Episode 4 of the React Mobile ‘Employee Safety Culture’ Webcast Series looks at how this luxury brand revamped its operations to focus on safety and protect its people
Seattle, August 25, 2020 — Deciding to close or remain open during a pandemic can be one of the most difficult decisions a hotel company will ever have to make, especially when multiple assets are involved. SIXTY Hotels, a luxury boutique brand with properties in New York City and Beverly Hills, is “Always Open” thanks to a medical team that put strict policies in place to help each property better protect its people. In Episode 4 of the React Mobile “New World, New Employee Safety Culture” webcast series, SIXTY Hotels Vice President of Operations Christopher Horn shares with React Mobile CEO Robb Monkman a host of ways that its employees are being protected at Sixty Soho, Sixty LES, and Sixty Beverly Hills.
Hoteliers can listen at their leisure to the 20-minute webcast by clicking here.
“A company’s culture should point to its core values and speak to why it is in business,” Horn says. “SIXTY Hotels is passionate about service — in good times and bad — and it’s for that reason that we chose to be ‘Always Open’ at a time when travelers need us the most.
“As soon as the pandemic hit, we brought in a medical team to formulate a plan for keeping everyone safe,” he says. “They analyzed our business, walked through our departments, looked at everything employees touch, how they enter/exit the building, where they store equipment, how many people are on shift at the same time, etc. Based on their findings they made recommendations and new standard operating procedures were established. It’s because of this plan that our hotels and people are doing so well. Hats off to our teams. They are the difference makers, the real heroes of hospitality, and the reason that transient business is coming back.”
Horn discusses several best practices that prepared SIXTY Hotels to initially serve first responders and then ready their teams for the surge of transient business it is experiencing today. Hear how the room turn process evolved as the virus spread … why guests are required to self-serve and carry their own luggage … how roomservice has been redesigned … and which technologies are enhancing operations while limiting exposure to guests.
“Technology and the ability to quickly adapt to changes in the environment will only advance hotels as we go into the next phase of hospitality,” Horn says. “This is an industry filled with hard working, dedicated people. The next six to 12 months will define us, but we are resilient, and if we depend on each other and follow best practices of those who are leading the recovery effort, we will come out of this better than before.”
To learn more about the React Mobile Webcast Series, click here or visit www.reactmobile.com/webcasts.
