Hyatt guest experiences evolve for creative safety
Reimagined spaces hold rooftop yoga, picnics
When you walk into a hotel – if you’re ready to do so anytime soon – you can expect to see face masks, plexiglass dividers at check-in and reminders to social distance. When you walk into a Hyatt hotel, you can also expect to see a lot of creativity.
The company is in the process of reimagining its food and beverage experiences, well-being and fitness practices and events across hotels. One such way? Yoga class on the roof instead of sweating it out with others in a crowded fitness room.
“We’re trying to repurpose as many spaces and places as possible,” Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian told USA TODAY in an interview.
Hoplamazian recognizes that people may be ready to leave their shelter-inplace locations and that stress levels have been high, given the pandemic and protests for racial equality. He said Hyatt is trying to create a calming and healthy environment from not just a physical perspective but an emotional one – for guests and staff.
Are Hyatt hotels even open?
A cascade of reopenings is underway, according to Hoplamazian, and occupancies have increased steadily over the past couple of months. He said almost half of Hyatt hotels in China are running at or better than 50% occupancy, up from single-digit occupancies in the middle of February.
The USA is behind that since it started to reopen later and some areas still restrict gatherings and require sheltering in place.
Occupancies have increased on a steady basis, as have bookings for travel. Every week over the past six weeks, there’s been an increase in bookings for travel, Hoplamazian said. It’s still down roughly 55% from last year.
During its most recent earnings call in May, the company said 35% of its hotels were in suspended operations around the world. Hyatt expects that number will be a bit more than 20% by the end of June and plans to continue to open hotels through the summer.
When might hotels in the USA reopen? That depends on the location and type of hotel, according to Hyatt CFO Joan Bottarini. A full-service hotel might break even with 40% to 45% occupancy, and a select-service one would be 30% to 35%.
What Hyatt offers guests
“It’s an expectation that we think of as the baseline,” Hoplamazian said of hotels’ safety measures such as extra cleaning, protective masks for employees and social distancing.
Hyatt properties are trying new ways to satisfy cautious travelers beyond hygiene initiatives (though the chain is updating those efforts, working with medical experts from the Cleveland Clinic and instituting hygiene and wellbeing leaders at each property).
The Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach in California has reopened and offers a socially distanced picnic basket dinner. Guests can take blankets onto the lawn, gaze out at the Pacific Ocean at sunset and enjoy live music.
Hyatt teamed up with some of Miami’s top fitness studios to curate and customize workouts that guests can stream from their rooms, balconies, outdoor gym spaces and more at its Confidante Miami Beach property.
Elsewhere at Hyatt: Brides and grooms may have their weddings in a makeshift fashion. The Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe offers a hybrid wedding experience, in which people can stream the ceremony from another area at the hotel or from off-site if they can’t attend in person.
Guests may partake in Zoom mixology classes or find an in-room mixology kit to make their own cocktails.
Black Lives Matter protests
The company has said unequivocally that Black lives matter and that it is taking action in whom it employs and trains, supports and whom it buys from and works with.
There have been protests throughout the USA after the death of George Floyd, a Black man, after a white police officer knelt on his neck.
Hoplamazian said, “I recognize that, as we’ve learned through the outpouring of the grief and anger over the last couple of weeks, there’s a lot here that stretches back over a number of decades, if not centuries. So we’re very mindful of that and very empathetic and sympathetic to that and really are paying attention to that issue across the board, especially and first and foremost amongst our colleagues.”
If hotel employees are treated well, that’s a boon to the guest experience during a difficult time. “People will feel confidence depending on how they experience our colleagues at the property level,” Hoplamazian said. “We cannot forget that while every one of our colleagues in every one of our hotels will be wearing face masks, that doesn’t mean that their humanity is covered.”