SORSOGON STATE UNIVERSITY

TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT

SORSOGON CITY

Name: Renalyn E. Evasco

Year & Course: BSTM 4A

Topic: MODULE 1: STAY SAFE, LUXURY, COMFORT AND SAFETY FOR HOTELS

Speaker: Ron Randell De Belen

Date & Time:

Introduction

Today, the world is facing an unprecedented global challenge to

protect every country from COVID-19. Millions of lives have been destroyed by

this pandemic. Everyone has a fear of losing their love ones. It change

everything. People's daily life, livelihoods, Business, and industries. Including the

tourism and hospitality industry. Which Tourism is one of the sectors most

affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, impacting economies, livelihoods, public

services and opportunities on all continents. All parts of its vast value-chain have

been affected. Before COVID-19, travel and tourism had become one of the

most important sectors in the world economy, accounting for 10 percent of global

GDP and more than 320 million jobs worldwide. But what happened when this
pandemic started? The tourism economy has been heavily hit by the

coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and measures introduced to contain its

spread. Closures of tourism and hospitality establishments have been part of the

act to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Such as hotels, resorts, recreational areas,

beaches, bars, and any tourist spots. This modules explained how the tourism

and hospitality industry copes up within this pandemic.

Knowledge/Learning Acquired

In this module I have learned how resilient Filipinos are. Even

though we are still not a COVID free country we still try to survive our tourism

industry. By creating new ideas and improvising our ways to still give

satisfactions on our guests. It was discussed in the talk what's the impact in tourism

of this pandemic, how are the hotel industry, and what is the demand in luxury travel.

How long will the tourism industry will take to recover? A timeline was presented that

shows it will highly recover at years 2023 of 43% to 2024 of 41%. As for hotel industry,

some hotels are accepting OFW's for quarantine facilities. They cannot accept foreign

travellers and guests for safety. Some are not operating due to lack of guests and they

need to avoid being crowded so it's better to shutdown as well as restaurants. Because

of this closures of hotels and restaurants many employees and hoteliers were affected

of losing their jobs. In this time of pandemic, luxury travel was in demand and you

would wonder why? It's because they wanted to experience exclusivity, privacy,

prestige which luxury travel offers. For the past years, only rich and famous can afford

this kind of exclusivity, private and prestige luxury travel. But because of this pandemic,
most hotels offers private and exclusive accomodations to the guest because of the

restrictions for crowded places. So they offer you a private villa, your own pool, your

own kitchen and other amenities which you can really enjoy.

Slowly, the tourism and hospitality industry are starting to operate again as

some of the restrictions were lifted. Hotels and resorts are adapting to the new normal.

New normal are the habits and policies that are being implemented during this time of

pandemic. They are improving their facilities and equipments to be in the market

again. There are things that we need to consider when booking are next guests and

destinations. First is begin with new ideas, tourism industry needs to reimagine places

and spaces to ensure social distancing and right balancing of personalization, luxe living

and space. There are aspects that are change in hotels and restaurants. Arrival

experience, hotel accomodations, food and beverages, recreational activities,

hospitality and customer service, and best practices. They offer chauffeur to pick you

up in the airport for less contact in the crowd. The rise of personal chiefs for more

exclusivity. You have to make sure that you are providing what they need while

promising health and safety.

Here are some best practices that was mentioned in the talk. For the

arrival experience, the lobby and check-in was changed. Before they offer express

check-in only for VIPs but now it is being offered to everyone for less exposure from

different people. You just need to put your signature no need to fill up a form. A guest-

facing smart kiosk was also installed in some hotels for less contact transaction. You just

need to click to check-in. They also implemented the in room check-in and keyless
room entry. Where you can arrive safely but still stylish. Now what do they offer for the

new normal in terms of rooms and suites? They promised you to stay in a sanctuary of

health and leisure. Tamper-resistant safety seals for every well-appointed room and

suites that make sures the guests are using well sanitized ad never been used by the

other guest. Enhanced digital amenities were becoming a trend for hotels where you

can just tap a tablet to order your food and request for the things you need. The guest

can use it to open curtains, to switch the lights or the tv for less contacts. Terraces and

outdoor spaces are now highly requested, Rise of in-room tablets and mobile apps, one

stop shop room amenities where increased number of supplies where provided like

bottles of water, wines, and foods were provided. Curated guestroom decor and

amenities were also part of hotels now. Before a lots of decorations and decors will be

seen such as paintings, figurines, furnitures were guests tends to touch and thats what

the hotels wanted to avoid so they eliminated such things. Now for hotel dinings, they

changed when it comes to restaurants, bars and lounges, and private dining. You can

choose between pick-up or knock-on go food orders. There's also an in-room kitchen

and pantry, personal chiefs, exclusive booking dining to ensure the social distancing and

to limit the capacity of a restaurants. But hotels still wanted to give us a luxury dining

experience even in this time of pandemic. They offered bento boxes with stylish and

preaented elegantly instead of china wares that they are using before for elegant

appeal. This practice is to make sure that after the guest was finished eating, they were

disposed the things that have been used for safety precautions. They are also creating
meals in a more private dining suites or gardens. Individual-buffet style of meals in

every table were also practiced.

For recreations, they offer activities but you need to book for the time.

They held it in a spacious gardens to avoid crowding and private beekeeping. You can

also explore outdoor paths but with guided maps.

Service and customer experience. Part of luxurious hospitality is customer

service. We need high hospitality and genuine care for all our guests. Personal butlers

are one of the examples of a luxurious hospitality. Our expertise, skills and talent is

highly needed when it comes to customer service. Service from the heart is very

essential when doing customer service. A well trained employees and has a genuine

care for customers to provide the best luxurious hospitality experience. Then

anticipatory service. Anticipatory customer service is about being in tune with your

customer, getting them what they need before they ask for it – or even before they

know to ask for it. It shows that you are customer-focused and strive to deliver an

amazing customer experience.

Another thing that was discussed was about the best practices and

equipments that is being used and practice as this pandemic goes on. First is the robot

butlers. In 2014, Aloft Hotels became the first hotel brand to use robot technology,

introducing A.L.O — robotic butler or Botlr — in its Cupertino location. The robot can

travel the entire hotel to make deliveries. Its primary purpose was to surprise guest

with room delivery. Throughout the hotel, robots are deployed to provide information,

front desk services, storage services, as well as check in and check out services, with
technology including voice and facial recognition. It can also sanitize large rooms and

vast areas. It uses high-intensity ultraviolet (UV-C) light that purges the DNA of viruses

and bacteria. The speaker first handed experienced it when he was in Singapore. He

said that if you want an extre towel, water, or food, you just need to call the

housekeeping hotline and this robot butlers will appear on your door bringing your

requests. This is a very good practice because it avoids contacts of the guests to the

employees of hotels to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Another thing is the key less or

card less room and suites. It is contactless, sanitary, and convenient. The hotels asking

the guests to download a certain app to unlock and lock their rooms. Or there is a QR

code and they would just scan it. Then the In-room Concierge. It is One-stop shop, In-

control, and reliable. Where everything that you need will be navigated by a certain

tablets or smart gadgets such as switching lights, opening curtains, and ordering foods

and beverages.

Recommendations/Suggestions

We are adapting to the new normal and doing the things we are not

used to do before. But we need to ensure the safety of everyone. Hotels, restaurants,

and any other tourism and hospitality establishments should double or triple their

safety precautions and practices to ensure that the guests are safe and secured.

Customers tend to find hotels and restaurants to relax, to relieve their stress from

works and this pandemic. So we must give it without them worrying of their health

safety.
Documentation
Note: I don't have any gadget available other than my phone. I wasn't able to have picture of

myself watching the webinar.