Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel guidance platform, and Reckitt’s Lysol Pro Solutions, Lysol’s business-to-business offering, have joined forces to launch theLysol Pro Solutions Expert Panel. The panel’s mission is to help hospitality and tourism business owners stay one step ahead in the ever-changing environment of recommendations and guidance.
The panel is part of Tripadvisor and Reckitt’s Lysol Pro Solutions’ wider partnership, which was announced earlier this year. The purpose of this collaboration is to accelerate the travel industry’s recovery by supporting businesses, providing guidance on cleaning and disinfection of surfaces, and offering specially produced Lysol Disinfection & Sanitization Kits and industry-specific advice to assist business owners.
According to Tripadvisor’s most recent travel research, as the vaccination rollout gains momentum, vaccinated traveler attitudes are shifting, with more travelers likely to book, visit cities, invest more, and take longer trips. As a result, many tourism businesses are readying for a busy peak period this summer. To help these business owners, the Lysol Pro Solutions Expert Panel was formed to include public health and disinfection experts to create comprehensible and up-to-date science-backed guidance, helping businesses rebuild consumer confidence in cleanliness and disinfection in their industry.
The series of easy to digest videos share cleanliness and disinfection best practices specific to the tourism and hospitality industry. The videos cover topics including: understanding and tackling germ hotspots, the future of health inspections, cleaning myths, and the connection between cleanliness, hygiene and health in relation to reception and restaurant amenities.
“Due to the nature of this pandemic, guidelines can change so quickly, so it can be challenging for business owners to stay on top of the latest disinfection and safety advice. What hasn’t changed is the customer’s need to feel safe. By working collaboratively with Reckitt and Lysol Pro Solutions to create easy-to-understand, accessible guidance for businesses, we’re helping our travel partners address those concerns,” said Christine Maguire, GM/VP Global Media Business at Tripadvisor.
The Lysol Pro Solutions Expert Panel of advisors is the latest addition to Tripadvisor’s industry-recognized Travel Safe feature. Travel Safe is a suite of on-platform tools helping travelers and diners find, filter for, and validate health and safety protocols being enacted by businesses, helping guests feel more confident in their travel choices.
Taking into consideration feedback from travelers, business owners, associations, government agencies and the new expert panel, Tripadvisor is implementing changes to its list of safety precautions business may be taking, including but not limited to:
- For restaurants, the “single-use or sanitized menus” safety measure will be updated to “single-use or contactless menus”, the “contactless payment” will be updated to “contactless payment available” and “takeout available” and “outdoor seating available” will be added to the Travel Safe checklist.
- For hotels, the “doctors available 24/7” safety measure will be updated to “licensed healthcare professional available. 24/7”. Two new safety measures “elevator capacity limits are enforced” and “on-site COVID testing available” will be added to the Travel Safe checklist.
- For hotels and restaurants, “regular temperature checks for staff” has been updated to “daily temperature and symptom checks for staff” and “paid stay-at-home policy for staff with symptoms” has been updated to “stay-at-home policy for staff with symptoms”. Two mask policy measures “masks required for guests not fully vaccinated” and “masks encouraged for guests not fully vaccinated” will also be added to the checklist in addition to “face masks required for guests in public places” for business owners to choose from.
Since Travel Safe was launched back in June last year, the tool has proven to be extremely useful for travelers and their safety concerns, with a click-through rate of 70%* from the search page to the business listing when a traveler has selected the Travel Safe filter. More than 185,000 businesses have participated in the free program by uploading information to their business listing about the ways they are working to keep guests safe.
“For more than a century, Lysol has been at the forefront of helping people protect their loved ones and helping to prevent the spread of illness causing germs. Now, with our Lysol Pro Solutions offering and Lysol Pro Solutions Expert Panel, we hope to extend our support to business owners. Our simple, science-backed direction helps them confidently welcome customers back to their hotels, restaurants, and tourism businesses,” said E. Yuri Hermida, Executive Vice President of North America Hygiene for Reckitt.