HOW SHOULD HOTELS FUNCTION IN A PANDEMIC

IF THE HOTEL INDUSTRY CREATED A SITUATION IN WHICH IT FULLY FUNCTIONED THROUGHOUT COVID19......

................What would be happening?

It has been catastrophic to watch the hotel industry be decimated by well-meaning politicians and the bureaucrats when it could be offering so much to the community as a huge collection of essential and perfectly matched, well-located resources.

This is not an occasion when the industry can sit on its' hands at home. This is war! This is an international catastrophe potentially worsening as wave after wave creates and accentuates the human and commercial damage.

If the creativity of our industry is harnessed and cooperates, we can quite possibly be functioning at record occupancies and with a full complement of employees and caregivers. All of the tools are there for the hotels and local restaurants to provide goods and services to those that need it, when they need it and how they need it.

It is not too late and we can not wait another moment.

What do we have to offer?

1. Around the world presence in every community on the planet.
2. Millions of furnished rooms and public areas that can be reimagined if needed, cleaned daily and if necessary 2-3 times daily.
3. Millions of trained employees that perform identical tasks to those performed in hospitals, prisons, institutions and senior care homes.
4. Hundreds of thousands of trained cooks performing around the clock.
5. Infrastructure for people management, purchasing, transportation, communications, recruitment and training.
6. Air conditioned Convention facilities that could do double-duty for ICUs, the homeless, schools etc 
7. Empty rooms that could do double duty for front-line workers, quarantine, employees and the partly sick.
8. Room service to hotel rooms, local homes and apartments using rotating local restaurants to keep them all open.
9. Provincial, State and National Hotel Associations to coordinate government participation.
10. Owners that are willing to roll up their sleeves and cooperate.

What would be the benefits?

1. The economy would continue to function.
2. Full employment from one of the world's largest employers.
3. Expanded and improved mental health.
4. Massively expanded and improved community services.
5. Hotels and restaurants would be doing what they do best. Safely, securely and happily.
6. Governments could take credit. Politicians would be in the loop.
7. The industry would survive and a template for the future would have been created.
8. Break-even financial saviour.
9. Full-time employment restored.

Nothing needs to be built. No-one needs to be recruited. Re-training is part of the industry's vocabulary and all the resources are located in every community.

Where and with whom do we start?

1. We start small and we start rapidly.
2. We start global, national and local.
3. We involve governments, healthcare, hotel groups, trade associations and perhaps the military.
4. We start in small circles and work out, ironing out the wrinkles as we go.
5. We develop checks and balances to ensure full compliance.
6. The Team. Here is the first 'small group',
   1. IH&RA (International Hotel & Restaurant Association)
   2. UNWTO (UN World Tourism Association)
   3. WHO (World Health Organisation)
   4. ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation)
   5. UN (United Nations)

There exists an international hotel and restaurant association (IH&RA) that is formally recognised by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and whose members include National Associations and Hotel Groups that could and should be mobilised to oversee this catastrophe. Global Councils of Security and Human Resources could be employed to provide oversight and guidance. The association (IH&RA) has already worked with the other international organizations.

Adapting to the new Reality

For comments and suggestion, email info@axishotelsandresorts.com or contact your local hotel or restaurant association.