Running a food and beverage service at a quarantine or essential services hotel during the lockdown is a balancing act.
City Lodge Hotel, Town Lodge and Road Lodge brands do not usually offer room service, but this has become the order of the day as quarantine and essential services guests are required to eat in their rooms.
The City Lodge Hotel Group was determined to make the situation as pleasant and dignified a process as possible under the circumstances.
In quarantine hotels, all meals are delivered to the guest’s door on a trolley by a team member wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). The staff member knocks on the bedroom door, greets the guest and hands them their meal.
All meals are presented in disposable containers which are responsibly discarded after use. Once the guest has finished their meal, they place the empty containers in a disposable bag provided and place this outside the bedroom door for collection by a staff member.
All meals are presented in disposable containers which are responsibly discarded after use.
“Our menus have been developed on a 21-day cycle so as not to subject guests or staff to menu fatigue. Each meal includes hot and cold offerings: breakfast and dinner consist of three-course meals and lunch is a two-course meal, taking into account any religious, medical or allergy requirement," said divisional director of operations, Tony Balabanoff.
Where guests want to buy in essential items independently from local supermarkets, these may be delivered to the hotel and received applying the hotel’s stringent delivery and acceptance of goods protocol.
“We remain hoteliers, even during the lockdown, and want to ensure that our guests are comfortable, happy and safe. Being in quarantine is not easy, neither is being away from your family as essential workers, and we know our guests look forward to mealtimes," added City Lodge Hotel Group’s chief operating officer Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo.
"Our teams try as far as possible to ensure all of our guests’ dining needs are met. Our #Café restaurants may not be open but we do our best to recreate the experience, following strict safety protocols, in our guests’ rooms."