Hotels fretting over protocols

Hotel health protocols intended to safeguard guests and staff from the novel coronavirus are either vague, impossible to implement or simply too costly to be sustainable, according to businesses and associations in the sector.

One of the biggest problems faced by hoteliers is the unclear cooperation framework with doctors: Although every hotel is supposed to have a medic on site, no consideration has been taken over what kind of medical skills are required or how they will be priced. Consequently, local medical association have tried to fill the gap by publishing fees per hotel room which, however, are not binding for doctors, but constitute a minimum requirement allowing for far higher charges.

One hotelier told Kathimerini that some island doctors this month demanded 100 euros per room per month, which means a cost of €10,000 for a 100-room unit every month.