Devastated by the pandemic, Canada's hotels make plans to reopen

Canadian hotels are tightening up their cleaning protocols and hopingto welcome some pandemic-fatigued guestsdesperate to get out of the house for a few days this summer.

Last Thursday, the Hotel Association of Canada and the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) released joint health and safety protocols to help the industryadapt to new pandemicstandards.

"We felt it was important to have a North American guideline at a time when both of our economies are reopening," said Susie Grynol, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada.

"These enhanced protocols might include [more frequent disinfecting]of common touch surfaces like door handles, light switches, remote controls, faucets. And in a room wherewe have surfaces that are difficult to clean, like throw pillows, bedspreads, the pen and pad of paper, the magazines some of these items might be removed altogether."

250,000 layoffs

The industry is trying to find ways to reopen safely after being pummelled by cratering revenue and massivelayoffs since the pandemic began.

"We had a large percentage of hotels that did shut down across the country in a matter of 10 days. We laid off 80 per cent of our workforce, which represents north of 250,000 job losses," said Grynol.

Brookstreet is a Canadian-owned and independently-run hotel in western Ottawa. Before the pandemic started, it had 340 employees; it has since reduced its staff complement to 19. As the hotel prepares for a planned reopening on June 1, it has beenslowly bringing staff membersback.

"We hope to get back to about 60 employees and then we'll continue to grow as services come back online," said Nyle Kelly, Brookstreet'sgeneral manager.

'Tumbleweeds'

Brookstreethas276 rooms and30,000 square feet of meeting space. Itsaverage occupancy in normal timesis 75 per cent; Kelly said it's expected to operate at less than 5 per cent capacity for at least the next two months.

"I see tumbleweedsflowing through the lobby," he said."It's quiet. It's a little eerie, I guess, to see the hotel empty like this."

Kelly said thehotel sector has been crippled by the effects of theCOVID-19 pandemicand will be one of the last sectors to fully recover because many hotels rely on renting out spaces for meetingsand nobody'sin a hurry to arrange meetings right now.

"We don't expect that part of the business to come back for quite a long time. So everything from trade shows to corporate conferences, to weddings, to galas, to fundraising type events that's all pretty much cancelled," he said. "It hurts us massively because that also represents a lot of our guest room bookings too, as they're associated with the conferences and banquet business."

Long-term effects

And not all of the pandemic's effects on the hospitality industry will be short-term, he said.

"We are also going to see a major impact on business travel," he said."I think people are changing the way they do things. People will start doing more video calls and those types of things. So we'll see less business travel moving forward."

WATCH | Hotels implement enhanced cleaning, safety measures to reopen during pandemic:

Hotels implement enhanced cleaning, safety measures to reopen during pandemic

4 years ago

Duration 1:59

For hotels preparing to reopen during the pandemic, they are implementing enhanced cleaning procedures and with new measures in place to keep guests safe.

Brookstreet only has a handful of reservations for the month of June.It's already making preparationsfor those few guests.

"Even before you arrive at the hotel, we're going to have new technology to allow a guest to check in over their devices.They'll have their keys emailed to them in advance," said Kelly, adding that guests can openroom locks with their phones. "They touch their lock and they can go directly to their room."

New rules for cleaning

Rooms at Brookstreet will stay empty for 48 hours at a time, he said. While empty, they will becleaned, disinfected and inspected before accepting another guest.

The Hotel Association of Canada is recommending that, unless a guest requests otherwise,rooms be cleaned onlyonce per stay when the guest checks out to limit possibleexposure for housekeepingstaff.

The joint health and safety protocolsalso recommend the installation ofacrylic shields at hotelfrontdesks, the provision ofpersonal protective equipment to staff as required, clear social distancing markers on floors and sanitation stations in all public areas.

When restaurants in hotels are ready to open again, they'll have to find waysto maintain physicaldistancing. Brookstreet is cutting the number of available tables in its restaurant by half; other facilities are spacing tables out.Some hotels will continue deliveringroom service by leaving the food at the guest'sdoor.

Many hotels,Brookstreetincluded,are also purchasing electrostaticsprayers fordisinfectant.

Along with more frequent cleaning, mobile check in/key technologyand the installation of UV lights at the entrance to disinfect keys and phones, the Novotel Toronto Centre has also purchasedbedlifts tohelp housekeeping staff clean underneath beds.

The Hotel Association of Canada says all of these extraprecautions represent a heavycost for an already ailing industry. It's calling on the government for financial help.

"One of our key recommendations to the government is that there would be forgivable portions of the loans that have been made availablefor amounts that have been paid toward capital investments to keep people safe," Grynol said.