Riu Hotels & Resorts has published a manual outlining its vision for hotel operations in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Spanish hotel company, which operates 99 properties in 19 countries and is part of Tui Group, has produced 17 protocols in association with specialist health and safety consultancy firm Preverisk.
Riu said the manual had been shared with the Spanish and international governments, and would be made available to the wider industry as part of a partnership called the Post-Covid19 Hospitality Sector Alliance.
The 17 protocols cover all aspects of hotel operations and are based on hotel occupancy of 50% or 60%, unless local guidelines insist on lower ratios.
Measures will include:
- Temperature checks for guests on arrival and safety screens at reception
- Respecting of safe distances and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by staff
- Removal from rooms of all non-essential items, such as coffee machines, magazines, leaflets and laundry bags
- Amenities reduced to essentials, and hand sanitiser in every room
- A dedicated “disinfection team” for each hotel
- Set lunch and dinner sittings in restaurants alongside reduced seating capacity, compulsory hand disinfection on entry
- All guests to wear gloves and masks at buffets
- Capacity limits at pools, and safe distances between loungers
The company said in a statement: “Riu Hotels & Resorts has been working for several weeks to create a total of 17 protocols that will serve to guide operations in the hotels when they reopen post-Covid.
“They give details of each hotel department’s work in order to offer the highest guarantees of safety to guests and staff. The departments that from now on will apply the new measures in their everyday work include reception, housekeeping (cleaning), dining rooms, bars, kitchens, confectionery, goods reception, technical service centre, industrial zones, staff areas, staff transport, fitness and entertainment.
“In this way, they can manage the reopening process in a comprehensive way that covers aspects from limiting the occupancy of the hotel and each of its areas, to the correct dosage of tried and tested virucidal products.”
The statement added: “The next step will be to create a network, constituted as a broad alliance in the sector, in order to share and disseminate this knowledge among all the sector players who want it, given that we are all now working with the shared goal of recovering our activities safely and earning the customers’ trust in the destinations and businesses.”
