FILIPINOS feeling cooped up at home due to the community quarantines and travel restrictions may now have the option of booking short leisurely vacations in hotels, otherwise known as “staycations.”
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat recently signed Administrative Order No. 2020-006-A, amending the guidelines on the operations of accommodation establishments for staycation purposes under a general community quarantine. She told the BusinessMirror, “Staycations are a way to jumpstart the tourism industry and help the economy recover.”
However, the DOT allows staycations in hotels “not concurrently being used as quarantine or isolation facilities for repatriated OFWs or returning overseas Filipinos or as quarters for health workers.”
The DOT adds, “If the accommodation establishment was previously utilized for these purposes or has previously accommodated guests who are Covid-19 positive, proof of sanitation and disinfection shall be submitted to the regional office concerned. Such proof may be in the form of logs, records, certification, or any other sufficient documentation by the in-house sanitation personnel of the accommodation establishment, or by outsourced third party cleaners.”
Also, staycations are allowed only in four- or five-star rated accommodation establishments which have been granted “Certificates of Authority to Operate for Staycations (CAOS)” by the DOT.
Guests who are going to book staycations, “shall be required to present a negative result from a Rapid Antigen Test conducted on the same day of check-in.” They can only staycation in the province where they are located, as such, a would-be guest living in Quezon City, for example, can staycation anywhere within the National Capital Region only.
Owing to physical distancing rules already issued earlier by government authorities, a maximum of two guests “from the same household” can only be accommodated in a hotel room measuring 20-29 sqm. For rooms 30-39 sqm, a maximum of three guests, 40-49 sqm (four guests), and 50 sqm and above (five persons).
The DOT also mandates only “cashless methods of payment, online transactions and other options for contactless transactions that promote minimal physical contact.”
Under GCQ staycations, hotel can operate their restaurants and other food and beverage outlets, but excluding bars; gyms; and swimming pools.
Prior to the pandemic, global research agency STR data showed “staycations” helping increase the profits of hotels in Metro Manila. “With staycations on the rise, the average daily rate [ADR] of hotels in Metro Manila saw the biggest increase on weekends,” according to STR Business Development Manager for Southeast Asia Fenady Uriarte. ADR on weekends reached an average of P5,000 per night in the 12 months to May 2019, whereas in 2017 and 2018, it could barely hit P4,900 per night. “Metro Manila hotels show stronger weekend performance,” she underscored. (See, “Profits of Metro Manila hotels rising–STR,” in the BusinessMirror, Sept. 12, 2019.)