Hotels reopen on the Strip with a few precautions
Safety measures include housekeeping by request
LAS VEGAS – The voicemail light was blinking when I checked into my room at New York-New York Hotel & Casino during the Strip’s reopening last week.
Instead of a standard welcome greeting or a leftover message a previous guest never retrieved, the voicemail from a hotel employee was about cleanliness.
My room and linens were thoroughly cleaned prior to my arrival, she said, noting the housekeeping seal, which I had broken when I swiped the magnetic key card to enter the room.
“If you would like us to clean your room again during your stay please contact housekeeping,” the message concluded. “Should you need any other amenities such as fresh towels, slipper or robes, housekeeping can provide (them) as well.”
That’s right: daily housekeeping is now done on request.
It’s one of the many changes prompted by the coronavirus crisis. Hotels, like airlines and other travel businesses, have had to institute new health and safety protocols in a bid to keep employees safe and lure back customers as travel restrictions are eased.
To get a first hand look at what it’s like to stay in a hotel during the pandemic, I stayed at three different hotels over three nights while covering Las Vegas’ reopening. In addition to New YorkNew York, I checked into Caesars Palace, part of casino gaming giant Caesars Entertainment, and The D Las Vegas, an independently owned hotel on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas. All trips were paid for by USA TODAY and the stays were anonymous.
The biggest surprise to me: Once inside the rooms, nothing seemed dramatically different from a pre-coronavirus stay. There were ice buckets, glasses or cups for water, the same old minishampoo bottles and prehistoric telephones and alarm clocks.
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The lobby: Temperature checks are required before you get a room key. At The D Las Vegas, I went through a metal detector-cum-temperature scanner at the entrance to the hotel. I scanned my wrist, registered 98.7°F and was on the way to the front desk. At New York-New York, an EMT scanned my forehead with a contactless thermometer at the entrance to the check-in line. At Caesars Palace, guests using the front desk go through a thermal scanner, while those checking in at kiosks have their temperatures taken by a contactless thermometer.
I never registered a temperature higher than 98.7°F. If I had, I would have been tested again after being given a chance to cool off. If I still had a fever, I would be given a COVID-19 test at Caesars and New York-New York and evaluated by a medical professional at The D, all to determine whether I could check in, hotel representatives said.
Social distancing signs were everywhere on floors, easels and video screens in the lobby and on the way to the rooms.
New York-New York and Caesars have their version of a good housekeeping seal of approval, a sticker on the door declaring the room clean. Caesars’ red sticker says: “Cleaned and sealed for your protection.” The sticker on my room was either not affixed tightly enough or a prankster ripped it off, because I found it on the carpet in front of my door.
Amenity kits or free face masks and gloves: A red pouch was waiting on the desk in my room at New York-New York. Inside: two periwinkle cloth face masks with the hotel’s name stitched in the bottom right-hand corner; a 2 oz. container of Locke Teddy hand sanitizer, a pen that doubles as a stylus to use on touchscreens and a silver tool for opening doors with a stylus for pushing buttons. The tool looks like a cross between a bottle opener and a key chain.
The D was handing out white face masks with its logo. Caesars had employees handing out generic face masks at its entrances. Guests do not have to wear them at most places in the hotels I stayed in, and many didn’t when I was there.
Daily housekeeping by request, if at all: Like New York-New York, Caesars and The D had notices about changes in housekeeping policies. During express check-in on a kiosk at Caesars, this message popped up: “In alignment with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for social distancing, housekeeping will not be provided for guest stays of more than one night. Trash removal and towel refresh will be provided upon request only.”
At The D, the room key holder had a note in it that said housekeeping service would not be offered but that guests could request additional linens and towels to be delivered to their rooms.
Bell service: I checked my bags outside Caesars Palace so I could wander around in case my room wasn’t ready. (It was.) The bellman was so rusty from the hotel’s 21⁄2-month closure he forgot to give me my ticket and tracked me down in the lobby. When I called for my bags, the bell desk told me to stay in the room, explaining employees knock and leave guests’ bags outside the door for them to retrieve. The bellmen bellman who delivered my bags, wearing gloves and a mask, dropped them inside because I opened the door and greeted him with a big tip.
Parking: Nobody wants to go into your car and vice versa during a pandemic so valet parking was suspended at each of the hotels I stayed at. Selfparking is the only option at most places in Las Vegas and around the country – at least for now.