Travel Safe Guidelines Created to Support the Hospitality Industry's Reopening

HTNG, in partnership with the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA) and the OpenTravel Alliance, publishes a set of guidelines to communicate COVID-19 related protocols and policies to their guests during the booking process.

Hotel companies, along with their distribution partners, came together to create codes designed to enable clarity and transparency for a traveler’s journey. Although much of this information has been created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the specific protocols and policy changes may be used well beyond the pandemic.

HTNG’s Travel Safe Workgroup’s published guidelines introduce new codes to the OpenTravel Code List to enable the sharing of these protocols and services through the distribution channels that hospitality properties commonly use.

The Travel Safe Guidelines supplement the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s (AHLA’s) Safe Stay initiative, which helps create peace of mind for both guests and employees by enhancing the hotel industry's already rigorous cleaning and safety guidelines.

The Safe Stay guidelines, which were developed with the help of outside industry experts such as Ecolab, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Association for Linen Management, have been broadly endorsed by hospitality leaders in all 50 states and Canada, and have been reviewed by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). These guidelines bring a new level of transparency and confidence to the entire hotel experience and focus on enhanced hotel cleaning practices, social interactions and workplace protocols to meet the new health and safety challenges and expectations presented by COVID-19.

This publication of the Travel Safe Guidelines features aggregated guidance from HTNG member organizations, the CDC, the World Health Organization (WHO) and their regional and global counterparts, allowing updates where necessary to provide guidance and direction in the use of codes and their detailed descriptions.

HTNG’s Travel Safe Workgroup was led by Co-chairs Ahren Starr of Marriott International and Jodie Gibson. The group’s Travel Safe Guidelines can be downloaded here.

In a recent webinar, workgroup members shared how their hotel companies and partners are utilizing these new distribution codes to share their protocols. A recording of this webinar can be found here.