Whether traveling for business or pleasure, no one likes to come home sick. But there are steps you can take to minimize your risk:
1. Minimize contact with strangers when you travel by staying at a smaller, owner-occupied Inn or Bed and Breakfast
- You will come into contact with fewer guests, and be exposed to fewer employees/staff.
- Because they are opening their house to strangers, Innkeepers already have a keen interest in minimizing the spread of germs and viruses
- Many Innkeepers do their own cleaning and sanitizing or closely oversee their housekeeping staff rather than farm out this task to third-party cleaning
companies focused on quantity of rooms cleaned v. quality of cleaning.
2. Many Innkeepers have already adopted extra precautions such as those in place at the Stuart Avenue Inn, including:
- Removing (if only temporarily) bulk amenity dispensers in favor of individualized/personal size soaps, shampoos, and conditioners in guest rooms.
- Ensuring frequently touched items in the rooms and in the common areas (lamp and light switches, door knobs, remote controls, faucets, hangers) are washed and disinfected before, during, and after your visit.
- Providing hand sanitizer, and disinfecting wipes in guest rooms, breakfast rooms, and common rooms.
- Replacing buffet set-ups with plated courses.
- Replacing self-serve coffee/tea service with table side poured service, and individual carafes/tea pots.
2. Many Innkeepers have already adopted extra precautions such as those in place at the Stuart Avenue Inn, including:
- Removing (if only temporarily) bulk amenity dispensers in favor of individualized/personal size soaps, shampoos, and conditioners in guest rooms.
- Ensuring frequently touched items in the rooms and in the common areas (lamp and light switches, door knobs, remote controls, faucets, hangers) are washed and disinfected before, during, and after your visit.
- Providing hand sanitizer, and disinfecting wipes in guest rooms, breakfast rooms, and common rooms.
- Replacing buffet set-ups with plated courses.
- Replacing self-serve coffee/tea service with table side poured service, and individual carafes/tea pots.
3. Practice Safe Contact
- Wash Your Hands – Frequent hand washing, even with just soap and warm water, is important for protecting against all infectious diseases, and using hand sanitizers and disinfectants can reduce viral spread by over 85%.
- Minimize Hand Contact with Others – Substitute a verbal “so nice to meet you” for the automatic handshake. If hand-shaking is unavoidable, use hand sanitizer regularly.
- Stop Touching Your Face – Easy to see why; difficult to do.
- Wipe Down Phones, I-Pads, Notebooks, pens, things you touch frequently.
