Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

Your industry news - first

The original and best - for over 20 years!

We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.

The best cleaning processes for post-Lockdown hotels

As much of the world is beginning to open its doors once more, many customers and clients will be wondering how they'll be kept safe from the Coronavirus. While many cleaning procedures in hotels may be largely unchanged, the opportunity to provide hotel guests with greater levels of hygiene is now prime.

The Coronavirus has shaken every industry and made us all question our approach to hygiene, with hospitals and clinics having to maintain a high level of cleanliness to combat a growing risk of infection and the hospitality industry having to impose social distancing throughout restaurants.

Customers rely on the expert teams working to keep hotel rooms and spaces throughout lodgings safe and clean, and the pandemic has raised many people's expectations and need for sanitised areas more than ever. This is why housekeeping efforts need to be at their best as customers find themselves heading towards the welcoming arms of hotels once again, as keeping both customers and employees safe and happy is essential when working within the hospitality industry.

Whether you're running a small, boutique hotel or you need to ensure that a large hotel is kept safe, knowing how to handle cleaning processes during the pandemic is essential. Today, OspreyDeepclean explores how cleaning efforts can be improved in hotels, as well as explaining how improvements to standard cleaning procedures will help to raise customer confidence in the anti-Covid efforts of the hospitality industry.

Cleaning methods for the hospitality industry

Many hotels are embracing new protective protocols, which vary from chain to chain and hotel to hotel, yet all roughly follow the same rules. These include increasing the frequency of cleaning public areas, providing a large number of hand sanitisers in both public areas and employee-only areas, and using specialised products for cleaning jobs and wipedowns.

As effective as traditional cleaning methods may be, many would argue that more preventative measures need to be taken, which is exactly why we should turn to tried and tested methods of cleaning. One of these is steam cleaning; an incredibly effective method of tackling micro-organisms and creating clean, uncontaminated environments. Steam cleaning is becoming more common in healthcare cleaning, being capable of removing up to 99.99% of germs and bacteria from a wide variety of surfaces, which makes it ideal in hotels.

As one would expect, many hotel chains are promoting their own plans for tackling post-lockdown safety, ensuring safety for both employees and visitors. One prime example of this is how MGM Resorts Internation, known best for the likes of the MGM Grand in Vegas, announced its own seven-point plan to adhere to WHO and CDC regulations, such as:

* Screening and temperatures checks for employees, as well as optional checks for guests
* Mandatory masks and additional PPE
* Adhering to social distancing
* Increase of hand sanitiser stations
* Responses to incidents, granting infected employees healthcare
* Added digital innovations, such as online-check ins

Keep on top of the small things

Along with keeping clear signage around public areas and in employee-only areas, ensuring that guests and employees are kept up to date with WHO and CDC protocols, there are many small things you should keep on top of with hotel cleaning. Small cleaning jobs add up to a larger sense of security and sanitation overall for a hotel, with many quick cleaning tasks needing to be kept in mind whilst housekeeping. These tasks include cleaning the likes of:

* Door handles
* Taps
* Light switches
* Handrails
* Curtains & blinds
* Furniture
* Shower & bathroom fixtures

It's hard to overlook a lot of small cleaning jobs, especially when working on so many rooms at a time, yet the pandemic has made people more aware than ever of where their hands go and how important it is to keep hands clean. As such, offering hand sanitisers can only go so far when door handles and light switches aren't properly cleaned.

Work as usual, just more of it

The essentials of cleaning hotel rooms and public areas in hotels remain largely unchanged, yet there are many ways of enhancing them, being more thorough or adding variants to essential tasks that will likely be welcomed by everyone. One such service that can be implemented is to offer 'housekeeping on-demand', an option which allows guests to request delivery of additional essentials without putting themselves or housekeepers at risk, such as toiletries, towels, linens or coffee being left at the door.

Other changes can extend to the rest of the hotel experience, not just including cleaning a room or providing areas for guests to relax in. This includes the likes of meal-preparation and services, with an emphasis on Room Service rather than restaurant offerings, as well as replacing hotel staples like buffets with pre-packaged breakfast items.

There are many essential cleaning jobs that are synonymous with hotel cleaning, but no matter how normal they may seem they are in no way less important. One of the most important tasks is to ensure that all sheets are kept clean, maintaining cleaning protocols as before yet erring on the side of caution with hotter water.

Final thoughts for ensuring guest and employee safety

Of course, until the pandemic is over, nowhere in the hospitality industry can truly offer a 100% Covid-proof environment. However, there are further steps that hotels can take to provide a safer environment for everyone, including:

* Flexible booking: Not only does this entice customers and guests to stay at a hotel, but it also ensures that housekeeping will have adequate time to properly and safely clean a room before a guest arrives or after a guest leaves
* Offer care kits: Some hotels have begun providing 'care kits', including face masks, hand sanitiser and anti-bacterial wipes; these kits can go a long way in helping guests, in regard to their hygiene as well as their peace of mind
* Protective Screens: Many shops have begun utilising protective glass or plastic screens, placed between customers and tills, so using these for front desks can be helpful and reassuring for both guests and employees

E: [email protected]
W: www.ospreydc.com

20th August 2020