People might forget what you said and did to them but they seldom forget how you made them feel. Good hospitality centres around the experience of your customer: how welcome and ‘at home’ they felt at your restaurant or hotel, how well their requests and enquiries were handled, and how ‘cushy’ and ‘safe’ they felt receiving your services.
When the world is caught in the undertow of a deadly virus, the stakes are higher and the competition tougher. Hospitality professionals must deal with novel challenges in providing comfort to their customers with due diligence.
Richard Morris, Global Business Development, Carpets Inter
Carpets Inter.rpets are a sightly design concomitant that lends a sophisticated touch to the overall décor of a place. These possess the power to transform a dull and barren look into an eye-catching spectacle of elegance and beauty. Even now when the customer footfall across the hospitality sector is witnessing an unprecedented fall, with fewer people visiting restaurants and checking into hotels due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the dictum ‘Business as Usual’ still holds true.
One might imagine safety and sanitary practices are the sole indicators of quality hospitality in these times. However, the truth is the aesthetics and luxury are still as important today as ever. One must not lose sight of the fact that customers are still drawn in by an exuberant and soothing ambience of a place.
HOSPITALITY IN THE COVID-19 ERA
While travel has experienced hiccups over the past one and a half years due to the rampant coronavirus, people have remained on the move. Several restaurants and hotels, which had to cease operations for quite some time due to the growing uncertainty of the situation, have now recommenced services with sanitary measures. It was a sudden shift in the normal state of play as the nation went under a lockdown in March last year.
Industry professionals were thrown into a tizzy as they were the hardest hit financially and had little means to fend for themselves. However, there is more preparedness and sagacity of action cultivated through a year’s perseverance and more people are doing business with essential safety protocols in place. Now people are ‘less afraid’ and ‘more prepared’ to leave their homes for an outing or a trip and deal with any exigencies that may arise.
CREATING SAFE SPACE WITH CARPETS
Nowadays, carpets serve multifarious functions such as beautifying floors, providing cushioning for stairs, covering floors for comfortable floor sitting, and enhancing the décor of commercial spaces. Wall-to-wall carpeting, or using large rugs to covers certain parts of floors are some ways hotels and restaurants tend to use carpets.
It is crucial to understand the difference between cleaning and disinfecting carpets, as the former removes dirt and impurities locked inside while the latter kills germs on the surface subsequent to cleaning.
While many of us may think of these points instantaneously very few would consider delving deeper into the use of these textile coverings. Though tiling is still a popular option, carpeting still has a place in the hotels and is not likely to disappear. As long as the carpets are disinfected properly, they are safe to use. It is crucial to understand the difference between cleaning and disinfecting here, as the former removed dirt and impurities locked inside while the latter kills germs on the surface subsequent to cleaning.
Moreover, hoteliers haven’t given up on rugs and carpet tiles entirely. Guests still prefer the flooring to be soft underfoot, rather than it feeling clinical. Therefore, in such a case, carpet tiles can be used as a canvas for creating seamless and smooth visual cues, which can also help promote social distance and encourage safe traffic patterns.
Similarly, carpets help absorb sound. Overlay or inset area rugs make positive contributions to the acoustics of a space. Flooring without carpets negatively causes noise between guestrooms. Overlay area rugs are the majorly preferred option as they can be replaced more often and be cleaned thoroughly. This way carpets help create personal safe space, which have become even more important now for promoting individual wellbeing.
THE RIGHT CHOICE MATTERS
Hospitality interior spaces use a combination of flooring types, chosen specifically to ensure an aesthetic appeal, health and safety, ease of maintenance, and overall high performance in the whole space. When deciding the selection of flooring, the primary consideration is that it should be ‘fit for purpose’ – the functional performance of the flooring must match users’ requirements for a specific facility and purpose. This definition not only covers the physical or functional performance, but also the many factors that impact users and occupants, and are a recognised part of the occupant’s experience, e.g., acoustic control, wellbeing, underfoot comfort, health and productivity.
Modular carpets have historically been used in the corporate commercial sector. However, with the increasing sophistication of design capable tufting machines, more extensive solution dyed yarn palettes, and cushion backing systems, modular carpets offer the broad decorative appeal and underfoot comfort characteristics.
Interior designers prefer these for use in hospitality locations such as hotels, serviced apartments, theatres, convention centres, airports and other public spaces. The primary reason is that they lend themselves to using creative patterns on the floor.
Until recently, hoteliers were accustomed to using modular resilient flooring. However, the challenges of
preventing smooth surfaces triggering airborne dust has always been a big issue in India. The other challenge is suppressing annoying sound travel because of poorer acoustic flooring properties.
Hoteliers are now asking what is next since reverting to expensive wall-to-wall carpets and the cleaning
and maintenance challenges is not an option. Carpets offer the perfect way for incorporating the concept of subconscious nudge via innovative design. When you choose a carpet, do not merely focus on the design and the visual attractiveness but also its eco-benefits. Available in multiple colours, structure, pattern, quality, and shape, the right choice of carpets, especially during the pandemic, can help improve breathing for employees, as well as the overall environment of the hotel.
