TripAdvisor's 'best hotel in UK' is reopening this weekend
The UK's best hotel is opening its doors this weekend for the first time in four months - with guests offered “care packages” of masks and hand sanitiser in their rooms and staff forced to have temperature checks on arrival.
Hotel 41 in Victoria, a Red Carnation Group Hotel, was named both the UK’s best hotel and UK's Top Luxury Hotel in the 2019 TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards.
The hotel staff are now busily preparing to welcome its first guests in almost four months tomorrow.
Staff at the hotel - where the cheapest room will set you back £296.80 this Saturday - have rearranged the furniture in the communal areas to adhere to social distancing measures, with Hotel 41 General Manager Malcolm Hendry revealing: “We have sat in every chair and at every table in the hotel to make sure there is enough distance.”
Ahead of arrival, every guest room will go through a new “two-stage cleaning” ritual, where staff will first deep clean the space and then sanitise it.
In every room will be a “coronavirus care package” with items like face coverings and hand sanitiser for guests to use.
Mr Hendry said: “We won’t force guests to wear them in the hotel, we hope they will want to keep safe and be sensible to protect themselves and others while staying here.”
There will also be sanitisation stations throughout the property. Staff will have temperature checks on arrival and be required to wearing PPE at all times. The level of the PPE will depend on their role within the hotel - with those completing roles such as cleaning given the most extensive protection.
The back of house area is now “strictly one-way” so staff can keep their distance from one another.
Mr Hendry, who has worked with the group for over 20 years, said bookings for the next few weeks were “healthy” and were a mix of regulars and new customers.
He said the hotel, which has been preparing to open since May, were “ready and excited” to welcome its first guests.
He said: “We are ready and confident we can offer our guests the familiar luxury experience but with the new system in place. We are proud to be welcoming guests back and to be one of the first luxury hotels in London to open. I am very proud that my hotel is ready to open and to be a part of London’s great re-opening.”
Red Carnation has six hotels in London. Hotel 41 and its neighbouring property Rubens at the Palace will open tomorrow, with Mr Hendry saying there was a “pent up desire to open our other properties” in London as soon as possible.
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