Hoteliers in several U.S. cities have had to quickly adapt to new COVID-19 vaccination or testing requirements over the past few weeks.

Across the U.S., city governments have enacted rules requiring people who want to take part in indoor activities, such as dining, going to the gym or attending a performance, to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test before they can enter. Businesses are on the hook for making sure their patrons comply.

Hotel News Now reached out to hoteliers in New York, New Orleans and San Francisco to find out how they have modified their operations and how guests are reacting.

The Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, a city resort with multiple outlets and amenities, requires proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test to check in, General Manager Ralph Mahana said. The requirement covers the entire hotel, which means guests don't have to repeatedly provide proof for use of the pool, fitness center or club lounge. Hotel guests’ room keys have a hologram added to them, turning them into “Windsor Court Passports” and giving them access to the hotel’s amenities.

Guests of the hotel’s tearoom and restaurant, however, do have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test because those areas are open to the general public, Mahana said. While front-desk associates have assumed the additional responsibility, the requirement has has increased staffing needs for the restaurant, he said.

Guests receive a pre-arrival phone call and email a week before their reservation begins to provide a personalized touch as well as information about the city’s requirement, Mahana said. The email provides a way for guests to share their proof of vaccination, or they can choose to wait until check-in.

Amenities at the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco also require proof of vaccination or a negative test. General Manager Stephen Power said guests learn about the city’s executive order in a pre-arrival email to let them know what that means for their stay at the hotel and at other attractions around the area.

“San Francisco is one of the better food cities in the world, and people come to the city and stay in our hotel to go out to restaurants,” he said. “We wanted to make it as clear as we possibly could.”

During check-in, front-desk associates ask guests whether they’re going to use the fitness facilities, he said. Guests will receive a separate key to give them access after showing proof of vaccination or a negative test result. The ongoing challenge for the fitness center, however, is reminding exercising guests they need to continue wearing masks, he added.

The hotel has a breakfast restaurant and an all-day dining lobby bar, Power said. At the restaurant, a host checks for proof of vaccination or test and makes a note of that, allowing returning guests to enter without having to show proof again. The lobby bar is more informal, so instead of a host, the servers ask for proof, similar to checking IDs before serving alcohol.

For Real Hospitality Group’s hotels in New York City, company executives decided not to require proof of vaccination or negative tests upon check-in, said Sanjay Bedi, senior vice president of operations. Instead, touch points around the hotels require guests to provide proof to use certain amenities.

The company reprogrammed the locks on hotel fitness centers so guests would need to go to the front desk, show their proof of vaccination or negative test and receive a separate key for the gym, he said. At its select-service hotels, a breakfast attendant welcomes guests and checks their status before guests can enter the breakfast area. The hotels that have restaurants and bars use a third-party operator for those dining areas, but those managing the outlets are complying with the executive order as well, Bedi said.

This approach hasn’t required additional staffing or changes to the staffing model as checking vaccination status or for a negative test is an additional responsibility for those already working there, he said.

A pre-arrival email informs guests about the executive order, and the front-desk associates explain the rules again when they go over a hotel’s amenities, Bedi said.

The Windsor Hotel team received training immediately after the requirement was announced, Mahana said. The hotel’s ambassadors split into three groups and learned what the proper vaccine and test documents look like in paper and app form.

The staff also went through training on empathizing with guests and how to welcome them, he said. The welcoming training was to make sure the first thing guests heard when checking in or going to the restaurant wasn’t a demand for proof of vaccination or a test. Employees also received some situational training on how to handle a guest who might have an negative reaction to a request for proof.

The training included a question-and-answer session that allowed staff to ask any questions they wanted about the new requirements to make sure they had every question resolved, he said.

Real Hospitality held webinars with all of the New York general managers, introducing the mayor’s executive order and what it required of them, Bedi said. That’s also where the general managers learned about the new protocols for the fitness centers and breakfast areas. Additionally, there are weekly conference calls in which the leadership team reintroduces and reinforces what is covered under the executive order.

The company’s engineers also received some training to reprogram the hotels’ fitness center locks, he added.

There wasn’t much time to react after the city’s new rule came out, Power said. Initially, the goal was to get the message out as quickly as possible to make sure everyone was aware and then go from there.

The staff role-played different scenarios in the restaurant and lounge, he said. That helped everyone get more comfortable checking proof of vaccination or testing.

On the first day the hotel had to check vaccination statuses, Mahana said he moved his office to the hotel lobby to observe interactions and make sure staff members were following through on their training. All of the guests were pleasant and open to the change, he said.

Having that pre-arrival communication with guests made a world of difference, he said.

“We had clients that reached out and said, ‘This will give me more confidence in coming to your hotel and New Orleans,’” he said.

The requirement also has had a “tremendous” effect on staff members’ comfort and stress levels, he said. They know they’re working in a safe work environment, even more so than when it was only a mask mandate, he added.

The teams were initially sensitive to how guests would react to the city’s vaccine requirement, Bedi said. The company’s leadership worked with property teams on making sure they were non-confrontational with guests and repeating what the local requirements are, but so far it hasn’t been a problem.

“Since this executive order has come out, I have not heard of any guest issue that we have faced so far,” he said.

There have been two to three canceled reservations, Power said. But for the most part, guest surveys have been positive, with some even commenting how safe they feel in the hotel.

He was initially concerned what effect the vaccine proof requirement would have as business travel was softening due to the delta variant, but now he thinks it could actually be a positive for the hotel.

“They know that if they come to San Francisco, if they’re vaccinated, they’re probably a little bit more free, because everyone around them, if they’re going out to dinner, they are vaccinated,” he said. “I think that probably checks more positive boxes rather than neutral or negative.”