Like many people, my family and I decided to put our vacation plans on hold this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of my more risk-taking friends and relatives have chosen not to cancel trips they’d previously planned, but my wife and I are not yet comfortable going abroad, much to our children’s disappointment. Perhaps I’ve watched too many zombie plague apocalypse movies and TV shows, but the idea of voluntarily entering a virus-affected zone when I don’t have to worries me.
Throughout the United States, many people are refusing to take the coronavirus seriously, which has been frustrating to watch. They’re not wearing masks or social distancing, despite the fact that an infected person can show no symptoms for days or even remain asymptomatic, causing them to unknowingly expose potentially thousands to contagion. When you factor in the inherent health risks of staying at a hotel, a cabin or a resort—dangers that already existed before the current Walking Dead scenario began, but are now amplified—and of eating every meal at a restaurant for an extended period of time, it’s undeniable that vacationing (or going on a business trip) during a pandemic can put you and your family at risk.
One major area of concern for me and my wife is that we’d be sleeping in beds that had likely been occupied by strangers mere hours before we arrived, and that we’d be relying on other strangers to make sure the room in which we’d be staying would be sufficiently clean. Frankly, that’s a lot to take on faith. A recent report, in fact, demonstrated pretty convincingly that the Trump, Hyatt and Hampton Inn hotel chains have done a less than stellar job of cleaning their guest rooms (see Investigation Finds Sheets Weren’t Changed Between Guests at Some New York Hotels). There’s also the problem of touching doorknobs, shower and sink controls, television remotes, dresser drawer handles, countertops, toilet seats and anything else in the room that could be contaminated.
COVID-19 is primarily spread through breathing, sneezing, coughing and otherwise expelling the virus into the air, so entering a hotel room means walking into an enclosed area that may have contained a sick individual (either a guest or an employee) only hours earlier. Personally, I find that alarming, which is why my family and I chose to enjoy our time off this summer at home, even though we’ve all been home together since March. However, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for vacationers and business travelers, and it’s Near Field Communication (NFC) technology that is providing the much-needed illumination.
For the hospitality industry, protecting the health and well-being of visitors and employees is paramount. NFC solutions can help to make that happen, since the technology allows wireless, secure, short-range exchanges of information between smartphones and other compatible devices. NFC-based contactless payments can be made at a hotel’s restaurant, gift shop or front desk, for example, while NFC contactless access-control systems can allow travelers to enter guests rooms, elevators, gymnasiums, parking garages, pool areas and so on without having to touch door handles.
With NFC-enabled room keys instead of traditional mag-stripe cards, hotels can improve the experience for guests by allowing them to avoid queues, pay bills and more, all automatically. Hotels can also identify equipment, furniture, linens and other assets via NFC and RFID tags, so guests can be more confident that their bedding has been regularly and properly laundered, that maintenance has been carried out when needed, and that the housekeeping staff has adequately cleaned each room. Plus, management can monitor the activities of workers to make sure everything is being done in accordance with hotel rules and state-mandated regulations. During a pandemic, all of this becomes more than a mere convenience—it becomes a potentially life-saving necessity.
By reducing how often visitors touch shared surfaces, by facilitating hands-free check-ins and meal purchases, and by automating operations, monitoring cleaning processes and providing staff accountability, an NFC system can decrease the likelihood of coronavirus transmission at hotels. This, in turn, can make it safer for people to travel abroad—and, hopefully, to have enough peace of mind to enjoy their stay, provided that they also employ such common-sense practices as social distancing and mask-wearing. With trade shows, conventions and other face-to-face events taking place once more during this post-quarantine period (RFID Journal LIVE! 2020, for example, will be held this September in Orlando, Fla.), that’s good news indeed.
According to author E.S. Woods, a vacation “helps to relieve stress and boredom, gives us a change of scenery, provides us with adventure, and helps to bring us closer to the people in our lives.” It’s not worth dying over, of course, but the risk of doing so can be reduced. With so many safety-protecting innovations being announced these days for the hospitality industry, I may reevaluate my reluctance to travel. After almost five months of being cooped up in my home, I could use some time away. It’s comforting to know that if I do, NFC and other technologies can help to keep me and my loved ones safe.
Rich Handley has been the managing editor of RFID Journal since 2005. Rich has authored, edited or contributed to numerous books about pop culture and is also the editor of Eaglemoss’s Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.