At NOVOTEL MUSCAT AIRPORT HOTEL, we are strongly committed to serve a clean, hygienic and healthy environment to every guest. The hotel provides a memorable stay by ensuring a comfortable and spotless guest room stay and healthy restaurant dining experience. Our regular room cleaning includes specialized cleaning and sanitation of all the high touch areas in guest rooms, public areas and restaurants. In order to maintain high standards of cleanliness, effective cleaning and hygiene protocols, which I believe are the core factors required in any country's hospitality sector, need to be constantly reviewed. 

Our professionally talented housekeepers are trained on this special cleaning and sanitation operating procedures. The largest hurdle any hotel faces are the consistency of cleanliness levels within various regions and how the staff must adapt when arriving in a new property. Training and on the floor management are also key factors in ensuring that high satisfaction levels are achieved. In addition, key international suppliers or programs can be utilized which offer systematic procedures and specific levels of hygiene which must be implemented appropriately within a property. These programs for example are Green Key Certification and HACCP.  Collaboration with supplier’s is also ensures maintained levels of cleanliness and hygiene.

At Novotel Muscat Airport Hotel we utilize Diversey, a key partner, who consistently delivers high quality cleaning and sanitation solutions to our housekeeping and food and beverage departments. These products can be tailored to fit our specific needs and streamline cleaning and sanitation process within the premises. The Hotel has implemented the best Food Safety Culture based on proactive HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) and we are HACCP certified by SGS. 

The hotel has invested their time to coach our colleagues on various levels of food safety trainings, which helps building a positive food safety culture within the hotel. Trained housekeeping employees reinforce the hotel guest rooms, gym, and other public area’s high touch surfaces with regular cleaning and sanitation processes.  ALL the surface cleaning and sanitation processes are verified frequently by an approved third party laboratory swab testing. Adequate corrective actions are implemented for any failures to ensure such concerns are not repeated. 

The hotel has a well experienced Engineering team who takes care of ALL periodic preventive maintenance of Rooms, Outlets and kitchen equipment to ensure their performance Engineering also ensure the availability and efficiency of the fire fighting equipment for the entire building. We sometimes encounter challenges to documenting complete supply chains. Nevertheless, documenting the complexity of the supply chain is imperative for complying with local and international food safety regulations, minimizing hazards and meeting consumers' food safety and transparency expectations in the hotel. 

In Oman, we get good support and guidelines from the government, and other stakeholders to achieve the common goal of protecting our guest and employees wellbeing. To close off, consistent training and engagement of employees is critical in achieving the ultimate outcome.

About the author:
Tyrone Lodder is the General Manager of Novotel Muscat Airport Hotel. An industry veteran, Tyrone Lodder comes with over 20 years of experience in F&B, staff development and guest satisfaction. Prior to joining Novotel Muscat, Tyrone held various positions over the past 11 years within the Accor Management Corporation including Cluster General Manager of the Grand Mercure Dubai City and Ibis Styles Dubai Airport. His in-depth knowledge of the industry also encompasses holding key positions in South Africa, which is where he kick started his passion for hospitality.