Update: Tips for Hospitality in Times of Corona
Once again, after a lockdown, gradual reopening is underway for the hospitality and hotel industry. While the details of the new regulations are known, it remains unclear to what extent and in what form they can be implemented, and by whom or how the associated control obligations can be carried out in practice. In Austria, at least, the relevant regulation is uniform nationwide, in contrast to Germany, where the federal government is attempting to provide an overview here, since the rules differ somewhat from state to state.
Guest registration is now called collection of contact details, but in principle it’s the same as before: guests at hospitality establishments who stay for a longer period (in Austria: more than 15 minutes) should be traceable. The question of how this should be done remains unanswered once again, left instead to each business’s own prevention concept. It remains to be seen what guests will encounter, ranging from paper slips and QR codes to digital forms, or, as with the IACBOX, via the WiFi login page. The Austrian Federal Economic Chamber provides a sample form here.
It also remains true that physical contact continues to be viewed critically in pandemic times. Anything that can be handled contactlessly without much effort is therefore likely to become a lasting trend, such as online check-in, orders from digital menus, or similar everyday tasks. That’s why we’d like to once again point you to our article on contactless hospitality.
We will also likely have to get used to seeing face masks more often in everyday life during cold and flu season, as has long been the case in densely populated Asian countries. This development does have some welcome side effects, as every single country with a mask mandate has seen a significant reduction in flu cases over the past two winter seasons.
And what about collecting contact details? Yes, if you are required to do so, or if you’d like to support this as a useful measure in the fight against the pandemic, the IACBOX Data Collector is happy to help. Instructions are available here as a PDF.
And now, let’s simply look forward to soon sitting down again for a pizza, an exquisite meal, or just a coffee on a terrace, at a bar, or in a beer garden, chatting with friends and enjoying life.
