Following similar announcements from both Marriott and Hyatt, IHG will become the next hotel group to require customers to wear face coverings in indoor public spaces.
In this post:
IHG will require guests to wear masks
As of July 27, 2020, IHG will require guests at all US and Canadian properties to wear face coverings in all indoor public spaces.
This is generally defined as including hotel lobbies, meeting and event spaces, restaurants and bars, and fitness centers.
For those of you not familiar with IHG, this includes hotel brands like Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo, InterContinental, and more.
This development follows newly published recommendations from the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), which has created a “Safe Stay Guest Checklist.”
This is a positive, overdue development. We know that face coverings help slow the spread of coronavirus, and it’s a small way we can do our part to stop the spread while still trying to go about our everyday lives.
The AHLA’s new coronavirus checklist
As mentioned above, this follows the AHLA’s recently published new guest checklist, intended to show how guests can travel safely while also creating a standardized safety experience nationwide. This checklist includes the following:
- Require face coverings in all indoor public spaces and practice social distancing in all common areas
- Choose contactless options, where available, including online reservations, check-ins, and payments
- Consider daily room cleaning, only if necessary; ask the hotel about your options
- Request contactless room service delivery
- Refrain from traveling if you have, or recently had, any symptoms of COVID-19 or contact with anyone diagnosed with COVID-19
Bottom line
As of July 27, IHG guests in the US and Canada will have to wear face masks whenever indoors in public areas. At this point three major global hotel chains have this policy. Hilton is noticeably absent as of now, so I’ll be curious to see if the company follows as well…
What do you make of IHG’s new guest mask requirement?
I have been an IHG Platinum member for years. I will never stay in another IHG hotel again! I was told by a manager that I was not welcome in one of your hotels without a mask, even if I had a health condition that doesn't allow me to wear one. Even though the local mandate has a provision (as do most) that does allow for such a condition. Really bad business decision. You guys should at least follow local guidelines.
I stayed at a Holiday Inn in Newberry, SC and the employees were not wearing mask while talking to me face to face and making me coffee. I begged them to let me pour my own coffee because she wasn't wearing a mask and they refused. The reason I needed coffee from the lobby was because my coffee maker in my room was broken. The room was dirty also.
I have stayed in two IHG hotels in the last month and a half in Texas. In one Holiday Inn and Suites, Houston NASA, and during a four day stay no employees wore masks, even desk clerks.
I'm now staying at a Staybridge Suites, for two months for cancer treatments in Houston. Housekeepers do not wear masks and the manager was seen around the hotel today, July 27, not wearing a mask.
If owners...
I have stayed in two IHG hotels in the last month and a half in Texas. In one Holiday Inn and Suites, Houston NASA, and during a four day stay no employees wore masks, even desk clerks.
I'm now staying at a Staybridge Suites, for two months for cancer treatments in Houston. Housekeepers do not wear masks and the manager was seen around the hotel today, July 27, not wearing a mask.
If owners and managers of these facilities won't enforce employee mask requirements, why would anyone believe they will enforce/require masks wearing by paying customers.
This hotel even allows large pool parties of non-mask wearing guests and guests of guests.
Strange This has been a requirement in the hotels I have been to in California and Texas and assumed it was a hotel mandate but I suppose it could have been a county ordinance
@Laurel -- Use Google Translate and make your own.
Why is it that popular hotel chains will not post an executive order in Spanish or other translations? There are a lot of guests who can't speak English, nevertheless read it. I work at one and fell very scared as they come for weeks and go back home for a short time and come back for weeks. They have never worn a mask.
Doesn't make sense to wear the mask at restaurants and bars unless you want to slip it on if you have go to use the restroom.
~ The Honorable Reginald
Pretty sure @Tom is joking.
@Tom: "Unbelievable and unjust! They’ve completely forgotten about the first amendment. This is not what our great forefathers fought for."
People who say things like this are, typically, the people who have no idea of what the First Amendment says or means.
@Tom
Apples to oranges. Our forefathers weren't facing a novel pandemic. They were facing tax issues and export market control.
Freedom also works both ways, you have the freedom to not stay at an IHG, Marriott or Hyatt. You can stay in your car, on a park bench, or in a Motel 6, maskless and breathing in the sweet smell of liberty - enjoy!
Unbelievable and unjust! They've completely forgotten about the first amendment. This is not what our great forefathers fought for.
On the news the other day, they were interviewing people about travel... one of the questions was if you were diagnosed with corona, if you would isolate. Multiple people said that they no longer saw a need to isolate since everyone was now wearing masks to protect them!
If IHG and other hotels really want to help avoid the spread of Covid19 they should consider only allowing guests that are traveling for essential purposes. This would have a negative effect on vacation locations but going on vacation or other non-essential travel should be avoided if you want to stop the spread of Covid19.
@ Ben -- It is surreal that this policy is effective July 27. Should have been March 27.