FHRAI issues reopening guidelines for hotel and restaurants

The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) in association with FSSAI and other key associations have come up with a detailed reopening manual for hotels and restaurants. The comprehensive guidelines highlights generic precautionary measures to be adopted in addition to specific measures to be ensured in hotels and restaurants to prevent spread of COVID-19. It also outlines preventive measures to minimize all possible physical contacts between staff and guests and maintain social distancing. 

Here's a detailed look at the guidelines:

Mandatory golden rules to be followed all the times by fbo’s

• Physical distancing of at least 6 feet to be followed as far as feasible
• Thermal screening of guests and visitors before entering the premises
• Appropriate personal protection gears like face covers/masks, gloves and hand sanitizers etc.shall be made available by hotel to the staff as well as the guests. Staff should additionally wear gloves and take other required precautionary measures.
• Proper disposal of face covers / masks / gloves left over by guests and/or staff should be ensured.
• Adequate manpower shall be deployed by hotel management for ensuring social distancing norms.
• Installation and use of Aarogya Setuapp shall be advised to all.
• Cleaning and regular disinfection of frequently touched surfaces (door knobs, elevator buttons, hand rails, benches, washroom fixtures, etc.) to be made mandatory in all guest service area and common areas. Deep cleaning of all washrooms shall be ensured at regular intervals.

Covid 19 coordinator or special officer

• Appoint a special officer nominated from amongst managers who will be responsible for covid19 special response planning and implementation.
• The officer shall be the reporting person for all covid19 emergencies and capable of having decision making powers to implement things as announced by local authorities based on emerging conditions.
• The officer shall be supported by operations head, quality control, HR, loss prevention and medical officer connected with the property.

Facilities to face reopening challenge

• Replace finger touch bio-metric with alternate method
• Create screening place before time office with temperature monitoring and
• basic screening for Covid19 symptoms.
• Setup hand-wash stations at all staff zones like entry, lockers, toilets, cafeteria
• with soap solution and hand drying facilities, most importantly it shall be sensor
• based or foot operated.
• Enough space in kitchen & staff lockers.
• Spacing plan at pre preparation and production zones.
• Create 1 Isolation room for every 50 rooms.

Guest handling at front office

• Sanitise the touch points in car like seat, door knobs, hand rest etc with 70% alcohol.
• Drivers should be in full uniform with face mask and hand gloves.
• Before entering hotel, take guest luggage to a separate area. Blow air on the outer surface of luggage and sanitise with 70% alcohol .
• Avoid direct handling of guest amenities like ID proof, wallets, Mobiles etc.
• Use sanitised trays to collect them.
• Sanitise the card machines.
• Maintain social distancing of at least 1m with the guest.

Kitchen man power planning

• At any point of time the kitchen shall have only 2 persons for a linear distance of 10ft.
• The work cycle shall be assessed to fine tune work station occupation and quickly be out of kitchen for the next set of operation to begin.
• This can be achieved by range critical operations, non range operations and pre preparation operations.
• Range critical operation is called critical occupation time and accordingly the plan has to be charted out by chef.

Disinfection

Recommended chemicals

1% sodium hypochlorite solution

Human Resource & high alertness

• Any person with fever, symptoms of flu should not enter premises
• During work hours anyone develops symptoms immediately isolate get medical advise and assistance
• No person assigned to be quarantined or in contact with infected person shall be allowed to come for work
• Persons resisting for covid 19 procedures or not complying shall be moved out of work
• A register of monitoring health indicators like fever, cough, running nose , sore throat, short breath be maintained

Material handling

• Ensure secondary packing does not enter hotel after receiving.
• If Possible stop primary packing also at store. Transfer it in your own containers or vessels.
• Daily pre-sanitation of receiving inspection rooms with 1% Sodium hypochlorite.
• No reverse traffic of materials into kitchen.
• All items to be handled either with glove or sanitised hand only.

Tips to plan social distancing

• Minimum distance of one meter from person to person in any direction.
• Make a plan to schedule staff at each work station.
• Redefine staff change room rules in terms of resting place, lockers etc so that social distancing is maintained.
• Realign seats in restaurants and ensure 1 m distance between guests even when they are waiting for takeaway orders .
• Declare a receiving timetable so that the material receiving area shall have only one supplier at a time.

Guest rooms

• Remove all amenities like fruit basket, toiletries, snacks etc. and issue it to guest on request.
• Communicate to guest that amenities will be provided on request.
• On check out any amenities placed in the rooms shall be discarded.
• Sanitise TV remotes and high touch points like switches, Chairs, Sofa, Door knobs etc with 70% alcohol.
• Cover the pillows and mattress with Teflon cover.
• Sanitise the carpets by spraying 70% alcohol.

Room service

• Provide Hand Sanitiser at the entry of every room
• Sanitise food trolleys and food trays before and after every service.
• DO NOT serve to the guest at rooms. Greet the guest, keep the food and leave the room
• Assign a trained staff for clearance. No unused packed food served to guest shall be reused.
• Maintain social distancing of 1m with the guest at all times.

Housekeeping Plan 

Improved uniforms

• In addition to the normal uniform the following should be given to the staff:
• Gloves to operation staff.
• Individual hand towels.
• Heavy duty gloves for intense cleaning staff.
• Provide proper face masks.
•  Daily new uniform.
• Full sleeve long coats for kitchen stewarding, staff area cleaning staff
•  Rubber boots for staff at dish wash, pot wash area.

Linen handling- high alert

• Housemen should not do bed making or linen handling without face mask, goggles, head cover, gloves, full sleeves long coat up to knee and rubber boots.
• Removal of guest linen must be left to designated personnel.
• There should be a closed bin mounted in trolley ensuring this directly put in to laundry.
• Avoid individual counting by recount make a counting procedure while removing.
• Give and take any linen through trays or trolleys.
• Train staff in bed making with gloves and masks.

Sharpen Laundry

• Create special sanitised place for landing used linen.
• Segregate clothes through designated person/s using PPE like, full coat, gloves , goggles and face masks.
• Increase temperature of water to above 75 °C to 90°C for bed linen.
• Use disinfectant as per govt guidelines or equivalent chemical after verification.
• Ensure dryers and machine handling parts after every session are sanitised with 70% alcohol based solution.
• Don’t cough, sneeze or spit directly in to clean linen.
• Discard any linen from circulation for time being if stains are deep and of human blood or body fluids.

Special points

• All that guest has touched needs to be disinfected or sanitised.
• Provide fruit basket or cookies or tea/ coffee maker supplies based on guestrequirements.
• No reuse of any occupied guest room amenities is allowed hence be guest specific.
• Concentrate in sanitising phone, door knobs, wash basin and all high touch points like tv remote.

Training

• Special COVID 19 department based handling training.
• Training to managers and supervisors on monitoring and reporting on COVID 19 new
• rules and emergency.
• Training on personal hygiene with AV’s and posters.
• Training on social distancing.
• Training on staff area behaviour, transport and uniform handling specific to COVID 19.
• Training to focus on motivation due to this stress.

Food services / delivery / takeaways

• Food Service Area: Thorough cleaning and disinfection after every meal preparation and common touch points such as door knobs, equipment handles, desk, grocery cart handles, etc.
• Hand wash & sanitation facility: Available to workers, customers especially at the entry
• Prevention of surface contamination: Use barrier such as tongs, gloves or other utensils to prevent direct hand contact with food, especially for uncooked food.
• No open display of ready-to-eat foods, should be kept covered in glass displays
• Visual display of DOs and DONTs
• Pick-up zones for customers to help maintain social distancing.
• Prohibition of self service, buffet, mass gathering
• Disposable items: Use disposable utensils, cutlery, and single use sachet (of salt pepper, sugar, ketchup, etc)
• E- Payments / E-Wallets: Refrain from handling cash. If handled, wash or sanitise hands. Encourage customers to use e-wallets such as UPI, QR codes, net-banking. In case credit/debit cards are used, the card machine to be sanitized with 70 % alcohol after each use.
•  Online orders: Encourage customers to place orders online or on telephone, well in advance to reduce the wait time.

Food Delivery: Food Handler

• Face to be covered with a clean mask or face cover. Hands to be sanitised before food pick up and after delivery.
• Physical distancing of 1 meter is followed between self and customer.
• Contact with common touch points such as door bell, handles, etc to be avoided. If unavoidable, hands to be immediately sanitised
• Contactless delivery methods shall be encouraged.

Food transportation & distribution

• Train the drivers, loaders and other staff about the COVID-19 infection symptoms and measures for prevention
• Clean & Sanitize Delivery/transport vehicles regularly. Use vehicle only for food deliveries /distribution.
• Anyone displaying flu like symptoms to avoid handling / transporting / delivering food.
• Hand washing material and Sanitizer bottle to be fixed in driver cabin.
• Face covers to be be worn at all times.
• Avoid use of public toilets and crowded places during the breaks.
• If a vehicle enters an area marked as a COVID-19 hotspot, then the vehicle shall be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before and after use.
• Maintain relevant records.