June 18, 2020 - Dana Dahl - Beach House Reopening Process 

The Beach House is a luxury boutique hotel with the #1 Review Listing on the Coast and is located in Princeton next to Sam's Chowder House. They specialize in Executive Meetings and leisure/romantic get always. Every room is a junior suite.

 

Covid came on hot and heavy, and they closed the Beach House in the third week of March for due diligence to limit its leisure travel lure. It was closed six weeks during which all focus was on preps for reopening. She met weekly as a county wide committee looking at the current hot spots which was very useful for preps on the coast. Their first priority is staff and their comfort returning to work. A lot more work is required so they all had to sign an agreement to work more without additional pay. The workers must take their temperatures (must be below 100) and enter it on their daily questionnaire  asking how they feel, cough?, temp. etc. They must wear face masks at all times and use hand sanitizer as must the guests. The guests receive an email two days before their reservation so they know and will succeed. 

 

Her goal is to provide a relaxing atmosphere which is a challenge. They have posted signs at entrances about social distancing, masks and sanitizer. They have the now familiar floor markings at six foot intervals but it is not tape but stickers of Snowy Plovers, Blue Herons and Seagulls. There is a table in front of the front desk and a plastic shield. the card processor is on the table along with hand sanitizer. Keys are sanitized morning. The usual collateral pieces found in rooms are missing; magazines, binder etc. Consierge services are handled by their front desk. They have made packets of infor in zip lock bags for guests containing in-house food & beverage info, outside dining, etc. They promote local businesses. 

 

Everything is sanitized between guests such as the wet bars, dish ware and all touch surfaces so it is taking more employees to serve only 50% of rooms in use. The virus can remain airborne for three hours so they stay out of the room three hours then they remove the trash and  dish ware and shut the door overnight. It is cleaned and sanitized next morning. It takes time to do all the surfaces. There is no house cleaning during a guest’s stay only towel exchange. In the public areas they are constantly sanitizing railings, elevator buttons etc.  The Jacuzi is open conforming to more stringent rules including testing and logging the water chemistry every four hours. Guests sign up for exclusive use, 40 minutes for the pool and 25 for the Jacuzi. 

 

Dana’s goal is to keep employees and guests safe and healthy. It is hard to make them feel safe but she finds the protocols make people more comfortable to return to work/stay. Leisure Travel is legal from yesterday, June 17, proposals are trickling in but work from home allies to meeting too so no person to person meetings just yet.

 

Question asked whether VRBOs are safer than hotels? The hotels are more accountable and inspected much more frequently so VRBOs are less consistent and less accountable.

 

She sees business pivoting from 30% meetings to much less now and will be for some time. The new marketing campaign by their state group is: “CAlifornians Discovering California again! 40% of Half Moon Bay’s City economy comes from luxury stays so it is a big hit to the local economy.  Big thanks to Dana Dahl for her presentation!