How Small Hotel Brands Are Maintaining Temporarily Closed Properties

Many of the world’s hotels may be closed now, but that doesn’t mean hoteliers are sitting idly by waiting for the impact of the coronavirus to ebb. Rather, they are finding ways in which to maintain their properties while also supporting their employees.

“Given there’s so much uncertainty in the industry right now with closed borders and airline routes, we have closed our hotels temporarily but kept on a really strong, experienced staff to ensure we can reopen the hotels and get them back up and running within days once we see that things are improving and travelers are confident in traveling again,” said Hans Pfister, co-owner and president of the Cayuga Collection, a portfolio of 10 independently owned luxury hotels in Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua that put the focus on sustainability. “We kept a very strong core team on the ground that is working on making the hotels look better than ever. We are a corporate engineer guiding [staff] in this – as everybody from waitress to accountant will have to help in gardening and maintenance.”

One hundred percent of Cayuga’s staff is local. “It’s not just the maids and gardeners. It’s everybody from managers to chefs to reservations agents,” Pfister said. “This is what sets us apart. We talk the talk on sustainability in terms of being local.”

In terms of staff education, Cayuga is “working on soft skills like empathy, listening and dealing with difficult guests right now,” he said. “As we get closer to reopening, we will reintroduce more operational topics again. We will also monitor closely what the staff enjoys most and keeping morale high is a total key here. We need to keep our staff happy and motivated through this ‘guestless’ period. ”

As further evidence of Cayuga’s commitment to its staff, Pfister noted that the brand offers its employees career-path programs and cross-training opportunities.

“One of our top managers was a construction worker in the hotel that he now leads,” he said. “We have implemented a company doctor program, which is very unusual in rural areas where we operate. Each employee is allowed to spend a night per year with his or her family in the hotel and be treated like a guest.”

At Bluefields Bay Villas, a family-owned portfolio of six villas in Jamaica, Braxton Moncure said he and his family members have given up their salaries in order to ensure all employees continue to receive health insurance coverage.

Bluefields Bay Villas is also providing a weekly stipend of $2,000 for team members 55 and older and offering complimentary lunch “for those in need seven days a week,” the company said.

Additionally, it has kept staff onsite to maintain accommodations in order to ensure the properties are in top shape once they begin welcoming guests again.

For its part, The Roxbury at Stratton Falls in Roxbury, N.Y., is focusing its efforts on finishing construction on one of its tower cottage rooms, The Faerie Forest.

Other tower cottage rooms include such whimsical accommodations as Cinderella’s Gown, featuring an 18-foot ball gown doubling as a bed canopy, and the astronomy-themed focused Galileo’s Gate with its own glass-ceilinged observation deck.

The hotel is also refinishing the breakfast room floor, power washing sidewalks, deep cleaning spas and guestrooms and more.