The New Normal in Our Industry
2020 schooled us in ways that we could never have imagined and the “new normal” in our industry has certainly changed the way we do pretty much everything in our business. Cleanliness is always a top priority, but now it’s become more of an obsession. Whilst being accommodating in respect of the needs of our guests, we are now required to bend over backwards!
Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize
Cleaning products are an integral part of our daily routine. However, these days they seem to be elements of a science lab instead of essentials of the hospitality industry. “Anti-bacterial”, “kills Covid-19”, “anti-viral” and other related terms are descriptions that boost cleaning product sales and attract attention. “Deep cleaning” has become an essential phrase, not to mention “sanitize, sanitize, sanitize!”
A regular, self-catering guesthouse/holiday rental like ours now requires additional cleaning measures. Outdoor and/or indoor, wall mounted or free standing sanitizing stations, signage to indicate instructions and specialized cleaning methods, as well as products to ensure our guests’ and our own safety are essential.
Emails from companies providing deep cleaning – or similar – services flood our inbox. The number of products or services to choose from to take precautions and to stay compliant boggles the mind!
Cleaning Timelines Have Changed
Usually 4 hours between guests checking out at 10:00am and new guests checking in at 14:00pm were enough to get the house and/or cottage spick and span. Unfortunately, our cleaning timelines have changed.
Every handle, remote, light switch, fitting and other items in the house need to be thoroughly sanitized, along with the regular cleaning routines formerly followed. Linen, dish towels and bath towels are soaked overnight and washed on our long, stain expert cycle. Anything to ensure that every germ – let alone virus! – disappears completely.
Suddenly 4 hours seem too short to complete all the required tasks satisfactorily!
(…and we continue to have guests requesting early check in…
Check in - An Art In Being Prepared
Check in used to be simple. A hearty hello, a handshake, a form to complete, show guests around and share some important aspects, hand over the keys and voila! they’re ready to enjoy their stay! That’s no longer the case. Check in is now a clinical art in being prepared. The process of welcoming our guests has changed remarkably.
Contactless is key.
Online registration and check in is preferable and one form is no longer sufficient. In addition, we now have Covid Questionnaires and liability forms that are mandatory to protect everyone involved. Forms are sent to guests online to be completed and sent back before arrival date.
Gone are the handshakes and hello to temperature checks and hand sanitizing BEFORE anything else. Keys are sanitized before we hand them over and interaction is kept to the bare minimum. Pens are sanitized before and after they are used and no longer left at the guesthouse.
We follow protocols and prescribed measures but we rely on our guests to complete forms honestly, to report changes in their health and to inform us if their Covid status changes after departure.
We can’t do much more than that!
Date Changes Galore
Lockdown and travel restrictions brought a whole new perspective to being accommodating to the changing travel needs of our guests. However, we had to get used to date changes galore. We had to adjust our cancellation policies on travel sights and booking portals to ensure that all of the relevant parties were accommodated as fairly as possible. Unfortunately, there is always someone who has to compromise a little more.
I know, I know, it’s definitely not our guests’ fault that interprovincial travel restrictions prevented them from honouring their reservations. As holiday rental owners we tried our damndest to accommodate them as best we could. We managed date change upon date change, gave credit notes and refunded cancellations. When travel reopened both inter-provincially and internationally, we sighed a deep sigh of relief and waited with open arms to welcome our guests back. Fear, however, played and continues to play a major role in our bookings and our industry continues to feel the side effects of the pandemic.
Bookings that were made in 2020, often altered more than three times – initially understandably so due to travel restrictions, but later just because of fear – now get pushed over into 2021, only for yet another request to be changed again. I can’t help but ask the question…how many changes are deemed fair? If credit notes were requested and honoured, date changes were requested and granted several times, only to be changed again, I have to wonder when enough becomes enough.
We're All In It Together
The undeniable fact remains that we’re all in it together. I don’t know of a single person who hasn’t been affected by the pandemic in some way or another, albeit some more than others. Change is a given and we’ll roll with the punches.
The sad reality for some unfortunately remains that they won’t have the luxury of holding on indefinitely and some fantastic holiday rentals and establishments will inevitably have to close their doors.
The “new normal” in our industry is a bitter pill to swallow but one that has to be taken to see another day…and to welcome another guest.
How has the "New Normal Affected You?
