From the article “The Hospitality Industry’s Response to COVID-19” by Lyle Pendon (May 20, 2020) the main topic in this paper talks about the current practices that most of the Hotels in the Philippines do in order to fight the spread and lessen the effect of the pandemic as well as ensuring the safety of each one of its guests through following standard health protocols such as maintaining social distancing, wearing masks at all times, checking body temperature upon entering the premises, and using new technologies in order to sanitize every area of the hotel, these practices were of course guided by experts when it comes to sanitation. In this article, there were Hotels mentioned such as Marriot, Okada, Hyatt and many more that has their own ways in handling/responding to COVID-19 which I will be discussing in this paper.
The article has mentioned different ways in responding to the Global Pandemic that we are experiencing up until now, first is the A.) Enhanced Cleanliness Policies wherein a new cleaning protocol has been established in which is being called Enhanced Cleaning Initiative where its states different procedures as well as guidelines for room cleaning. Some examples in the article wherein Airbnb provides educational materials, certification from the program in order for their host to maintain their routines when it comes to cleaning. Hilton used a digital key technology where guest can use it during their entire stay in the premises where it can be used such as locking and unlocking doors to lessen surface contact, some hotels such as Hyatt provides training to its staff for hospitality hygiene as well as cleanliness, while Solaire added misting tents and foot baths in order to disinfect luggages and other things of the guests, they also provide UV lights in their escalators to minimize the spread of the said virus. B.) Following Standard Procedures from Health Authorities from the article, it is said that Hotels under IHG should follow CDC’s health and safety procedures as well as from WHO and other local government organizations. An example of this is when CDC and WHO recommended the use of hospital – grade disinfectant for an easy way to properly disinfect both public and private areas, lessen some furniture to practice social distancing in hotel lobbies, ect. C.) Premium Service from Check-In to Check-out in the article, it states the Shangri-la practices temperature screening and disinfection process are being observed upon letting anyone or anything enter inside the hotel guest are asked to fill out some forms regarding health and travel information, other than those basic requirements, leisure facilities are being closed down to avoid too much human contact that may harm their health during this pandemic. Cleaning of hotel linens and clothes are being handled very well where they use special soaps and detergent as mentioned in the article. D.) Additional Health Safety for Staff hotels provides testing for their staff from the COVID-19 in order to assure that the company is with their staffs as well as to their families during this time of crisis, City of Dreams Manila provides assured that the staff’s basic pay are given. E.) Employing Sanitary Experts, aside from having the guidelines and protocols in terms of sanitation and Cleanliness, it is important to be well guided by our sanitary experts in order to execute these plans made by these companies through the help of health standards and accredited companies, hotels put up programs regarding health and safety guidelines with the help of our experts to fully maintain quality service and protection to its guets. F.) Applying for Sanitary Accreditation like what Hyatt is planning to do. It is important to get an accreditation in Sanitation to maintain the standard procedure in sanitation and Cleanliness at all times in order to provide best services to their guests other than that, Hyatt also planned to train one person on each of its every branch as hygiene manager in order to fully monitor the establishment’s cleanliness at all times. G.) COVID-19 Relief Efforts this step tgat these hotels/companies are a bug help especially in different parts of the Philippines, giving additional supports from hospitals and other cities is a big help in order for us to provide proper care to our COVID-19 patients, these donations will help our frontlines to have additional protection from the virus in order for them to save more lives and fight in times of this crisis.
From this article, it shows what are the actions that our Industry did in order to recover in times of pandemic. This article gave us an enhanced way to provide more safety measures and advanced technologies for the Hospitality Industry to use when it comes to situations such as what we are experiencing right now. This taught me ways to how will I handle difficulties like this in the future for we don’t know what’s more ahead of us in the next few years. Given the ways provided by this article on how to respond from this Coronavirus, it will help us to adjust and live the “new-normal” that we are all talking about, our Industry will recover from this and will rise up again if we, people will help each other through discipline and following the guidelines that has been set for us to abide.
In my own opinion, this article is really helpful for it gave us the basic health and safety protocols that we can all practice anywhere, either in public or private areas. This also help me in my course as well as the Hospitality industry since it gave us all the things, we could do for ourselves and for other, these safety protocols are useless if we, people continue to disobey these policies. Like what these hotels are currently practicing, we should also not just in hotels but in our own houses, we should practice proper hygiene and sanitation, wearing of masks at all times and observing social distancing wherever we go could somehow help us lessen the spread of the virus, avoiding crowded places is a must. Pandemic have brought too much damages across the world, without discipline, this virus will never end, deadly variants will continue to emerge as it mutates day by day. We all should discipline ourselves, listen, and abide from this safety health protocols that has been set for us by our health experts, through this, maybe we all could fight and end this pandemic.
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