Hotels increase cleaning procedures amid pandemic

Tanya Varevskaya is one busy housekeeper.

"Our procedures have changed a little bit since COVID-19," she says. "Remotes, telephones, coffee makers. Everything we disinfect."

It’s her job to sanitize every touch surface she can find, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Hotel in Bloomington.

"This is my weapon number one!" she exclaims, holding up a can of disinfectant spray.

Varevskaya isn’t alone.

For hotels and motels, the pandemic has changed everything, from cleaning protocols, to staff and guest contacts — even
at the check-in counter.

"It’s definitely unprecedented," adds Katie Ward, the hotel’s General Manager. "The hospitality industry has never seen anything quite like this."

Before the COVID-19 threat, Varevskaya would take about 30 minutes to clean each suite.

Now, a more intensive job takes three-quarters of an hour.

She cleans 14 suites per shift.

"We would like our guests not to be afraid to get sick from here," Varevskaya said. "So we’re doing everything possible for guests to be safe."

That includes special handling of the TV remote, considered by some to be one of the most frequent germ-carriers in a hotel room. .

"After the remotes have been cleaned, we have a bag that the remote is put into, and that way, the guest knows that no one has touched the remote since it’s been disinfected," Ward says.

Keeping this sprawling hotel, including its 310 suites COVID-safe is a big job.

Safety protocols include:

• Mandatory masks for staffers and guests
• Housekeeping staff are issued PPE equipment and are briefed on CDC cleanliness standards
• Plexiglas dividers are installed at check-in, food service, and other areas
• Safe-distancing floor stickers remind guests to be safe
• Sanitizer stations equipped with UV lights
• Safe-distanced furniture set-ups in dining areas

After every room is cleaned and disinfected, a bright blue seal is placed on every door, to alert guests that after the housekeeper, they are the first person to enter that room.

A hotel app helps facilitate touchless check-in, and even acts as a remote door key to open a room.

"You can use your phone to unlock your guest room door," Ward smiles.

After cleaning, conference rooms are sealed off 30 minutes before meetings.

"Notepads, pens — they are available on request," Ward notes. "Previously, we had those pre-set. Those are now a request item, to eliminate any contact."

Even the shuttle to destinations like the airport or Mall of America gets a sanitary wipedown.

"It doesn’t take that long," says Gene, one of the shuttle drivers. "If you do it regularly … that’s all they’re asking, to do it regularly."

The shuttle’s front seats have brightly colored duct-taped X’s to mark them off-limits.

Safe-distancing rules apply to the rest of the shuttle seating.

Ward believes the new safety measures are making a difference.

"I certainly feel that it is working," she said. "It gives the guests that safe sense. When you walk into a room and know you’re the first one walking in after it’s been cleaned."

They’re measures that were unheard of until now, but it’s part of the new pandemic reality that service industries are dealing with right now.

"It gives that safety that everyone’s looking for right now," Ward says.