Hotel Blog

One year since Covid really impacted the property.

It will almost be one year since that day last March that seemed we were going to war. We were kind of going to war, with a disease we could not see, feel or touch.  Many of us are too young to remember a battle like this one, against a disease, against an enemy.  There was confusion, and there was fear for our jobs, for our health, for the unknown. 

I remember we went from fully booked for a conference to half booked in a matter of minutes.  Staff meetings were called to make announcements to everyone that there would be layoffs, and we’ll take this one day at a time. So we have. 

We learned at the beginning that weekly socially – distant mini meetings were important. It brought re-assurance that we were in this together.  We could ask questions about what we heard on the news that week and share ideas on best practices moving forward. 

It was time to develop new procedures for housekeeping – keeping staff and guest safety number one, removing all unnecessary items from the room, and focusing on the high touch areas of the guest room. There was no more cleaning the room in the order you wanted, we had to develop a process to make sure no areas were missed, making the tasks routine, making sure everything was sanitized, as it is imperative that it is not forgotten. 

We started to encouraging guests to pre-register before arrival.  We are no longer handling the guest credit cards ourselves, and no longer signing registration cards so the guest does not have to think ‘was this pen cleaned after the last person used it?’ The answer would be yes, but we rather you not even have to think about it. 

Our well-loved buffet was put to sleep since March. We look forward to working in that space again when it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we sought out breakfast items that were shelf stable, offered variety of options for various diets, and were nutritious and filling.

We are looking forward to seeing our guests again. Those here for a family celebration of wedding, anniversary or birthday.  To have a rush of check ins on a Friday afternoon after the baseball that just ended. To promoting our local restaurants and just doing the jobs we love so much.  

The year 2020 was a 30th anniversary of being the Best Western Plus Rose City Suites, we won’t soon forget. 

Back