COVID-19 Guide for Tourist Apartments

With the announcement made these days by the President of the Government, in which he stated that this summer there would not only be domestic tourism, but also Spain would be prepared to receive tourists from July, the owners of tourist apartments are preparing to adapt their facilities and protocols to health requirements to accommodate their guests with the greatest possible security.To facilitate this task, the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Apartments —in collaboration with industry experts and the Institute for Spanish Tourism Quality— has developed a document that contains measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission, and thus offer safe accommodation and promote tourism this summer.The guidelines and recommendations of this protocol are not particularly complicated to comply with and represent an excellent COVID-19 guide for tourist apartments that are already being used by hundreds of owners who want to open their doors as soon as possible.The goal is for anyone to be able to enjoy their stay in a tourist apartment without risking coronavirus infection.

Commitment to cleanliness and safety

The main thing in this scenario is that the managers of tourist apartments show a responsible attitude and their desire to manage risk with diligence and efficiency.This implies, in most cases, a comprehensive modification of the assistance and cleaning protocols of the properties in their care and, on a mandatory basis, the need to create a safety and health committee to ensure compliance with all rules and actions recommended by Health.

Tightening hygiene measures

Of course, hygiene and cleanliness will be the most important battle weapons to reduce risks against coronavirus in tourist apartments.Thus, all establishments must ensure safety distance modifying, if necessary, the spaces, the layout of the furniture or even the access system to the apartments.In addition, they must provide easy and continuous access to cleaning systems, either through the use of hydroalcoholic gels or by providing safe access to soap and water.The cleanliness of the facilities will be more intense, with products that ensure the disinfection of surfaces and will be carried out more frequently. The document prepared by the health authorities also states that “the staff in the floor and cleaning area will not access to provide service in the rooms while the client remains inside, except for justified cause”.

Extreme care in common areas

In the event that the tourist apartment is part of a complex or there are common areas that customers can use, it is vitally important to establish a maximum capacity, as well as strict regulation and control of people who coincide in the same space, so that a network of contacts can be traced in the event of a contagion being detected. This will be achieved, the authorities indicate, by increasing meal times in canteens and cafeterias, removing chairs that exceed the maximum capacity and preventing the shared use of kitchen utensils or tableware.

Informative measures to raise awareness

One of the most relevant recommendations of all the work carried out by the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Apartments focuses on public awareness.Experts insist that it is useless for tourist apartment owners to raise their health, cleanliness and social contact requirements if the client then carries out actions that undermine all that effort. Precisely for this reason, it is recommended that within the contingency plan drawn up by the health and safety committee of the tourist complex, continuous and updated information be provided to both workers and clients.This can be done in the establishment itself and thanks to the use of signage with preventive measures and guidelines to follow; use of indicators that mark safety distances and information on health care or police contacts. All this signage must also be carried out in Spanish as well as at least one foreign language.

Some tips for day-to-day

When it comes to providing a good service and, at the same time, maintaining the highest security requirements, health authorities offer some advice to carry out.For example, card payment should be encouraged to avoid the exchange of money. On the other hand, access cards or keys to rooms or apartments must be placed in a container with disinfectant after each use and, as far as possible, not make available to customers pens that will be reused.Of course, in case there is reception staff, it will be a good option to install insulating screens so that customers cannot infect workers.With all these tips and following step by step the rules, regulations and recommendations established by this professional team, it will be possible to provide customers with facilities and tourist apartments absolutely prepared for their enjoyment with a totally minimal risk of contagion.