Will COVID 19 Impact the Use of Cash in Hospitality & Cash Integrity Audits for Hotels?

For some people, the physical handling of paper money cash is perceived as a “less than desirable necessity”. Apart from the financial security aspects that work in favor of the credit card industry, I refer to having to touch and handle cash on a daily basis; money that has, let’s face it, been handled by who knows how many hands before it arrives in yours.

In the new COVID paradigm, there was some discussion of ways and means to lessen people’s physical handling of dinars, euros, dirhams and dollars for fear of contracting the virus. Some companies went so far as to refuse cash payments, but this spontaneous reaction has now been proven unnecessary with studies concluded on the virus’ lifespan on different materials. Nevertheless, some retailers who accept cash payments have taken extra precautionary measures; staff instructed to wear gloves, and not passing paper money or coins directly to customer’s hands with sanitization being the priority.

At hotels, this has long been accepted practice – cash change is often returned on a plate or in a wallet. But what about the wallet? To be sure, it gets touched by less hands than cash but it is still being touched… Despite there being no evidence that the virus can penetrate the skin, if one touches a “potentially polluted” object, it’s the likelihood that the guest will touch their face, eyes, mouth after handling cash, pushing an elevator button or using a hand railing, that poses the greater concern.

It seems that in an effort to highlight their fundamental “Duty of Care” responsibility, hotels and resorts would do well to, not only sanitize their frequent points of contact - money wallets, counters, door handles, etc. but to be seen to do so by their guests; a measure aimed at lessening the anxiety of their guests. One thing is glaringly clear; the Housekeeping (HK) function of hotels has been elevated to new heights of importance; competent and effective HK managers are going to be in high demand at hotels.

“Cash is King”, as the saying goes, and it certainly applies in the MENA region. As such, I don’t anticipate that the need for cash integrity audits will diminish at all in the immediate future, but it is an issue that we at Brand Integrity Auditors have had to contemplate; BIA is recognized as a leader in cash integrity audits for hotels because of our multi-faceted methodology in conducting these audits. Methods learned from thousands of instances of testing hotel staff at all points of cash interaction at hotels and resorts, in numerous scenarios. And “yes”, we also include cashless transactions in our hotel cash integrity audits.

Minimizing physical contact of multiple surfaces will be a priority for the hospitality industry and I, for one, will be very interested to see how these changes impact the hotel guest experience.

Inal Quandour is the GM of Brand Integrity Auditors, a company that has served the hotel & resort industry exclusively, in the Middle East, since 2004. www.biahotelmystery.com