Advertisement

Will hotels check from where their guests are travelling?

Number One Bruton
Number One Bruton

Following the announcement of the revised tier system in England, many hotels in Tier 1 and 2 across the country are preparing to reopen from next week.

While the majority of hotels have had to go through the process of shuttering up and reopening at least once before, the fact that significantly more areas are now in Tier 3 presents a greater challenge with regard to operating safely. Much of the north of the country, for instance is in Tier 3 - but the Lake District, a popular tourist destination, is in Tier 2.

Those in Tier 3 destinations are being advised not to travel outside their areas (and hotels in those areas are ordered to close unless for essential purposes). People in Tiers 1 and 2 are allowed to travel, and hotels in both tiers are open, though the advice is to minimise journeys. More guidance around this is due on Monday, but we asked hoteliers how they plan to approach the issue (or not).

How will hotels check where their guests are travelling from?

Claudia Waddams, the owner of Number One Bruton, an eight-bedroom boutique hotel and restaurant in Bruton, Somerset (in Tier 2), puts it succinctly.

“a) TRUST - this is our first line of defence - we are trusting that guests that may have booked from a Tier 3 area will cancel their bookings (we have just had a telephone call from a guest in Bristol who asked if he could keep his booking and we said no - he was very understanding).

“b) OUR BOOKING ENGINE - when our guests book online/over the telephone they have to put in an address - we are already checking this and will get in touch with anyone who is in a Tier 3 area and ask that they cancel their booking.

“c) If guests choose to lie, pull the wool over our eyes and come anyway, then we will be relying on the strict health and safety procedures that we already have in place to protect us/our staff/other guests.  This means: no one is allowed to use the sitting room, face coverings have to be worn in all public spaces (including corridors), rooms are cleaned with a steri-7 mist system that disinfects the room for 72 hours, windows and doors open to let a draft through, extra cleaning, hand sanitiser etc.  We have been doing this since July so we are well practised now!

“In terms of breakfast - all of our tables are all socially distanced and breakfast is presented to our guests in a basket.

“d) The hotel is small [...] I can see that we do not have any guests from more than one household coming to stay over the next month… on the whole we have noticed that our guests are pretty conscientious we haven't had to ask people to adhere to the rules because they seem to do it naturally.”

Trust is a common theme. Susan Stuart, owner of boutique hotel Chapel House Penzance, Cornwall (Tier 1) told The Telegraph: “We will be asking guests about which Tier they are coming from, as we need to safeguard staff and guests alike [...] we hope guests will use common sense when deciding whether it is appropriate to travel.”

A room at The Talbot Inn in Somerset, part of The Beckford Group
A room at The Talbot Inn in Somerset, part of The Beckford Group

The Scarlet, a spa hotel on the north coast of Cornwall, told us they would be asking guests to confirm from where they would be travelling.

“As those in Tier 3 are advised not to travel, we will be asking them to rain check on their visit for now.” Tier 3 guests of both The Scarlet and Chapel House can rebook or ask for a refund if they have an upcoming stay.

Other hoteliers acknowledge the logistical issues around confirming where guests are coming from.

A spokesperson from the Langdale Estate, home to Brimstone Hotel, said: "The tier-three areas surrounding the Lake District will cause us huge issues as the majority of visitors to the area come from within a two-hour drive. Not travelling out of  and staying overnight for people in tier-three areas is currently guidance and not regulation and so the businesses in the Lake District are left to police this, which is not fair on them their staff or local communities.

"While there is financial support for businesses that have to operate at lower capacities owing to cancellations and a drop in bookings from tier-three areas, it is left to businesses and their front-line staff to bear the brunt of people who may be denied service, [on top of] those travelling from tier-one and -two areas that do not want to holiday in areas full of tier-three visitors. We have seen examples of both situations already today."

Accommodation providers are eagerly waiting for the regulation which is published on Monday which will help them make decisions on the best way forward in preserving the sustainability of their business whilst keeping their guests, staff and communities safe, a nearly impossible balance within the current tier system.

Robin Hutson, of the Pig group, which has hotels in both Tier 1 and 2 areas, told us: “I don’t believe it’s the responsibility of operators to police this rule; we have enough to contend with without worrying about where guests have travelled from.”

It is echoed by Dan Brod, co-owner of the Beckford Group, which has stylish pubs with rooms across Somerset and Wiltshire (Tier 2). He told Telegraph Travel:

“We will be doing everything reasonable to ensure all rules and guidelines are adhered to so that everyone, including our staff, are kept safe. But we will not be the enforcer of the rules.  

“So if it is obvious someone is breaking the rules we will endeavour to carefully explain this to guests – but we won’t be interrogating [them]. We are the hospitality industry after all.”