Bring in the Robot Cleaners: Travel Industry Innovations for the Pandemic

“Private” hotels, online tour-company teasers for future travelers, and other ways that travel companies are keeping their businesses alive. While most hotels that remain open after the outbreak of Covid-19 are stepping up cleaning routines, the Westin Houston Medical Center in Houston, Texas, is going beyond Lysol and bleach. In addition to standard cleaning protocols, it says it is the first to deploy two newly acquired robots to sanitize rooms and common areas. LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robots — already in use at more than 400 hospitals in the United States, according to their manufacturer Xenex Disinfection Services — use xenon ultraviolet light pulses to kill viruses, bacteria and fungi.

Peer-reviewed studies published by the company have found the robots have decreased environmental infection rates between 50 and 100 percent. “To provide our guests and clients with an additional level of well-being, we decided to add another step to our current disinfectant protocol by implementing the germ-zapping UV light robots,” wrote Archit Sanghvi, the vice president of operations for Pearl Hospitality, the hotel’s owner and operator, in an email. Other hygienic practices that the new hotel — which handles, among other guests, patients seeking medical treatment at the Texas Medical Center — include removing nonessential items like decorative pillows and magazines, and disinfecting the TV remote control and placing it in a sealed plastic bag. The housekeeping robots are just one way the travel industry is innovating during the pandemic.

Below are a few other examples. Whether because of government mandate, financial strain or doing their part to flatten the curve, many hotels are shutting down in the crisis. But a few are offering their entire premises for social distancing seclusion. In Kennebunkport, Maine, the Kennebunkport Resort Collection is renting its Cape Arundel Inn & Resort to individual parties seeking to practice social distancing on the shore.

Beginning April 1, the seven-room main house will rent for $9,500 a week or $36,000 a month, including weekly housekeeping, meals, bicycles and access to a lounge with a billiard table and fireplace. A three-bedroom cottage on the 15-acre grounds is available for $2,500 a week and $10,000 a month, including weekly housekeeping, meals and bicycles. A full buyout of the 14-room resort costs $19,000 a week and $70,000 a month. Nearby, nine Cabot Cove Cottages will reopen May 1, offering weekly ($1,500) and monthly ($5,500) rates that include weekly housekeeping and loaner bikes and kayaks.