In the era of social distancing, hotels and airlines will need new policies if they are to survive.
Airlines and hoteliers ponder the way ahead in the brave new world of social distancing. By Vijay Verghese
As travel vaporises in the face of on-off lockdowns, airlines, airports and hotels are pondering the future of hospitality in these fluid and fearful socially distanced times. Professional hosts are examining how to safely distance yet offer hospitable warmth without turning everything into a set from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
If travellers today feel journeys are an out-ofbody experience surrounded by masked flight attendants and hazmat suits, how about the hotels of the future?
Architects and designers are ripping up traditional blueprints to envision straighter lines, wider corridors, bigger spaces with improved ventilation and energy-saving natural light, lower density low-rise, less fuss and minimal human contact.
Think robot room deliveries or lobby scrubbers, smartphone-operated lifts with restrictions on numbers, facial recognition, motion sensors, and “contactless” routes for staff and guests.
While this may appeal to the South Korean honjok (solitary tribe) millennials who prefer their own company, robot-partnering Japanese, or privacy-conditioned Hongkongers for whom social distancing comes naturally, many will quail at the prospect of touch-me-not travel. Human interaction and intimacy is, after all, a great part of the allure of discovery.
What are the Philippines or Thailand without those incandescent smiles? Would any clickhappy tourist attend a Miss Tiffany show to watch a titillating romp by a bunch of people in gumboots and beekeeper suits? Might masala dosas suffer the ultimate indignity of being consumed with preppy knives and forks rather than curry-dribbling fingers in a Covid-19 world?
Airports are becoming the first line of defence. Arrivals at Hong Kong Airport are bussed to the neighbouring Asia World-Expo where deep-throat swabs are analysed while passengers wait 12 hours or more for their coronavirus test results.
It is a bold frontline move, but not a feasible long-term solution in the absence of rapid testing. The facility is able to handle just a single planeload in a day — and not the customary daily throughput of 197,000 passengers, of whom roughly half would be arrivals.
Some relief arrived with the takeover of the Regal Oriental Hotel in Kowloon on April 29 as an alternate holding site for incoming air passengers who are bussed straight in and provided electronic wristbands with strict instructions not to leave their rooms (with a penalty of six months in jail and a fine of HK$25,000).
The airport is also testing a disinfecting booth (from CleanTech) that sprays passengers for 40 seconds with a sanitising spray. Antimicrobial coatings are being sourced for common surfaces along with robot cleaners.
Airports from Heathrow to Changi and Suvarnabhumi are examining fast scanning and testing measures as the world prepares for a return of traffic and airlines plan limited services from June.
COVERED UP ONBOARD
In the air, travellers may be presented with more of The Mummy’s Revenge. Airline crew have had gloves and masks on for a few months, but protective uniforms may take a novel sartorial twist with the sort of avant-garde gear being explored by Philippine Airlines (PAL) and others.
Among the PAL designs are full white spacesuit body coverings and headgear with long visors, straight out of a nursing home — or a motor-welding garage. AirAsia, meanwhile, has rolled out a red Santa Claus “fireman” outfit for its air crew.
Chic if cheerless this may be, but a return to the singing stewardesses of Asia’s swinging budget carriers of yore seems improbable.
Airlines that are still solvent are gearing up for limited services with middle seats or alternate rows left empty, and perhaps higher fares. Richard Branson, who once famously smacked down British Airways for seeking a government bailout, is now heading for the same corporate dole queue to save Virgin Atlantic. And beleaguered Boeing, still wrestling with the 737 Max fallout, has walked away from a US$4-billion deal to control Brazil’s small-jet leader Embraer.
Other carriers including Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines have handed out (or maintained) mileage status to ease traveller woes, while Thai Airways International has come up with a novel “Stay at Home Miles Exchange” through an app that awards one point for every four hours tracked at home.
Hotels — snobbish, saucy or skinflint — have been hit hard with meetings, weddings and banquets rudely eviscerated, the disappearance of this cash-cow business noted on sagging profit-and-loss sheets the world over. Can hotels combine social distancing with the human touch? And how will brands respond as service becomes increasingly invisible?
Some properties, like the Hyatt Regency Bali, are hard at work redirecting their energies creatively into the community. The Hyatt has kept on staff and put them to work sewing colourful batik cloth face masks that are distributed to underprivileged communities and offered for sale. Any proceeds go towards buying more material and sustaining the project.
In Asia, there is bullishness tinged with wariness. A senior Bangkok general manager who wished to stay anonymous put it this way: “Have the natural resources changed? No. Have demographics changed in any material way? No. Once the danger has subsided — in this case, with effective medication — people will tend to return to their comfort zones.”
Similarly bullish is Hans Jenni, a former president of the Singapore-based hospitality management group GHM, known for launching boutique brands like The Legian Bali. He believes “Covid-19 will go into the history books” and will soon be forgotten, as this is human nature.
He cautions, however, that “social distancing would be a nightmare for the [hotel] industry and destroy the guest experience in no small way. Long-term social distancing will simply not work”.
DISTANCE VS WARMTH
This sentiment is echoed by Giovanni Angelini, an adviser to Dusit International and former chief executive of Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts. He strongly believes social distancing and personalised service make poor bedfellows.
“We can operate hotels following social distancing guidelines, but we are not in an ideal position to extend ‘warm and friendly’ service,” he says.
Lily Udomkunnatum, the ebullient founder and managing director of the Bangkok-based Burasari Group, is a profound optimist and, in something of a pathfinding move, has been undertaking a phased reopening of her shuttered hotels from early May.
“Travellers don’t simply need to be persuaded it’s safe to travel, they need to see actual physical changes that will make travel safer,” she says.
How might social distancing affect hotel management style in the near or long term? And what might its effect be on brand perception? The Covid scare will jolt travellers out of the budget haze, to the detriment of Airbnb, and nudge them upward into the realm of fivestar hotels and luxury boltholes that are now equated with greater safety, simply because they can afford it and follow a corporate rulebook.
Carina Chorengel, senior VP of commercial with Hyatt Hotels, feels new standards will soon be the norm.
“Social distancing is temporary and will ease once the infection abates,” she says. “However, dealing with Covid means some or all of the precautionary measures Hyatt has implemented — temperature checks, masks and gloves for staff, more frequent sanitisation — will become standard or even mandatory across our hotels.”
Hyatt and other chains are also considering contactless options with digital check-in and mobile keys.
For luxury brands in China it has been a sobering period of reflection, says Markus Engel, the chief executive and founder of Urban Resort Concepts in Shanghai, which operates deluxe boutique hotels like The PuLi and The PuXuan.
“The outbreak has accelerated digital transformation and pushed us to think about how we can conduct our businesses more effectively, even without the need for face-to-face meetings,” he says.
Veteran hotelier Gregory Meadows, a former general manager of The Conrad Bangkok and The Sukhothai Bangkok, believes Covid-19 has offered an opportunity for a major land grab by bigger chains.
“I have no doubt the current crisis will be used as an opportunity for the mega-chains to re-engineer their operations,” he says. “Where there were 400 employees in a hotel, say, there will now be 300 because artificial intelligence will feature even more heavily in the future.
“Head office gurus are always moaning about team size; it’s in their DNA. It was always in the long-term plan and now is the time to get it done without too much negative feedback.”
SPACE AS LUXURY
Anne Arrowsmith, group general manager of 137 Pillars Hotels & Resorts in Thailand, believes that terminology is important.
“Perhaps I might clarify that what we have is ‘physical distancing’ with an increase in social connectivity,” she explains. “How nice would it be if cleanliness became an obsession with public transport, public places and public spaces?
“As for hotel interactions, I think it places small, luxury properties as being in the right ‘space’. Resort-style and low-rise vs high-rise. Space becomes part of the definition of luxury.”
Luxury brands could be the biggest beneficiaries of the change in safety perceptions. Says Vincent Guironnet, general manager of The Apurva Kempinski Bali: “The perception of luxury travel will change. Travellers will demand more visible safety and hygiene measures and will incorporate these aspects into their journey.”
Many believe tinkering with the brand is unwise. Says veteran Bali hotelier Ron Nomura: “When we go out of our way and do exceptional things to help guests during these difficult times, they will appreciate the effort and always relate it to the brand.”
Hans Jenni is sceptical of knee-jerk responses. “You cannot change the brand philosophy because of a crisis,” he says. “But the giants like Marriott, Hyatt and InterContinental will of course emerge stronger with fire-sale acquisitions and true, authentic, hospitality may ultimately lose out.”
Thailand and Vietnam could be two beneficiaries of a post-Covid shakeout as destinations of choice.
“It will be a challenge to bring back business travel because people have had a taste of the convenience of working from home,” admits Neha Pandey, country director for brands and marketing with Sun Hospitality Group of Vietnam.
“But leisure travel is there to be claimed. People are not going to scrimp on safety. They may be less budget-driven. But luxury will have to claim back its throne. It will not be an easy win for any brand.”
‘‘
Travellers don’t simply need to be persuaded it’s safe to travel, they need to see actual physical changes that will make travel safer. LILY UDOMKUNNATUM Founder, Burasari Group