Shangri-La Hotels gets ready to welcome back guests

HONG Kong-based multinational hospitality company ShangriLa Hotels and Resorts has announced the “rigorous hygiene and safety protocols” for all its properties worldwide including cleaning high-touch surfaces more frequently and using medical grade disinfectants and sanitizers, as the group prepares to welcome back guests and chart their way to recovery.

“We’ve seen that moving forward, health and safety, would be number one value proposition [and] flexibility for guests would be very important… people want to be able to make a reservation today and cancel it tomorrow with no penalty,” John Rice, vice-president for operations in the Philippines and general manager of EDSA Shangri-La, said in a digital conference on June 25.

Shangri-La has six properties in the Philippines: EDSA Shangri-La in Mandaluyong City, Shangri-La Makati, Shangri-La at the Fort in Taguig City, JEN Manila by Shangri-La in Pasay City, Shangri-La’s Boracay Resort and Spa, and Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa in Cebu City.

The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases announced on June 4 that it is allowing partial hotel (and other accommodations) operations provided that they function using an “in-house skeletal workforce” and must have a certificate of authority to operate from the Department of Tourism. The directive is for places under looser forms of lockdown called general community quarantine and modified general community quarantine.

Metro Manila is currently under general community quarantine.

Mr. Rice said that they see food and beverage outlets as the first revenue streams to come back and are optimistic about Philippine recovery from the pandemic owing to its resilience.

“I think traditionally, the people in the Philippines are incredibly resilient. There’s been a lot of crisis and natural disasters over the years and over the decades, and the people of the Philippines are very resilient, and they come back,” he said.

Restaurants will recover first followed by staycation packages as people won’t be traveling abroad “but they’ll be looking internally for a vacation or a break,” he explained. International corporate markets, he said, will slowly start to come back in the first quarter of 2021 and the international travel market will start coming back in the second quarter of 2021.

“In terms of getting our business levels back to any sort of semblance to pre-COVID-19, we don’t see that happening until earliest, or fully, until 2022,” he said.

And since health and safety will be of utmost importance, the group partnered with cleaning and hygiene products company Diversey to aid in the cleaning of facilities and rooms within its hotels.

Mr. Rice also said that all paper collaterals have been replaced by digital platforms which will be cleaned frequently. Public areas will be cleaned hourly and will be following proper social distancing. The hotels will also be using UV light on all high-touch surfaces. —

Restaurants will recover first followed by staycation packages as people won’t be traveling abroad “but they’ll be looking internally for a vacation or a break.” — John Rice, general manager of EDSA Shangri-La