Coronavirus: OYO announces sanitised stays for post-lockdown preparedness

In a virtual press conference, Gurugram-based unicorn Oyo announced that it will focused on following safety measures for their hotels and home stays. The platform will now feature a 'sanitised stays' tag to showcase properties that clear background checks for hygiene, santisation, and protective gear.

The team announced that in the first phase, OYO plans to implement these measures across its 1,000 hotels in the next 10 days as the lockdown relaxes, and soon plans to implement the same across 18,000 hotels in the country. The platform will also be launching a minimal touch standard operating procedure (SOP) for check-in and check-out, housekeeping, and room service.

For check-in and check-out, the team is looking at the process of acquiring the required approvals for guests to upload their IDs, use a QR code, and other means to complete their formalities at the hotel.

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Commenting on OYO’s preparedness for the post-lockdown world, Rohit Kapoor, CEO, OYO India and South Asia, said,

“Customer behaviour is seeing changes across the hospitality industry with hygiene, safety standards, and minimal-touch SOPs soon to become the norm. As a responsible hospitality chain, we at OYO, are working towards welcoming guests, post-lockdown and maintaining health, hygiene, and well-being as our topmost priorities for all our stakeholders including our guests, partners and OYOpreneurs. Given the situation, our teams across the length and breadth of the organisation are innovating new ways to ensure safety and hygiene to welcome all our guests. We would like to specially thank our asset owners who have joined forces with us to boost sanitised stays across properties to welcome our guests.”

The hospitality unicorn is looking to include customer-, asset partners-, and employee-centric initiatives to identify challenges and operate in the post-lockdown hospitality sector.

Some of the pointers that they are looking at are:

• Sanitised stays with minimal touch.

• OYO is also looking to introduce minimal contact room service and will train the housekeeping staff on the same.

• All OYO properties listed on the platform will display the level of sanitisation on the booking page. Hotels will go through regular background audit checks for sanitisation, hygiene, and protective equipment. Out of these, properties that have cleared the background check will display the ‘Sanitised Stays’ tag on the booking page. The team is also looking at conducting a guest audit at the properties regularly to ensure that feedback, reviews, and recommendations are taken into consideration to ensure continuity of the ‘Sanitised Stays’ tag.

• The new training module will incorporate SOPs on the changed operating procedures across functions like: health screening for guests as well as staff, sanitisation of the space with placement of hand sanitisers at the reception, and wearing of safety gear.

• More push and focus on in-room dining.

• Distance marker signs painted on floors to highlight the correct physical distance people must maintain in order to social distance correctly.

• Guests will be requested to handle their own luggage as far as possible (unless the guest is a senior citizen or has a physical impediment).

• Policies for dealing with outside suppliers and contractors complying with health advisories and government regulations.

• Property management to oversee the property’s housekeeping practices

Shreerang Godbole, Vice President, Global Operations and Customer Experience - OYO Hotels and Homes, said in a press statement:

“We are in the process of implementing minimal-touch SOPs for services while focusing on creating awareness through clear and transparent communication, during times like these. We are leveraging our technology toolkit to reach out to our large network of asset partners to conduct training programmes and enhance their preparedness. Furthermore, in the next couple of days, we are set to display a ‘Sanitised Stays’ tag for properties that clear background audit checks for sanitisation, hygiene, and protective equipment. We are also in the process of building a crowd-sourced capability to capture consumer feedback. With such proactive preventive measures, we hope to not only provide safe and secure accommodation for every guest when they are ready to travel again but also offer a stress-free and pleasant atmosphere.”

The team has also created COVID-19 related helpline numbers and awareness material that will be displayed at the reception and all prominent places along with emergency contact numbers and details of the nearest hospitals, the team is also looking to communicate regularly on the do's and don'ts through the app, message, email confirmation, WhatsApp, and SMS.

The statement also adds that they will also educate asset partners and create awareness on post-lockdown initiatives through detailed written/visual instructions and emails on precautions against COVID-19.

The hospitality unicorn has also setup a COVID-19 war room to monitor and take action on cases that require faster resolution and implementation during crisis. The team has enabled 'Corona Concierge' to offer assistance to guests, employees, and hotel partners across the globe for all COVID-19 related issues.