A house in order

You might have to strain your eyes to see them, but the remnants of the tuberculosis pandemic are still visible in the shape and sinews of most European cities. The legacy of this deadly disease is ingrained in some of the continents’ most revered modernist buildings, structures deliberately designed with clean lines and even cleaner surfaces.

Large light-grabbing windows, spacious rooms with pearly white interiors – forever synonymous with the sanitorium movement – and an accessible roof terrace now stand as hallmarks to a time in which architects built to promote health and hygiene, even if the disease was largely misunderstood until the 1920s. The erroneous notion that the sun would ‘heal’ patients, for instance, might have changed the modernist aesthetic but it didn’t cure anyone outright.

Protocol had to change too. Health and hygiene regimens were also brought into sharp focus as campaigns were unveiled to prevent people from spitting in public, and rubbish disposal and water sanitation were rethought. With TB spreading at an alarming rate– by 1918, it still caused one in six deaths in France – cleaning methods also became more thorough and precise with special attention devoted to surfaces that might breed bacteria. It’s a push that now feels remarkably familiar in the age of Covid-19 where every cafe, pub and living room is scrubbed and sanitised within an inch of its life. Faced with facilitating a safe environment for already anxious guests, it was only a matter of time before hotels followed suit. Scroll through Google and the new marketing strategy becomes immediately apparent, with every hospitality venture worth their salt advertising a ‘new’ range of ultra-stringent hygiene protocols designed to eliminate the threat of the virus.

This has coincided with a rapid uptake in technology as hotel chains strive to clean their properties more efficiently than ever before. Marriott’s website, for instance, which proudly displays its ‘commitment to clean’ initiative is advertising its use of enhanced cleaning technologies. These include electrostatic sprayers – used to sanitise surfaces throughout the hotel – and air purifying systems that are “effective against viruses in the air and on surfaces”.

Under pressure

Invariably, these new demands are placing a strain on hoteliers themselves – in particular housekeeping staff and cleaners – as they strive to safeguard venues from infection while at the same time ensuring the already high cleaning standards don’t become too overbearing.

“You really have to dig into the matter and make sure that you take the correct decisions and apply the right cleaning agents to make sure the virus is eliminated,” says Tanja Ahmed, housekeeping manager at Grand Hyatt Dubai. “We have been very, very stringent in our cleaning regimes.”

As well as being a resident housekeeper, Ahmed is also a functional specialist in housekeeping, charged with ensuring that high standards of cleanliness are met across Hyatt’s hotels in the Middle East while also chairing the UAE professional housekeepers’ association. In short, she is an expert in every facet of the cleaning process.

“If everything goes right, nobody is going to rave about it, but if something goes wrong the housekeeper gets the blame,” Ahmed says with a smile, talking about how this demanding role has changing markedly since 1983 when she started a three-year apprenticeship in hotel management in Germany. Since then, the advent of new technologies, particularly data monitoring, have radically altered hotel operations forcing housekeeping staff to be more tech-proficient and finely attuned to the demands of each guest.

Meanwhile, the invention of social media and online reviewing, has placed pressure on housekeeping staff as mistakes are punished via twitter and Facebook, resulting in negative reviews and bad publicity. Afterall, it’s not just the guests that are now being monitored.

“The biggest challenge is the technology that has come in. When I first started there weren’t any computers, we had a typewriter and a photocopier. Today, the work is much faster. You have to make sure your team are tech-savvy,” Ahmed says, citing the plethora of gadgets such as smart TV’s and heating and cooling systems that are now a staple feature in most hotel rooms. “It’s certainly very different to the older days when there was only a light switch.”

Increased focus

Covid-19 has only intensified matters placing greater pressure on cleaning staff to eradicate dirt and germs and deliver a pandemic-proof service. One way of achieving that goal is by appointing a specialist hygiene and well-being manager – as Hyatt have done – to work closely with medical experts to ensure the virus is properly dealt with according to the latest scientific expertise. Other hotels have followed suit – Marriott, for instance, has assembled a ‘cleanliness council’ to help drive its newly conceived ‘Commitment to Clean’ initiative, enlisting a panel of medical experts and industry advisors to help make its hotels as safe as humanly possible.

Another approach is the good old-fashioned method – focusing specifically on the surfaces most likely to spread the virus. “I [now] see a lot of people talking about touchpoints,” Ahmed says. “We’ve always had this practice of looking at elevator buttons, toilet flushes, door handles, remote controls. If you’re a savvy housekeeping operation you’ll be addressing these concerns.” Addressing those anxieties is now more important than ever from a psychological angle, as hoteliers look to reassure guests that their safety is being taken into account. Whereas in the past the odd poorly cleaned area of a room might have evoked a complaint or a ranty review, today’s hoteliers are now dealing with a life-and-death issue. “It’s crucial that we are spotless because now if a guest finds something dirty in his or her room, they’re thinking that they’re not in a safe place,” explains Marco Conte, resident manager at Milan’s Hotel Principe di Savoia. “It’s not only a matter of cleanliness, it’s a matter of safety.”

An iconic luxury hotel located in Milan’s Porta Nuova district that first opened its gilded doors in 1927, the Principe has long prided itself on delivering a high standard of customer service. Doing so has meant changing its cleaning methods to adapt to Covid-19.

A new system of cleaning has been introduced at the Principe, Conte informs me, with every one of the hotels’ 301 rooms now coated in sanitiser – the minibar too – with all items left in the room disposed of immediately on check out. Meanwhile, a compulsory two-day gap has been implemented before service in any room can be resumed. Separate offices have also been created for dirty and clean laundry to limit any chance of viral transmission.

Invariably, this meticulous new system also required a thorough process of re-training as staff were brought back into the hotel post-lockdown to re-learn new protocols. “We were back in weeks before we re-opened in September to re-train [staff for] the cleanliness aspect. Not only housekeeping but other staff as well,” Conte explains. “At first it was complicated, but it has now become the new normal.”

A personal touch

More than anything, the new normal looks set to fundamentally alter the role of the hotel cleaner and housekeeper, moving the emphasis from the back to the front of the house as hospitality ventures advertise new cleaning methods as part of a marketing strategy specifically calibrated to make guests feel safe in anxious times. For now, at least, the break in perception is clear and tangible: while cleaning staff were once an inconspicuous cog in the hotel machine, they are now foot soldiers in a new war against a largely invisible enemy.

“The pandemic has raised global awareness for cleaning, and people are now seeing the value of it,” Ahmed says. “The cleaning arm [of the hospitality industry] is now seen to contribute to the most important aspect of life, which is health. We know that for our colleagues and our guests to feel confident returning to our hotels, their peace of mind is critical to the entire hotel experience.”

While these new cleaning measures are so far proving effective, striking the balance between being demonstrably hygienic without being overbearing has taken some time. At a hotel like the Principe that prides itself on delivering a personal touch, Conte is wary that staff don’t become too impersonal. “We’ve got to find the right way to make guests safer without being too aggressive or obsessive,” he says. “We don’t want the Principe to become a hospital – it’s a five-star hotel, after all.”

While it has never been more important to monitor infection rates and safeguard guests, there is a danger that hotels lose sight of what they really are: a place for comfortable refuge from outside pressures. A place where anxious guests can switch off, even if just for a night. “Lots of things have changed [since before the virus], but we don’t want to impact the guest too much,” Conte says.

“We want to maintain the pre-Covid experience as much as possible. People that come here need to think that the world outside is far away.”