Marriott Hotels: Operational Challenges

Talk to me about the operational changes you are making in the hotel and in the rooms, as you said, around cleanliness and driving the trust for the customer.

In terms of the room itself, physically, nothing will change. It’s all in the processes. One of the first processes that will be impacted on is the cleaning and housekeeping process. There will be some products and some machines used, to make sure that the room is really clean, before the new guests arrives.

Is that much of an operational challenge for you? Does that take much longer than expected?

It will involve being in the rooms a couple of minutes more, because we will be using other products and we will be maybe swiping twice, what we used to do once. That’s taken into consideration for the reopening of the hotels and that’s something that will be the new norm.

Do you think that has an impact on reducing the breakeven occupancy rate, for example, for a hotel?

No; I don’t think that it will have an impact on the breakeven rate. The cost will increase a little bit and that’s because we will be spending a little bit more time in cleaning the rooms. Therefore, instead of having one room attendant cleaning 12 rooms, maybe she will only be cleaning 10 rooms, so we will need more staff, more hands. This should not be affecting the breakeven rate.

So it’s not a major change, in terms of the cleanliness requirements. Clearly, there is going to be more hand sanitizer around the hotel or, like you said, maybe shorter turnaround times, but it’s not going to have a material impact on the economics of the hotel, in turning around rooms?

If you had a specific cleaning procedure, even before Covid-19, you are safe and you are sure about what you are cleaning and what you are doing for the next guest. Right now, as far as I’ve seen from the different government procedures that are coming out, they’re mainly on products but also on precautions for the guests. Washing their hands, using gloves, using masks. That’s, basically, what we’re going to be changing; the behavior of everyone.