From re-purposing a property to adapting new strategies and approaches to secure a strong come-back for your hotel assets once the industry restarts, a multitude of things have to be considered from operational changes to strict hygiene measures. Drees & Sommer elaborates on this major topic, and how hospitality establishments must get ready.

In the early days of the global COVID-19 pandemic we saw countries reactivate decommissioned hospitals, construct emergency hospital facilities, and re-purpose exhibition centers, sport halls and hotels, to create additional treatment and quarantine capacity. For this to work, strict hygiene measures and specific technical prerequisites had to be taken into account as part of the complex task of recommissioning and re-purposing buildings. Moreover, handovers to health authorities had to be done quickly to meet the rapidly rising demand for quarantine facilities.

Since the beginning of March, Drees & Sommer has had interdisciplinary, cross-professional teams of experts on standby to assist companies and public authorities with the recommissioning of hospitals and re-purposing of buildings. The emergency task force consists of clinicians, medical technicians, nursing specialists and hygiene experts as well as engineers, architects and infrastructural facility management specialists, to provide integrated procedures and pooled resources for both the assets’ clinical and logistical processes.

If our consulting experience during these unprecedented times has taught us anything, it’s that the hospitality industry will be changed forever. Not just from a hotel operations perspective, but in terms of asset management. An important question to ask is how well prepared your hotel property is for a restart in Hospitality 2.0 in the post COVID-19 era.

The travel and tourism industry – and as a result the hotel industry – is under immense pressure with many hotels having had to shut down partially or completely, owners and operators suffering immense revenue losses with largely unchanged fixed costs, coupled with uncertainty about future demand for hotel rooms. To secure a successful restart, now is the time to plan for operational optimization, to validate your property’s business model and to adjust the operating concept for long-term value creation potential, as well as assess the possible re-use or re-purposing of your hotels, or parts of them.

Given the expected new legal requirements and hygiene regulations for the travel and tourism industry, hotels will need to develop new operational solutions to position themselves optimally for a restart. Our team of experienced consultants have compiled a list of critical considerations to prepare a hotel for operation in the post COVID-19 hospitality era:

• In compliance with new hygiene expectations and regulations, you will need to review your property’s cleaning and sanitation processes, including the use of UV lights and special medical-grade cleaning materials approved for hotels
• We suggest reconsidering the use of specific fabrics, furniture, fixtures and amenities in the guest rooms including items such as loose carpets, remote controls, minibars and light switches to ensure a hygienic environment for both staff and guests
• It is important to optimize the flow of fresh and recycled air throughout the property’s air-conditioning system to avoid the spread of viruses that are potentially airborne 
• With digital and contactless services becoming the norm, ensure your hotel’s readiness for the digitization of core operational processes such as check-in and check-out and the use of mobile room keys
• Analyse your property’s operational workflows and study staff and guest movement to optimize space and occupation levels to ensure adherence to social distancing guideline, which are likely to remain in place for the foreseeable future
• Re-engineer your laundry and linen operations as well as garbage disposal protocols and consider the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff and the implementation of sealable laundry and garbage bags
• Assess and validate your hotel’s current business model and operating concept and assess the possible re-use or repurposing options within the property including alternative rental and lease models for specific spaces