3 tips for choosing safe accommodations during a pandemic
Depending on where you live, the world is either opening up or hunkering down for more weeks of quarantine. Regardless of the status of cases in your state, you can still travel safely. The key is local travel. Travel experts say that domestic road trips and local family vacations are the near future for tourism.
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Before traveling, look to the CDC guidelines and this checklist to be sure you are traveling in the safest manner possible.
Here are three things you should consider before deciding where to stay on your next trip.
1. Cleanliness.
Cleaning policies differ per hotel, but most hotel chains have put stringent new policies in place to keep guests safe. For example, Hilton started a clean initiative to ensure a sanitized room. As part of Hilton’s CleanStay initiative, the cleaning staff seals the door after cleaning so that by the time of check-in, you can be assured that no one has entered your room since cleaning. Other hotel chains are only putting guests in alternating rooms to ensure that social distancing can be followed at all times. While the cleanliness of your room may be guaranteed, many other prevention factors go into your stay at a hotel.
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Airbnb has also upped the ante in the new world of sanitized stays. In response to the crisis, in late April, Airbnb announced an Enhanced Cleaning Initiative, which they call, "the first overarching standardized protocol for cleaning and sanitization in the home-sharing industry." Hosts of Airbnb’s can select which category of cleaning they have met as part of their home-share profile. To reach the highest category, a host must enroll in a learning and certification program. Through this new set up, a host can now guarantee the professional sanitation of their home through the badge on their profile.
2. Contact With Others
The biggest issue with staying at a hotel is the proximity to other people. Hotels require an in-person check-in. Even if there is an option for a contactless check-in, there are many other aspects that raise the risk of hotel-stay, because so many other people are staying in the same hotel. While masks can help defer the spread of the virus, there must be a consideration for human error. Elevator buttons, lobbies, doorknobs, and even hotel-keys are breeding grounds for coronavirus germs. There are too many factors at play for a hotel guest to completely reduce the risk of potential contact.
Airbnb has already mastered the art of contactless stay. Even before the virus, a renter could arrive and check-in at an Airbnb without ever seeing another person. This looks like checking-in through the app, and directions for the stay sent through email. The stay in an Airbnb also opens the opportunity to stay in an isolated area of the country, ensuring the safety of your group of travelers. The risks are drastically reduced compared to a hotel in regard to contact with others.
3. Amenities
How long could you be quarantined to just a hotel room? If you get stuck in a hotel due to an unforeseen spike in cases during your trip, how well could you survive? With hotels’ lack of amenities, I am assuming not very long. Pair that with the cost of room service, and it is clear how difficult quarantining in a hotel would be. Even on a normal trip, the chances of your group leaving the rooms for food are very high.
Airbnb’s typically come with kitchens and full amenities in them. This gives you the ability to completely quarantine very similarly to how you would operate if quarantined in the comfort of your home. Furthermore, you could book an Airbnb near hiking trails or natural wonders so your activities could be socially distanced.
Photographer: Casey Martin/Shutterstock
Sometimes you need to hit the road, especially to escape this pandemic for a while. When you do, aim for being as safe as possible and bringing as little harm to the world around you at the same time.
Anne Florence Brown is a Budget Travel intern for Summer 2020. She is a Senior at the University of Mississippi.
* This article was originally published here
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