ACCOMMODATION WARS 2020 Weaponizing Hygiene

Hotels vs Vacation Rentals - How will you decide or be influenced?

Let no one one misunderstand the importance of this hygiene issue, which is about to descend on the hospitality world, it will pour petrol on the hotels vs vacation rentals fire that rages continuously. With almost 17 million hotel rooms at risk of staying empty and millions of rooms being made available in short term rentals, battle lines are being drawn right now.

Escalation

A good example is the front line fight that is ongoing: The “DeSantis Debacle” in Florida.

On April 29th Governor DeSantis issued Executive Order 20-112 outlining “Phase 1: Safe. Smart. Step-by-Step. Plan for Florida’s Recovery.” which opens restaurants, retail, museums, libraries, and elective procedures (with limitations), but keeps vacation rentals closed for the duration of the order–which begins May 4 and is open-ended. As in previous orders, hotels, motels, inns, resorts, and timeshares remain open. Extract from VRMIntel

There are many organisations fighting their own corner in this battle and without doubt Airbnb is the highest profile combatant. This is still considered a “home sharing” platform by many journalists, but in reality has a majority of full properties for rent. The accommodation warriors are local residents and hotels and their lobbies, both with their own reasons for seeing a reduction in the levels of local accommodation. The New York Times highlights this in a late 2019 article.

Whole industry effect

The overall effect of this however is that despite Airbnb being predominantly urban and servicing both business and leisure, the knock on effect of such high profile publicity and growth of rentals has seen a huge backlash in major tourist hotspots with many cities (think Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam etc) restricting available short term rentals. This is now unfairly affecting many popular and traditional seasonal destinations that depend on tourism too.

If anyone doubted that hotels have taken this seriously, then consider that the Marriott which launched "Homes & Villas" and realized you can compete and be part of the game. Accor with OneFineStay is another and we have to consider the other major brand approaches. The Hilton and others will no doubt already be planning their foray into the top end vacation destination market despite their position 5 years ago decrying the challenge.

There will be a serious  reduction in travel for the foreseeable future and few people expect any semblance of normality until 2021. Many hotels and rental businesses, both urban and traditional vacation rentals will be vying for eyeballs and for those guests seeking deals and taking domestic holidays. This rather than international travel which is already suffering badly and is reflected on numerous surveys for the near future. One such regularly updated survey can be found on avvio or when Warren Buffet sells all his airline investments one has to wonder and then the boss of Heathrow says social distancing simply won't work!

The war is just beginning and plans are being laid. We are seeing new buds of travel interest and reductions in quarantine and will soon see some clarity going forward as search traffic turns to bookings.

Hygiene is the next battlefield

The general public are now more aware of the dangers of the microscopic world than ever before through COVID-19, and see this as the disease of door handles and every other household item.

SARS, MERS and other even more lethal zoonotic pathogens such as Lassa Fever have not generally been diseases of the Western world and travelers are seldom affected. COVID-19 however has been a wake-up call with the escalation of world travel facilitating global transmission with unbelievable damage. This is not going away anytime soon or at least until a vaccine is available for all. Even then hygiene awareness will determine many travelers' choices of accommodation and methods of travel in the future.

With limited travel and footfall the accommodation providers are gearing up for the fight and as we can see from above, hotels in some parts of the world have significant influence which is reflected in their current focus, with some details shown below.

Digging the trenches

Shown below are some links and extract’s to show the first movers and how they are preparing to make the safety of their guests and in the case of Airbnb, their Host's guests, the first priority.

• The Hilton hotel chain says its new programme, which begins in June, is called “Hilton Clean Stay with Lysol protection” in North America and “Hilton Clean Stay” in the rest of the world.
• Accor, a global leader in augmented hospitality, and Bureau Veritas, a world-leading provider in testing, inspection and certification, have joined forces to develop a label designed to certify that the appropriate safety standards and cleaning protocols have been achieved to allow businesses to reopen.
• In May 2020, Hyatt plans to introduce a GBAC STARTM accreditation through a performance-based cleaning, disinfection and infectious disease prevention program that will focus on establishing hotel environments that are sanitary, safe and healthy. The GBAC STARTM accreditation will include detailed training at more than 900 Hyatt hotels worldwide, and Hyatt intends to complement this with regular internal and third-party auditing.
• Marriott International, which for 92 years has been recognized as a hospitality leader for its commitment to quality, exacting standards, and rigorous training, announced today that it will be rolling out a multi-pronged platform to elevate its cleanliness standards and hospitality norms and behaviors to meet the new health and safety challenges presented by the current pandemic environment.
• Airbnb are developing a new Cleaning Protocol for hosts, with guidance from the former US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and in partnership with leading experts in hospitality and medical hygiene. As communities gradually reopen, travelers and governments will be able to refer to this specific collection of accommodation to support their preferences and the tourism economy. They have also introduced a 24hr and 72hr hold before cleaning depending on whether a host can follow guidelines.

There are of course thousands of websites with enhanced cleaning advice and safety measures being adopted, according to no end of international and national standards, such as WHO or CDC or other acronymed organisations. No overall agreements and as COVID-19 is still being studied this is a moving target.

Trust Bombs

Just as trust is used as a tool to maximise OTA bookings, the major hotel lobby and in particular those hotels in the US (due to the high proportion of chain owned/run hotels) will use this opportunity to dig their trenches and launch their PR missiles.

All of the above including Airbnb, have adopted a very high profile hygiene partner company, be it Lysol from Reckitt Benckiser (which in itself has a history!) or Ecolab Inc. 

The adoption of these major corporations is not just because of their size, it is because they have in particular a plethora of scientists and lawyers. There are a number of potential scenarios that prompt this choice of what is no doubt more expensive partnership options. They add professional weight and consumer brands to the mix and can support their advice, training and products both academically and financially. 

Reassurance: A guest who stays in any accommodation wants to be reassured that it’s clean and all necessary measures are taken. Using big companies to support processes, provide training and qualified materials, with powerful marketing and underwritten science instills trust.

This is not just a trust issue however the hotels who have their own more financially damaging risks:

• Assuming someone does contract COVID-19 in a hotel, questions will be asked by public health authorities and there is a chance that the entire hotel will be checked but cleansing procedures, products and training certainly will be.
• There is the possibility that a hotel may need to close quickly if guests are found to have or contract COVID-19.

Aim & Fire

It is said that the best form of defence is attack. This may provide a golden opportunity for the hotel industry to deflect its own particular challenges. They may focus on poor policy adoption and choice of equipment and disinfection fluids by smaller rental companies and individual hosts. This could form part of a lobbyist’s argument too.

This is also likely to see airplay through Airbnb hosts. With millions of properties, it is simply an impossible task to be assured that each and every host follows their guidelines. It is impossible to imagine that someone will not become infected. For those who cannot or do not want to follow the hygiene rules and are not prepared to wait 3 days to clean an apartment (this could cut bookings by 50% in a year), there are definite guest risks.

For a guest to suspect they contracted COVID-19 in an Airbnb Hosts apartment will see significant press coverage and even if the cleaning protocol was followed, the tools and fluids themselves will come under scrutiny. If these are not adopted from well researched and evidenced companies it can become another reason hotels will challenge holiday rentals illustrating the lack of holiday rental consistency or professionalism in the approach to guest safety and overall management. 

Opportunities for rentals

An effect of this crisis is that guests need to be aware of who they are booking with, the policies in force and this alone will see “leakage” direct to managers and hosts as guests attempt to locate the accommodation directly. This billboard effect may well add weight to the #bookdirect resurgence and affect OTAs as more travelers research accommodation to be reassured of their choices and capacity to communicate directly. In light of the recent furore over cancellation payments, owners and manager may enjoy higher margin bookings and controls.

Product Liability

I know a little about this, having branded and sold laboratory grade disinfectants and spent many happy years growing human bacteria and viruses. Not every disinfectant is the same and not all kill all germs. They may have different dilutions depending on use, how it is applied, time left on surfaces etc. There are safety data sheets which show a very wide range of precautions and hazards. All need consideration for use and efficacy.

Add to this the EU and US regulations on biocide active ingredients. This article gives a brief summary of the guidelines but this is a very specialist subject indeed and all products need to be approved. As it can cost over EU100K to get a biocide EU approved many are rebranded products and often claim efficacy in environments for which they are not suitable. This opens up a challenge in situations where COVID-19 transmission is suspected.

Simply buying off Amazon, because it’s cheap and says it kills 99% of all known germs is not good enough, it’s the 1% that kills you! There are also glove allergy risks too dependent on the materials used and is yet another potential issue.

Common sense left the building

Ask yourself the question: If you and your family were to go on holiday to a seaside resort which type of accommodation, do you think would be the safest place to stay, if both followed the same cleansing protocols? A hotel or a cottage?

As hotel rooms are small and the drive to spend money on other services is important for revenue generation the rest of the hotel is equally as important. Beverages and food are major contributors to the hotel’s income and this means bringing guests to communal areas and ensuring that in-room opportunities are limited.

Clearly an apartment in a multi-occupancy building has some of the same issues, but internal amenities and space are greater and the lobby (+ bar, cafe, restaurant, gym) the most favourite of places, is non-existent. Food can also be prepared in the private accommodation and check-in is often without human contact. So still with risks, but mitigated substantially.

Independent rental accommodation is the primary winner in this battle and in comparison a hotel’s challenges are very significant:

• Several floors with lifts or stairwells with bannisters
• Food is supplied by staff and delivered to tables and rooms
• Entry is via doors from communal areas and hallways
• Although hotels are moving toward automation to reduce check-in contact and temporarily closing restaurants and bars (so where can you eat and drink) families will constantly be in contact with strangers and where they have left their mark.
• Hotels are frequented by business people who travel frequently, increasing transmission risks
• Hotels are well versed in ADR and RevPar and although this is creeping into the holiday rental world, the underlying revenue management elements also include cleaning times and staff costs. These costs for everybody will rise as training and procedures are implemented. There are many articles on hotel room cleaning but without COVID 30-45 minutes seems to be the average which is about 15 rooms per day. Rest assured this is not the lowest. The Marriott has a 66 step approach at 30 minutes.
• Social distancing, as these are strangers occupying the same general space, will reduce occupancy, increase guest frustration and cause delays across all activities.
• Hotels may have to close if transmission is seen and this affects many guests.
• Guests will pay more and seek better value across all accommodation choices

Although not a hotel environment, this parallels future challenges for offices and the major corporations are having to rethink their positions, such as demonstrated by Barclays recently. It highlights that large numbers of staff or people in enclosed spaces in proximity to each other is not ideal. This change can also reduce the number of sick days from colds and flu and with virtual online communications now in vogue and working well, we can also expect less business travel, and therefore hotel bookings and even city dwellers.

A vacation rental is an independent unit and there is far less chance of contact and transmission. There will also be cleaning and management cost increases, but the single most important element is to reduce these transmission risks through human contact and residual virus loads on products.

If you travel with family and control your own environment, you are much less at risk from passing strangers and transiting through high occupancy communal spaces. As hotels are invariably in high footfall areas, the general public traffic also presents an elevated risk.

It wasn’t too long ago that we saw commentary on how hotels could defend their positions as rental space nibbled away at their market. This Skift article focuses on the experience and the lobby. Not such a great idea when people want distance!

Even hotels will polarise in their opportunity. Those designed with a lot of automation and little in the way of hospitality services may well benefit such as Premier Inns or Travelodges.

Vacation rentals should benefit

Note the word “should”. We need all managers and owners to look carefully at their operations and make clear that all hygiene needs have been covered prior to arrival and that guests can, if they wish, reinforce this themselves.

There is no doubt cleaning several rooms is more onerous than cleaning a single box, but the communal areas do not exist, except in a multi-unit apartment building entrance, but even this has less footfall as residents are more static than travelers.

Once cleaned, the property can be used in complete safety and with no transient chance of transmission through other human vectors. There are powerful arguments why holiday rental properties are better all around. Less risk of transmission, value for money per head, extra amenities and more. 

Remember this is about infection through transmission and as far we know people are the primary vector, (unless you keep bats!) and the primary concern. A rental may have had a couple or a family stay before you, a hotel will have seen hundreds of people transit the entire building. 

PR and big budget marketing will influence travelers. Common sense still needs information and relevance and although we live in a rental-centric world the consumer does not. The hotel chains have this articulate and financial power and experience. The smaller hotels and groups of hotels as found in Europe, may well live off the back of this marketing as well. It will not be long before hotels gather to approve certifications on hygiene management. It will probably not highlight person to person transmission as the biggest risks but a label/certification with brand validation is a powerful message.

The big hotel and rental challenge relates to the exact nature of this virus and the policies that need implementing to eradicate it.  Doing the equivalent of a “Trump” and bombing an entire property with formaldehyde (seriously, don’t even think about it) or gamma irradiating a home is completely unfeasible and hence a sensible risk assessment needs adopting. With time, continual monitoring and vaccinations expectations are that the risk will be substantially reduced. 

There is now awareness that hidden enemies lurk everywhere and in reality as long as we all follow the general hygiene rules and keep our immune systems on point, then there will be no need for concern when the pandemic recedes.

Policy adoption in holiday rentals - Needed Now

As a major advocate of collaborative power, a solid vacation rental policy is needed quickly that every business can realistically adopt and defend. No doubt this will be difficult across millions of properties and owners and is also the touch point that fragmented the market and allowed significant OTA penetration of vacation rentals. The time has come to pull together over this crisis.

All owners and managers need to engage in policy decisions that affect them and lobby their own authorities, who themselves need to be independent of the hotel vs rentals wars.

I am sure there are many organisations are looking at this subject now and as with most things, we are likely to see local, regional and national guidelines. These all need to have the benefit of a sound scientific approach which needs to address the issues related to holiday rentals specifically and be delivered soon.

These very important policy documents are a defence against finger pointing PR in a situation where common sense would show that a holiday rental is not only better value, but less likely to provide a source of infection. Apart from keeping guests safe it elevates the rental industry’s professional standing which has to happen as the industry grows.