Way forward for Hospitality industry during and post Corona Pandemic

The whole world being anxious during Corona Pandemic when sometimes people have a need to travel, they feel even more uncomfortable if they have to stay elsewhere other than their own house. I being a travel influencer am tired of not travelling since last 5 months now. Travel is my way of life and I have an itchy feet. Although I am still trying to stay at home, I am preparing myself for my future travels. So, I inquired about various preparations from different hospitality brands so that I am rest assured when it comes to stay at places of my choice. Since I have little kids, I have to be even more cautious for our stays.  I interacted with spokespersons of Asia Leisure Hotels Srilanka;  Noor Mahal ; Naad Wellness, Viveda Wellness and Karma Lakelands from India. Below are some points that I was curious about. See what the industry experts have to say about them.

How are you anticipating the inflow of guests post Corona Pandemic?

Manoj Khetan, Co-founder – Naad Wellness said – Hyper-local travel will be among st the first to begin. Guests would prefer short breaks to properties and destinations they can drive down to, instead of taking flights or trains. While health and wellness travel will be the priority of travelers, they may not be able to spend more than a weekend away from work and keeping this in perspective, we have a 2-night package, Nirāmayā by Naad in the pipeline. This package will address the need of the hour – immunity boosting and recovery from the symptoms of weeks of social distancing (insomnia, stress, irregular eating habits etc).

Facade Naad Wellness

Noor Mahal

David Jones- Director of Sales & Marketing for Asia Leisure Hotels said It is very difficult to predict anything at this stage. We are however optimistic that many of the more seasoned travelers will want to travel again and they will be most comfortable travelling to countries that they feel are safe. The Sri Lankan government has done a good job of keeping the situation under control and have put in place certain protocols that all international travelers must follow once the country re-opens its International airports. We anticipate a gradual build-up of international travel and this will be also be affected by how each outbound country returns to normal. Obviously some countries will take longer than others based on where they are today.

View from Taprobana Wadduwa Beach Resort Sri Lanka

Dr Rejith Daniel General Manager Viveda wellness Village Nashik said – Viveda Wellness Village being a wellness resort we are concentrating on immunity booster programmes as Indian system of Medicines under Ayush like Homoeopathy, Ayurveda, Naturopathy and Yoga is practiced, preached and followed at Viveda. As the international market is yet to open full fledged another 4 to 6 months concentration is on the domestic market.

Viveda Wellness Nashik

Mr. Daman Deep Singh, General Manager of Karma Lakelands  said- Karma Lake Lands enjoys the opportunity of being located on close proximity to Delhi as the guests can reach us in close 45 minutes drive. We are also coming up with exciting offers on stay vacation packages that will provide our guest a green and serene environment.

Karma Lakelands

What are the safety measures you are taking for the vicinity?

Manoj Khetan, Co-founder – Naad Wellness said-  Naad has always had a robust safety and security system in place and we have never allowed walk-in guests or friends of our resident guests to visit the property. Should guests wish to visit for a consultation with the doctor ahead of making a reservation or come in for a show-around, they have to have to make a prior appointment. All our associates and managers stay at a walking distance from the property  (roughly 200 m away) and they naturally do not use public transport to get to work. As an extra precaution, we will be ensuring that they do not visit hotspots in the areas on their days off or after work.

Aerial Yoga, Naad Wellness

We are strictly following government advisories and guidelines on hygiene and cleanliness. We are conducting awareness sessions on COVID-19 for the entire staff and organizing regular training sessions for our housekeeping staff to follow high standard hygiene protocols. Our staff is taking the utmost care of hand hygiene as it is key to help combat the spread of virus. We are frequently sanitizing every nook and corner of the hotel. We are maintaining ample supply of cleaning products and disinfectants which are effective against viruses. Our housekeeping staffs are well trained to pay special attention to Guest rooms hygiene post guest departure and before the arrival of the next guest. The staff is frequently disinfecting all the key hand touch points in guest rooms, public spaces and office staff areas so as to ensure safe stay of our front line Covid-19 warriors.”

Room at Noor Mahal

Dr Rejith Daniel, General Manager, Viveda wellness Village,Nashik said- The protocols and guidelines by WHO, Central and state governments and also other guidelines of FHRAI are being followed in terms of social distancing, hand sanitizing, disinfection process, guest interaction guidelines etc. On top of that a medical report done a day before arrival is mandatory showing no symptoms of COVID. The guest will be admitted for check in only after a thorough analyzing of the history of travel and other such relevant data.

Viveda Wellness

How are you planning for the new normal hygiene factors for the hotels?

Manoj Khetan, Co-founder – Naad Wellness said- Being part of the healthcare industry, Naad Wellness’ safety and hygiene standards are at par with the country’s leading hospitals. Keeping the current scenario in perspective, here are some of the additional measures that we will be taking:

• Infrared temperature screening of all guests and associates at the entrance, and at regular intervals.
• Masks and disposable gloves are worn by all associates and guests.
• 100% focus on the sanitization of the rooms, public areas, therapy rooms and medical equipment.
• RFID tagging of linen at one of the finest laundry services in the world, which also services the best hospitals in India.
• Associates will not be permitted to use public transport and visit hotspots.

Reflexology track, Naad Wellness

Post-Covid-19, in-room dining will see a significant surge, we would like to keep it more contact less. Even our buffets, there will be more live stations, smaller single-serve portions, and our hotel associates serving the guests behind the counters. Menu engineering is something that we expect to happen where technology will be an important part. As there are several touch-points in a hotel room. The entire focus will be on reducing the common touch-points as much as possible and sanitizing the remaining ones. To maintain seamless operations, we will be collaborating more closely with solution to ramp up the use of cleaning chemicals. We will ensure our hotel from ‘aesthetically clean’ to ‘clinically clean’; each team member will have to wear the housekeeping cap. Our topmost priority is moved to create awareness about hygiene. Thermal check-ups, use of sanitizers and PPE by hotel staff will be the new normal. Linens playing the crucial role in the room, the need of the hour would be sanitizing pillows and mattresses that has come out with pillows which can be washed, sanitized and reused.

Beautiful Noor Mahal

David Jones- Director of Sales & Marketing for Asia Leisure Hotels mentioned – Below are some of the many hygiene protocols that all our hotels currently have in place:

• Rooms will be disinfected several hours prior to a guest arrival and will be sealed until arrival
• On arrival all baggage will be disinfected.
• Traditional greeting method is practiced instead of shaking hands and all staff must wear a mask and gloves when in contact with the guest
• To avoid physical contact with the menus, a printed QR code card will be handed over to the guest to check menus online
• All main contact points/ areas will be disinfected every 4 hours
• At all restaurants, we will maintain a safe distance between tables
• At the swimming pool, we will ensure that sun beds are placed at least 2 metres apart and will limit overall capacity in pool area
• After check out, the room will be disinfected and will not be occupied for at least 48 hours.

The Habitat Kosgoda Hotel by Asia Leisure

Dr Rejith Daniel, General Manager, Viveda wellness Village,Nashik said

Maximum social distancing in all touch points like reception/lobby, restaurants, Yoga places and other public areas. Maximum possible treatment will be given in guest rooms to avoid crowds in wellness centre. The therapist will take maximum precaution while still doing few treatments with bear hands like massages etc. A separate room is assigned for the wellness centre and housekeeping staff to wash and change before and after the duty. 95 % of the employees will be staying inside the campus especially employees working in front end departments like front office, FnB, Wellness centre and Housekeeping. A separate protocol for employees who are day scholars and encouraging departments like finance to work from home policy. Alternate day for linen change, no turn down services, encouraging reuse of bath linen, clinically safe practices for laundry management, inward and outward material management, assigning a dedicated safety officer to check COVID protocols in all departments are functioning properly etc are few of the in depth measures.

Super drink at Viveda Wellness

Mr. Daman Deep Singh, General Manager of karma Lakelands said – We have introduced an initiative names ‘ Karma Kares’ which is designed to ensure even higher safety and hygiene standards by remodeling their SOPs towards ensuring a safe environment for guests.

Karma Lakelands

How are you planning to build trust amongst your customer so that they are rest assured and choose your property for their experience?

Manoj Khetan, Co-founder – Naad Wellness said– The trust in our services has been vouched for by our former resident guests, those who have experienced Naad and healed themselves with us. In fact, we are expecting a lot of repeat guests this year and have also been getting queries from our former guests’ friends and families.

Shirodhara at Naad Wellness

The truth which we consider is that the pandemic is temporary and shall pass. We should continue to plan for the future, as well as take steps to reduce long-term damage from coronavirus and drive faster recovery. To build a trust and confidence among our guests we will have to strongly work on lot of aspects:-

• Follow regularly on the government’s relief schemes
• Attract Millennial Travelers
• Use our current time for In house hotel Maintenance
• Focus on meal delivery from the F&B outlets
• Reconsider existing health and safety techniques, Policies with all procedures
• Ensuring the accuracy of the information on the coronavirus

Pool Side Noor Mahal

David Jones- Director of Sales & Marketing for Asia Leisure Hotels said

Good communication is key. On our website, we have a list of all the health and safety measures in place so that our customers can feel comfortable before making their decision on where to travel. We also encourage our customers to contact us prior to arrival with any specific questions or requests that they may have. At Asia Leisure Hotels, we pride ourselves on offering personalized service.

Asia Leisure Hotels Shinagawa- Srilanka

Dr Rejith Daniel, General Manager, Viveda wellness Village,Nashik said

Showcasing the safety measures and convincing the practices followed in the resort will be the primary focus. Secondary the wellness programmes offered in Viveda which is the need of the time under the supervision of expert medical professional will showcased. The therapy guidelines will be 100% as per the guidelines of Ayush.

Viveda Wellness entrance

Mr. Daman Deep Singh, General Manager of karma Lakelands said -At Karma Lakelands, we are aggressively promoting our new hygiene program to ensure that our guests feel safe while availing our hospitality services.

Golf at Karma Lakelands

What is the target for the first year of new normal post Corona Pandemic beginnings?

Our hotels sailed smoothly into January 2020, after a record year in 2019, with 2020 set to be “even bigger”. We first started feeling the ripple effects of the global COVID-19 turmoil towards the end of February 2020, which worsened at the beginning of March. Occupancy across in our hotel declined rapidly and as per our estimates has declined by a staggering 60 percentage points compared to the previous year. Such a steep decline in such a short period of time has never been witnessed by our sector. We will have to do Budget re allocations, diversion of marketing spends, postponing investment plans, and consolidation are among the measures which we will have to take as hospitality and food & beverage (F&B) industry players are embarking on to deal with the fallout due to Corona

Pool Side Restaurant at Noor Mahal

David Jones- Director of Sales & Marketing for Asia Leisure Hotels said – Our target is simply to regain traveler confidence that both Sri Lanka, and secondly our hotels, are safe to travel. At the same time, we need to reassure travelers that their experience will not be diminished. We want our customers to visit our hotels and share their experiences – this is the best way to convince other potential travelers that they can feel comfortable to visit us

The Habitat Kosgoda Hotel by Asia Leisure

Dr Rejith Daniel, General Manager, Viveda wellness Village,Nashik said- Viveda being a wellness resort, preaching wellness, helping mankind to reroute their lifestyle towards well being, guiding them to strengthen the immunity thereby fighting Corona like illness in future as the world is warned with these kind o outbreaks in future also.

Viveda Wellness

Mr. Daman Deep Singh, General Manager of karma Lakelands said – Our target is to ensure that our employees, guests and members enjoy our services and at the same time feel safe in our newly designed hygiene practises in this world of New Normal

P.S.> All photos credits resepective hotels and resorts

Compiled by Nidhi KM

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