SAN IGNACIO, BELIZE—With Belize reopening for international travel on October 1, 2020, The Lodge at Chaa Creek is offering tips that help make arriving easy, and visiting carefree. Bryony Fleming Bradley, Chaa Creek’s Managing Director, said that Belize’s new entry requirements are designed to safeguard everyone’s health and safety, and help make “visiting here a breeze.” “These simple new requirements were put in place to protect travelers, hospitality workers and local communities, but they were also designed to be easy to follow, and help visitors enjoy the same exciting experiences and relaxed vacations Belize has always offered,” she said. The new health...

PARIS—Accor announced its continued action to lead the hospitality industry with the most stringent cleaning standards and operational procedures concentrated on guest safety. Following operational disruptions stemming from COVID-19, Accor has successfully reopened most of its hotels with 95 percent of them having already adopted the Group’s trusted ALLSAFE cleanliness and hygiene protocols jointly developed with Bureau Veritas. To date, Accor has successfully certified 65 percent of these hotels with the ALLSAFE label through a third-party review and accreditation process with professional auditors like Bureau Veritas, SGS, Clifton and Ecolab, and is working to have additional hotels independently verified...

NATIONAL REPORT—Deciding to close or remain open during a pandemic can be one of the most difficult decisions a hotel company will ever have to make, especially if multiple assets are involved. Many factors need to be analyzed, including the financial, brand, and human resources sides of the business to determine which action is the most fiscally responsible. At Sixty Hotels, we are “Always Open” to show our customers that we are there for them in good times and bad, no matter what. This is especially challenging considering that our hotels are in the heavily populated tourist destinations of...

COVID-19 has certainly increased interest in hotel indoor air quality (IAQ). How could it not when you have a potentially deadly virus that spreads primarily through the air? While scientifically a challenge to detect COVID-19 in the air, it is possible to create and monitor conditions that make transmission of viruses like COVID-19 less likely. I have written about various technologies in Green Lodging News that help improve IAQ by killing airborne viruses. It is not just COVID-19 that has increased interest in air quality lately. It is also the growing number of forest fires in the western United States as...

Houston—The AAA Four Diamond InterContinental Houston-Medical Center, located in the renowned Texas Medical Center, is taking further steps to enhance its approach to cleanliness by becoming the first hotel to use the innovative Integrated Viral Protection (IVP) Bio Defense Indoor Air Protection Filtration System. The IVP Air heated-air filtration system is a mobile, plug-and-purify device designed to eliminate SARS-CoV-2, anthrax spores and other airborne contaminants through a heated filter that does not impact the temperature of the ambient air. Building on a comprehensive set of procedures and protocols in place with the IHG Way of Clean program, the use of...

MCLEAN, VA.—The Hilton Effect Foundation announced its 2020 Hilton Effect grantees, which include community-based organizations playing a direct role in COVID-19 pandemic recovery efforts. Through these grants and donations already made by the Foundation, which serves as Hilton’s primary philanthropic arm, the Foundation has now awarded more than $1 million dollars in COVID-19 community response efforts. “A core part of the Hilton Effect Foundation’s work is to support our communities around the world through both good times and bad,” said Kate Mikesell, President, Hilton Effect Foundation. “From the very start of the pandemic, we have been listening to community leaders...

SKOKIE, ILL.—UMF Corp. announced the recipient of the company’s first annual Guest Room Attendant Excellence Award, which acknowledges the contributions of guest room attendants (GRAs) at hotels across the United States. Katrina Minnis, a GRA at Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago, is the recipient of this year’s award, which celebrates the workers who serve as the first line of defense in ensuring a safe hotel environment. “At Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, the safety and security of our guests and colleagues are top priorities,” said Chris Carter, Director of Operations, Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. “Ms. Minnis has served as a...

Different companies and associations have been implementing programs to help bring back meetings to their hotels. The CEO of Wynn Resorts recently talked about creating safe zones. The California Hotel and Lodging Association just released its “Clean + Safe Guidance for Meetings and Events,” providing COVID-19 health safety protocols for California hotels as they prepare to reopen for individual meetings and events. The Guidance incorporates recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California Department of Public Health and Cal/OSHA and is aligned with CHLA’s guidelines for individual travel that was issued in April. The 11-page Guidance focuses on...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As all industries tackle the ongoing effects of COVID-19, the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) has sought to understand the resiliency of the design industry and profession through times of uncertainty. The 2020 ASID Interior Design Resiliency Report has released the results from its first phase, conducted during the summer of 2020 in partnership with Cosentino, Benjamin Moore and Emerald to further investigate interior design resilience by examining the impact of the pandemic, the response from the interior design community and the changes necessary in design to move forward. “In their day-to-day work, design professionals are creative problem-solvers...

ANN ARBOR, MICH.—PlasmaGuard, LLC introduces two NEW “indoor air purification and pathogen destruction systems”—PlasmaGuard PRO and PlasmaGuard ELITE. These commercial strength patented UL rated technologies are the “best available” solutions to destroy 99.9 percent of viruses, bacteria, mold/fungi, allergens, asthma triggers, VOCs, odors and more, within any occupied environment on the market today. Awakened by the Coronavirus pandemic, we understand human health can quickly be affected negatively by airborne pathogens; 1) through the recirculation of harmful polluted air; 2) through harmful surface contamination; and 3) through human-to-human contact and interaction. PlasmaGuard has the best-proven technology to tackle two of these three...