Coronavirus: Buffets Could be Banned After the Crisis

Hotels across the world will have to adopt intensive cleaning protocols and do away with buffet in a bid to soothe anxious travellers, when they open business once the coronavirus pandemic ends.

According to reports in Daily Mail, two major hotel chains in the US – Hilton and Marriott, are first to announce new cleanliness regime as they tie up with hygiene experts. Both companies are supposedly mulling to scrap buffet altogether as they expect travellers to slowly start returning to its hotels in mid-summer.

Hilton said Monday that it is teaming up with RB, which makes Lysol and Dettol disinfectants, and the Mayo Clinic to develop new cleaning procedures that will be in place by June.

While Marriott announced last week that it is creating a cleanliness council including infectious disease specialists and an expert from EcoLab which makes commercial cleaning products. “Any customer at any price point is accustomed to some kind of buffet. I think it’s not dead. I think how it’s presented and prepared will likely change in a very long-term way,” Phil Cordell, Hilton’s global head of new brand development told the LA Times.

Speaking about the cleanliness factor, Cordell said, “There’s always been an expectation that it would be clean, but now the clean has a double exclamation point after it.” He added that Hilton’s new cleaning program will roll out globally to all 6,100 Hilton hotels by the end of May.

Marriott spokeswoman, Connie Kim, said that ‘we will be serving individual grab-and-go for some time’. She added that they ‘will likely be exploring partitions, making sure social distancing is practiced in lines and likely using individual servers’.

Meanwhile, Airbnb said it is developing cleaning protocols for its hosts with guidance from former US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy and EcoLab.

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