NEWS | Service industry staff in Abu Dhabi must have fortnightly COVID-19 tests
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From January 10, 2021, employees working in the sectors outlined above will be required to get tested for COVID-19 every two weeks. Employers are required to cover the costs of testing.
The directions are “in line with the COVID-19 preventive measures in Abu Dhabi and aim to create a safe and healthy environment while limiting the effects of the pandemic”.
All individuals who have been vaccinated are exempt from testing.
Alma Promotes Chefs Despite COVID-19’s Impact on Tourism
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CAM RANH, Vietnam (December 18, 2020) – The Alma resort has appointed two executive sous chefs who bring more than two decades of hospitality experience to 14 restaurants and bars at the new 30-hectare beachfront property.
Alma’s general manager Herbert Laubichler-Pichler this month named Mai Ly Huong and Francesco Conzattu as executive sous chefs at the five-star family resort overlooking Long Beach on Vietnam’s Cam Ranh peninsula.
Born and bred in nearby Nha Trang, Huong received a Certificate of Cooking from Nha Trang’s Huong Duong Vocational Centre and started her career at Sheraton Nha Trang Hotel and Spa in 2012. She worked at Sheraton Seoul D Cube Hotel in South Korea, Aloft Al Ain in Abu Dhabi, JW Marriott Phu Quoc and Sun Aqua Iru Veli at the Maldives before joining Alma as a sous chef in September 2019.
Describing herself as “able to not only operate but thrive in a high-pressure and high-volume environment”, she said a priority in her new role was to continue developing her leadership skills to help her kitchen staff develop and realise their full potential.
Francesco, who was born in Sassari, Italy, decided he wanted to be a chef at a young age when he started helping his grandmother and mother cook. He completed a six-year full-time hospitality course with the Professional Institute for Hotel and Tourism IPSAR Sassari before launching a career in 2007 that has seen him steadily climb the ladder at leading hotels and restaurants in Italy, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Dubai.
He has worked for the likes of both Starwood’s Hotel Cervo in Porto Cervo and Leading Hotel of the World Hotel La Perla in Corvara, both in his native Italy, as well as the Cavalli Club, Restaurant and Lounge in Dubai. He was chef de cuisine at Italian restaurant Armani Deli at Armani Hotel, housed in the world’s tallest skyscraper Burj Khalifa, before his appointment at Alma as chef de cuisine at Alma in September 2019.
Francesco, who describes himself as “self-motivated, hands-on team player”, said he wished to “keep learning and growing” in his new role, including learning everything required to oversee the culinary operation of the resort and support the entire F&B team.
Bold, spacious and emblematic of Vietnam’s maturation as a destination, the independently owned and operated Alma features 580 oversized suites and pavilions, 14 food and beverage outlets, and a cascade of 12 beachfront swimming pools. Other drawing cards include a science museum, 6000 square metre waterpark, 13-treatment room spa, art gallery, cinema, convention centre, amphitheatre, youth centre with virtual games, kid’s club, water sports centre, gymnasium and yoga room and an 18-hole putting green.
Alma is a member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts. To contact Alma or to make a booking, please visit www.alma-resort.com or email info@alma-resort.com
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About Alma
Situated on Vietnam’s emerging Cam Ranh peninsula fronting Long Beach, Alma resort commands some 30 hectares of inspiring ground. Emblematic of Vietnam's maturation as a destination, the bold and spacious integrated resort offers 580 oversized suites and pavilions that all afford sweeping vistas of the ocean, including contemporary three bedroom oceanfront pavilions each totalling 224sqm with a living room, four bathrooms and a private pool. Alma features a broad spectrum of restaurants helmed by top chefs, a food court with an array of local and international cuisine, as well as a sports bar, pool bar and beach bar. Other highlights include 12 swimming pools cascading down to the beach, a waterpark, 13-treatment room spa, 70-seat cinema, convention centre, amphitheater, art gallery, science museum, gymnasium and yoga room, 18-hole mini golf course, a youth centre with virtual reality games, a kid’s club, water sports centre and even an 'Alma Mart' mini supermarket
A pandemic won’t stop weddings
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The events industry was one of the first industries which started facing strains when Covid-19 started spreading. Events were being cancelled, people were dropping out at the last minute as panic spread, leaving the organisers with little to do anything about it. The industry was trying to find ways to keep clients engaged and future projects coming during the lockdown, with ways like virtual workshops, seminars, conferences, and more.
The wedding industry, however, couldn’t survive solely through virtual events. Weddings needed to happen for organisers to survive. During the lockdown, people had desperately sought to get married at their own homes, with barely 10-20 people. No decorators, caterers, choreographers or anyone else were needed for these lockdown weddings. Now, after the series of unlocks and the cap being increased and decreased, the wedding industry still doesn’t have hopes from the upcoming wedding season.
Source
Choice Hotels International Reports 2020 Third Quarter Results
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In the third quarter of 2020, Choice Hotels continued to provide a broad range of support to its franchisees, guests, and communities while improving its overall financial and liquidity position. Highlights of third quarter and year to date 2020 results include:
Domestic systemwide revenue per available room (RevPAR) outperformed the total industry by nearly 20 percentage points, declining 28.8% for third quarter 2020 compared to the same period of the prior year, and exceeded the chain scale segments in which the company competes, as reported by STR.
Fourth quarter domestic RevPAR through October 24, 2020 has continued the pattern of sequential quarterly improvement, and October 2020 RevPAR is expected to decline by approximately 25% from the same period of 2019 (see Exhibit 7 for weekly RevPAR trends).
The company awarded 232 new domestic franchise agreements year to date through September 30, 2020, a 38% decrease compared to the same period of the prior year. Nearly 70% of the agreements awarded year to date through September 30, 2020 were for conversion hotels.
Net income was $14.5 million for the third quarter, representing diluted earnings per share of $0.26.
Third quarter adjusted net income, excluding certain items described in Exhibit 6, decreased 52% to $36.8 million from third quarter 2019.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the third quarter were $0.66, a 52% decrease from third quarter 2019.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for the third quarter were $74.9 million, a 34% decrease from third quarter 2019.
The company reported cash flow from operations of over $68 million in the third quarter 2020.
Zaplox Demonstrates Contact-Free Mobile Guest Journey at Cyber HITEC
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Zaplox's contact-free solutions, including its mobile guest app and self-service kiosk, allow hoteliers to use contact-free technology to make all the touch points of the guest journey safer, more convenient, and more cost-efficient. Thanks to Zaplox's mobile guest app, guests no longer have to handle plastic key cards, but can use their own smartphone to check-in remotely. On arrival they can skip the front desk and go straight to their room and unlock the hotel room door by holding their phone against the electronic door lock.
Guests appreciate the convenience and the contact-free process reduces the risk for transmission for both guests and hotel employees. During the stay, guests can use Zaplox's mobile guest app to access information about the hotel amenities, chat with hotel staff to order room service, book spa appointments, or make dinner reservations. At departure, the guest can use the app to review the room charges and pay.
"Our contact-free solutions takes the pressure off the front desk by empowering the guest to use their phone for everything from check-in to payment, supporting social distancing guidelines while offering convenient access to information and high quality service," says said Even Frydenberg, Zap lox's CEO. "Even though we had preferred to meet all the hoteliers and our partners in person, we are excited and impressed by how technology has made this virtual event possible."
Zap lox invites all CYBER HITEC participants to attend the company's presentation at 12:00 pm EDT, October 28, 2020 in the CYBER HITEC Networking Lounge. The presentation will focus on how hotels can benefit from a contact-free guest journey and will share a demo of how The Kinney Hotel in San Luis Obispo uses Zap lox's mobile guest app.
An Initiative to Train & Certify the Rural Pockets to Boost Rural Tourism amidst Pandemic by NOM
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An initiative to educate communities all across rural villages and empower them with various facets of health, hygiene, sustainability, and responsible tourism practices
India, October 20, 2020: NotOnMap and Help Tourism in association with ICRT India (The International Centre for Responsible Tourism) backed by Booking.com, has come up with an ingenious project, “TraVival”. NotOnMap is a sustainable and Socially-driven initiative that works with an aim to empower local and rural communities. The initiative TraVival has come up at a time when the entire world is struggling to keep up with the pandemic; this project aims to aid rural India to manage the impact of COVID crisis on Travel and Tourism.
The initiative will be coming up with a series of 150+ training videos in over 18 regional languages divided in 12 modules for Homestay owners, Village Panchayats, Teachers/Youth and Women of villages and travelers across India thus covering all stakeholders of ‘Rural Tourism’ in India. The entire training will be kept as open source, free of any expenses and it aims to touch around 1 lac villages in India in next 1 year. The project is an outcome of 3 months of continuous efforts after conducting more than 30 webinars involving over 2000 community members and around 50 organizations from across 17 states in India.
NotOnMap is a sustainable and Socially-driven initiative with an aim to empower local, rural communities by helping them capitalize on their untapped culture and heritage value, realized the need for this in these times for rural pockets and created pool of expert think tanks from industry who came together to conceptualize, design and execute “Project TraVival- Training for Travel Revival” exclusively for Rural communities. Today in these times, when rural pockets of India are dried up economically and socially due to no business, TraVival plans to help in such rural parts categorically with the training for travel revival, and follow the extensive SOP for the COVID-19 prevention while enabling the business to sustain and grow.
Time to explore Areas which are not on the map
Four Interior Design Trends for the Post-Pandemic Hotel
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Once the greenlight was given, all businesses looked to reopen as quickly as possible after the lockdown. This has resulted in countless slapdash efforts for achieving the minimum of viral safety compliance, with most structural upgrades meant as only temporary installations and most of them particularly garish at that. As is becoming increasingly apparent, though, COVID-19 is here to stay and thus so too are the new measures that have been put in place.
The problem is that most, if not all, of the provisional objects and signage implemented in the wake of the pandemic look just plain hideous when bolted onto well-designed indoor hotel spaces. While all is well and good during patio season as most customers will remain outside, our current lobbies and public interiors in the age of COVID do not create environments that people actually want to spend time in. Come autumn and winter, this can mean decreased F&B revenues and lower overall guest satisfaction as all visitors won't feel warm and cosy amidst so much gaudy viral safety mania.
Trend #1: Experiential Hygiene
Trend #2: Natural Materiality
Trend #3: Branded Wayfinding
Trend #4: Protective Shield Design
NYC’s nearly 100-year-old Roosevelt Hotel closing due to COVID-19
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A historic building in the New York City skyline is being shuttered by the current historical moment.
Since opening in 1924, the Roosevelt Hotel at 45 E. 45th St. has prolifically featured in movie history and been the set for a number of important political happenings, but the coronavirus pandemic is forcing it to close its doors.
After 96 years in business, the hotel has announced it will shutter this year as a result of the novel virus’ financial fallout.
“Due to the current, unprecedented environment and the continued uncertain impact from COVID-19, the owners of the Roosevelt Hotel have made the difficult decision to close the hotel and the associates were notified this week,” a spokesperson told CNN in a statement. “The iconic hotel, along with most of New York City, has experienced very low demand and as a result the hotel will cease operations before the end of the year. There are currently no plans for the building beyond the scheduled closing.”
Top Hotel Chains Go On Safety & Hygiene Overdrive
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From laundry services to tie-ups with Zomato & Swiggy and launching their own F&B apps, hotels are going for major overhauls following Covid
New Delhi:
Barkha Mehra was missing the annual celebrations and surprises that she looked forward to putting together each year on her mother’s birthday in June. Fearful of going out but still wanting to make the occasion memorable, she decided to order in from a plush five-star hotel in the capital this year.
“I’m not one to splurge so much on dinners but this year has been an exception. I wanted to treat my parents to something special as they have stayed locked indoors for months,” said Mehra.
From offering to do your laundry to getting their signature dishes at your doorstep through tieups with food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy, and also launching their own F&B apps to keeping check-ins and check-outs contactless, hotel chains are undertaking major overhauls following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides World Health Organization guidelines, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India protocols and state and central government-mandated standard operating procedures, top hotel chains such as The Oberoi Group, Accor and Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts have worked on their own safety and sanitisation programmes through partnerships with external inspection and certification services providers such as Bureau Veritas to reassure guests.
In June, Hilton announced the global rollout of its CleanStay programme, created in collaboration with Lysol and Dettol maker Reckitt Benckiser and Mayo Clinic.
At ITC Hotels, the WeAssure initiative endeavors to offer stringent, ‘near-clinical’ levels of hygiene through a DNV-GL business assurance certification, chief operating officer Anil Chadha said.
“WeAssure is a holistic programme that addresses all facets of hotel operations — from revised protocols for back of the house activities such as receiving store, back offices and laundry, to the public areas with heightened sanitisation measures for guest luggage, elevators to room service,” he said.
Nikhil Sharma, area director, Eurasia at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said the chain implemented its ‘Count on Us’ initiative, which focuses on enhancing its broad range of health and safety protocols across properties in Europe, the Middle East, Eurasia and Africa.
“This includes consistent use of top-of-the-range disinfectants at all hotels, the introduction of robust new training and guidelines, and ongoing access to critical health essentials through trusted suppliers,” said Sharma. He said the chain leveraged its long-standing relationship with Ecolab for disinfectants across EMEA hotels, including rooms and public spaces.
In May, before restrictions were eased in the country, Roseate Hotels & Resorts launched its ‘Care by Roseate’ programme in a bid to minimise physical contact with guests at the chain’s six properties in India and the UK.
Middle East's hotel performance increases in July 2020
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The hospitality industry in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) continues to see marginal improvements each month as properties adapt to COVID-19. According to the latest data from STR, July was a stronger month than June, though performance as a whole is still low compared to the pre-pandemic.
For the Middle East, occupancy was down 41.8 percent to 35.3 percent compared to July 2019. The average daily rate (ADR) meanwhile fell 9.6 percent to US$106.93, and revenue per available room (RevPAR) dropped 47.4 percent to $37.70.
Compared to June 2020, this is a step towards the right direction for the Middle East, where occupancy was just 33.6 percent the month previous. ADR and RevPAR also improved from $97.31 and $32.72 respectively.
Looking at the UAE individually, occupancy in July 2020 was down 40.7 percent to 37.8 percent. ADR only fell by 3.6 percent to AED326.98, though RevPAR slipped by 42.9 percent to AED123.44.
