Hotels to be open for staycations again with safe management measures in place

Hotels are facing the worst occupancy rates in history. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

SINGAPORE - Locals will soon be able to opt for staycations in hotels again as Singapore passes the one-month mark into phase two of the post-circuit breaker period.

Hotels are facing the worst occupancy rates in history, with foreign visitor arrivals to Singapore all but dried up due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) announced on Friday (July 3) that hotels may now apply to resume two activities: providing accommodation to guests for the purpose of leisure, and opening their recreation areas for children.

But all must adhere to various safe management measures to do so, the STB said in its advisory.

The STB said that the safe management measures that each hotel must comply with include reducing capacity and inter-mingling of hotel visitors in the hotel's lobby and guest facilities, such as disallowing more than five individuals from different households from gathering in any guest room.

The hotel must also screen every individual for symptoms, including a fever or a runny nose, before allowing anyone to enter the hotel or each guest facility.

It must also have in place rigorous cleaning and disinfecting regimes, and implement the national digital check-in system SafeEntry for every individual entering or leaving the hotel.

For the hotel's function areas, the hotel is required, among other things, to identify hot spots for potential bunching of visitors and implement a control mechanism to prevent or disperse crowds.

"This could include deployment of safety ambassadors to remind attendees against clustering and loitering in common areas," the STB said.

Hotels which have been designated as government-contracted facilities for Covid-19 purposes, such as those housing individuals on stay-home notice, would have to fulfil additional requirements, including allocating all rooms occupied by such individuals at dedicated floors or blocks that are segregated from other guests, and displaying notices that the hotel is providing Covid-19 related accommodation.

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