rather be done virtually on TV. Pre-arrival Check-ins/ Online check-in/ Telephone Check-in. Moreover, Airline/hotel check-in should have distant lines for guests and the culture of physical distancing should be promoted by hotel staff. To make structures smooth, first-class passengers should have the right to passage- like jet airways used to check in its priority passengers first.
It goes unsaid that many developing cities that had many hotel rooms in the pipeline to debut in 2020-21 will face many more challenges in terms of getting occupancies in place due to two reasons. It’s a new product and people may not want to test and simply stay in what is safe and has been reliable in the past. Anyway, a new hotel post opening takes a minimum of 2 years to stabilize and here with this new problem things might get worse. My suggestion to such hotels will be to maintain the highest of safety and be unique when it comes to safety and sanitization. They may consider spending some money in technological reforms to ensure guest safety and sanitization. They must also post a unique technological setup to market it well by virtue of online and print media.
Sales which used to be in-person for the longest time will see a shift I feel. Sales negotiation for MICE might see a shift to video conferencing for negotiation and discussion of fine details. Moreover, I feel GDS contribution and Consortia will see a spike again which has been weaker than usual, for some time.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Think outside the box for marketing and revenue strategies since priorities have clearly shifted from a consumer point-of-view and old strategies will do more harm than good. It’s time for the blue ocean strategy for the hospitality industry. Zero-based budgeting must be done for respective hotels with extensive expense management strategies. Sales teams should pull a list of loyal guests and bookers to be constantly in touch with them and keep them updated with reforms the hotel has taken to ensure guest safety and sanitization.
‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. The industry needs young minds- the ones which work without bias- to come up with unprecedented solutions to this unprecedented problem. To summarise, here are some themes that can help in recovery:
* MAKE IN INDIA & SERVE IN INDIA: Focus on domestic tourism capture rate is the most definitive answer to revival. So all steps be it the correct communication and messaging or revenue management strategy or the MICE plan, all have to keep the domestic business in mind.
* NAMASKAR: Pairing up with airlines to bring in business and to reassure travellers on hygiene and safety
* MOVEABLE FEASTS: Gourmet food delivery v/s Dine-in Experiences will have one clear winner due to social distancing.
* BE ORIGINAL: Stay true to your efforts in reviving your business. Everyone is trying to do everything and the consumer can see through it, more than ever before.
* PEOPLE FIRST: Think of your employees as much as your guest, if not more. Their safety is most important and will help companies revive. You can only revive if you survive.
Government has already given relaxations but some other suggestions i have are:
* Infrastructure to identify a ‘Republic of COVID-free people’. We’d need relentless testing and certification to be able to demarcate the immune people from the infected ones. This can help govern the admission of staff and guests in the hotel.
* Government should work on providing medical equipment like PPE kits and testing kits to help hotels graduate from temperature guns and sanitization tunnels.
* Relaxation on GST to boost MICE within India.
* Strategies for a dedicated focus on travel and tourism in a ‘post-COVID’ world to promote industry recovery
* Tax break on commercial rent and sanitization costs
* Benefits on donations made for COVID-19 relief
Many developing countries have already announced a certain percentage of salary contribution to all hospitality and tourism employees. Similar actions should be taken since the industry contributes more to GDP in comparison to many of these countries.
Assurances about sanitization and safety will be key to promote the industry after the COVID crisis. Investment in equipment like temperature guns, thermal detectors and sanitization tunnels would be prioritized. Indian hotels have an edge, which is Indian cuisine. The immunity-boosting spices and herbs can be a promotional aspect to attract domestic tourism as well as international visitors. Buffets will be phased out and be rapidly replaced by the Thali system or simple Silver service by the Republic of COVID-free people! Probably the ancient ways of dining that are mentioned in Vedic literature should be considered since they propagate individual eating. It might sound a little parochial in our times, but it remains relevant in its principles of social and physical distancing. Among many dedicated practitioners of these principles, one was ‘The Maharaja of Benares’. He used to eat in isolation and his food, once prepared, was kept untouched ensuring the highest standards of cleanliness and hygiene.
Let’s get inspired by the history preserved in the ancient sacred literature of the Vedas enshrines a holistic and poetic cosmic vision. They represent the oldest, the most carefully nurtured, the most elaborately systematized and the most lovingly preserved oral tradition in the annals of the world. Unique in their perspective of time and space, their evocative poetry is “a joyous and spontaneous affirmation of life and nature”. The Vedic seers regarded the Earth as ‘sacred space’ for the consecrated endeavours and aspirations of humankind and for the practice of restraint and responsibility. This affirmative view of the inviolable sacred space in human consciousness is integral to the Vedas and the Upanishads. Such a world can only be sustained by “Satyam Brhat Rtam Ugram”, the severely exacting discipline of truth, harmony and rectitude, based on a conception of cosmic and comprehensive peace. The spiritual, ethical, individual and collective dimensions of human life constitute a continuum, encompassing the whole of the Indic heritage and transcending all segments and fragments.
There has been a prolonged need for the industry to come together and work in a more structured way instead of cannibalizing on each other. COVID-19 has made it more urgent, it is time for the industry to work together and catalyze the recovery. The Hotel Industry needs to forge together and put collective needs above individual needs. Our inherited past inspires us like so:
The Indian environmental ethos declares that all aspects and phenomena of nature belong together and are bound in a physical as well as the metaphysical relationship, and views life as a gift of togetherness and of mutual accommodation and assistance in a universe teeming with interdependent constituents. India’s approach to the environment is even today a part of its living legacy. The COVID consequence is such, that our way of life seems embattled and imperilled all around. And yet India is endowed with an uncanny and time-tested resilience. In that resilience, there is hope and promise for India and the rest of the world. We are, of course, at war until a holistic cure or vaccine comes forth. With the human spirit, in God's own time, holds forth to enforce the peace.
"Dil na-umeed to nahi na-Kaam hi to hai, lambii hain, Gam ki sham magar shaam hi to hai." (The heart isn't hopeless it's only disappointed, lengthy are my evening grieves but Actually they are just evenings.)
- Faiz Ahmad Faiz
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