How Each Hotel Department Can Start Preparing for A “New Normal” Re-opening

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By the way, this list is based on the scientific process of baseless, wild speculation, while waiting out the quarantine.

F&B and Restaurant

  • Re-draw your floor plan so that there is a minimum of 6 feet between tables.

  • Research which food costs will increase when you order less volume.

  • Move kitchen stations (if at all possible) to create more space.

  • Create a re-opening menu with items that limit the number of cooks in the kitchen

Front Office/Reservations

·         In expectation of occupancy restrictions, add “Covid19 Out-of-Order” designation in your PMS system. These rooms will be tracked differently than regular OOO rooms.

·         Decide which rooms you will take out-of-order to ensure social distancing and limit elevator use.

·         You may have to read the temperature of all guests when they check-in so decide on whether that will happen at the front door or front desk. You may want to start writing an SOP for this.

·         Start talking to your GM about the possibility of requiring a Covid19 affidavit to be signed at the front desk where guests confirm that they have not been close to anyone with virus symptoms.

·         Start crafting a Covid disclosure for Phone Reservations to read to each guest and to post on the website (with an electronic “Agree” button).

·         If your credit card scanner does not accept contactless cards, get one that does.

Finance/Revenue Management

·         Add a new line for “Covid19 Out-of-Order” rooms to your Pace, Forecast, and Yield reports. This will allow you to better compare Year-over-Year results this year and next year. If you bundle all the OOOs together you will affect the variances.

·         If there are occupancy limitations, you may be sold-out or close-to-sold-out every night, so you have to find alternative metrics to track the strength of the market. Try putting together data from your POS or CRM to track KPIs like average guest spend for all outlets year-over-year

Marketing/Sales

  • Compile “Best Guests” list from your CRM to send personalized messages. A simple email blast will be lost in everyone else’s email blast.

  • Redraw your meeting space floor plans for social distancing requirements. Load the new floor plans to your website.

  • Divide your Sales contact list by group size. Large groups may not be able to commit to events for a while because of logistics, but small groups are very manageable.

 

 

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