I was looking for a “low-key adventure”, so I decided to write full-time while rotating continuously through five U.S. states. I gave up my job, my house and my community to travel full-time and live in hotels. Three weeks later the pandemic hit. Here’s what I learned.
My unique situation has taught me a lot about how to manage your relationship with hotels during Covid and beyond. (Yes, there will be an “after-Covid” life someday). To read about a couple of great hotels that are worth experiencing any time read here and here.
Hotel-Provided Food Options
Many smaller hotels (what the industry sometimes calls “limited service” properties) offer breakfast buffets. This includes Marriott’s Residence Inns and Hilton’s Garden Inns among others. In the good old days, these buffets included items such as eggs, breakfast meats, waffles, fruit, pastries, cereals, yogurt, juices, and hot drinks. During the original height of the pandemic, these properties scaled way back. Guests were often provided with a “grab-n-go” breakfast bag that included a piece of fruit, a granola bar and/or a cellophane-wrapped pastry and a bottled water.
In 2022, many of these properties have begun to reopen their breakfast buffets with some revisions. To keep guests healthy, travelers may now find servers doling out food. Self-service buffets often provide gloves. Pastries and fruit may be individually wrapped.
Hotels have undertaken cost-cutting measures and implemented belt-tightening procedures. These changes include shorter buffet hours than in pre-pandemic days and more limited options than before. For lunch and dinner, many properties (at all levels) are offering limited menus with choices that are quicker and easier to make with limited staff. I suggest calling your destination 48 hours before your arrival to find out how in-house dining is being handled.
Fitness Center Options
Most hotels (large and small) have an onsite fitness center. During my Covid-era travels, I have encountered fitness centers that are fully open and some that are fully closed. I have seen them restricted to 2-4 people. I have also experienced gyms only accessible by advance reservation. Here again, you may want to call ahead to see how this service is being handled.
Many people prefer not to use shared exercise equipment these days, so travelers might consider downloading a fitness app. These apps provide routines that you can do in your room or outside. I have even encountered hotels that have synced their property to a specific app (such as Fitbod), which allows hotel guests to download walking/running routes customized for their hotel’s neighborhood. I travel with my weightlifting gloves and a selection of stretchy bands. Neither item takes up space in my luggage and the bands allow me to strength train without weights for variety.
Hotel visitors should also be prepared to encounter missing items. Many properties removed mats, bands, kettle bells and other items and left only cardio equipment and dumb bells. As the pandemic ebbs and flows, these items will reappear and then disappear again frequently. Lastly, it goes without saying that having your own sanitary wipes at the ready is a necessity. Short-staffed hotels often don’t replenish the wipe dispensers in the fitness centers daily like they used to.
Housekeeping
Obviously, if you visited a hotel five years ago, you received daily housekeeping unless you requested privacy. Today, it is often the opposite. Many hotels have suspended housekeeping and will not service your room unless you request service the night before for the next day. I have always preferred to keep the number of staff entering my room to a minimum anyway, so this is perfect for me. I do recommend that hotel guests get a paper grocery bag or a large plastic bag that they can tie off to use for garbage. When it is full, simply seal it and place it outside your room door before you go to bed. During the housekeeping rounds the next day, staff will remove it.
Hotel Reward Programs
It is impossible to keep track of the changes that hotel reward programs are implementing. Travelers’ points, bonuses, and gifts are ever-changing. Deadlines are being extended and then returned to “pre-pandemic” structures. The best advice I can give here is to be familiar with the original structure of your favorite brand’s program, so you can more easily spot the changes in their communications. Put calendar reminders in your phone of various deadlines so you can take advantage of every benefit. After all, you don’t want to let something wonderful slip through your fingers.
Use the program’s app to track your points regularly and confirm that they are being tallied accurately. Also remember to read the fine print. What is a hotel chain required to offer you if certain amenities are closed (i.e., the concierge lounge or the restaurant)? Most programs state that if this happens guests are to be offered a specific alternative. Know yours because front desk clerks often do not.
One final note: Typically, hotels are run by management companies. This accounts for many of the day-to-day differences in property policies. For travelers, this means two Courtyards by Marriott may have completely different fitness center procedures or one may have a full breakfast menu and the other may have a limited menu. Ask questions for clarification and then ask again!
My original plan was to do something “out of the box” and experience what America has to offer. While I have succeeded in this, I have also had a healthcare adventure that I hadn’t bargained for. Today, I am a more educated traveler and a more patient and flexible one too.
Hotel staff are doing their best to “roll with the punches” as rules, policies and guidance change daily. Traveling with personal protective equipment, patience and a big smile is the best advice I can give. If you’re educated and flexible, you can still have a great time. Even though my continuous road trip is different than I imagined it would be, I still wouldn’t trade these memories.
April 17, 2022 at 11:09 am
The extent of some of the discrepancies is always interesting to me. As you say, many properties are run by management companies, but you would figure the hotel — Marriott, Hilton or wherever — would have some minimum standards for consistency. I often compare it to restaurant franchises. You are not likely to order a combo meal at say Wendy’s and have them not give you the drink or the fries. However, that sort of things has become very common with hotels. For example, one hotel may offer a quesadilla with chicken, while the other adds bacon. One property offers meatballs with toast or some other kind of bread and another just offers the meatballs. One property has a sandwich with breakfast potatoes and the offers the sandwich with fruit. You never know what to expect, so calling ahead or asking before ordering should be a best practice
April 17, 2022 at 11:13 am
Yes! Travelers, call ahead to the hotel to find out how details are being handled. (And then ask again when you get there).