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This website has information on Hawaii hotels’ COVID-19 health & safety protocols.

Our commentary on the Ilikai Hotel’s COVID-19 Health & Safety Protocols

The State of Hawaii issued an emergency proclamation on November 23, 2020 requiring hotels to publish their COVID-19 Health & Safety plans and submit it to the state’s Hawaii Tourism Authority (“HTA”). The protocol document posted on the Hawaii Tourism Association site for the Ilikai Hotel as of 4/12/21 is three pages long. Among other things, we found:

There is no discussion about contact tracing:
- The protocols do not state whether or not the hotel will inform employees if they have come in contact with a guest or another employee who is COVID-positive or suspected of being COVID-positive.
- There is no information about whether the hotel will collect the information that would be needed to determine who was exposed to a sick guest or worker.
There is no discussion anywhere in the protocols about whether guests will be subject to any form of COVID testing by the hotel.
The only protocols for what to do in the event a guest is COVID-positive states “Should guests become positive for COVID-19 or be identified as close contacts of a person who is positive for COVID-19, Aqua-Aston shall accommodate the guests, either by accommodating these guests at the property or by securing alternative accommodations.” We have already noted that the protocols say nothing about whether the hotel will collect information from those guests about where they went and who they interacted with in order to conduct contact tracing, or whether they will even attempt to inform any staff or other guests about contact they may have had with COVID-positive individuals. Additionally, the protocols fail to discuss:
- Whether COVID-positive guests will be asked to quarantine;
- Whether the rooms those guests stayed in will be cleaned any differently than other rooms upon checkout;
- Whether the hotel will notify the Department of Health or anyone else;
- Whether it will ask employees who may have been in contact with those guests to get tested or to quarantine (much less whether the hotel will pay for them to do so);
- Whether the hotel will do anything to help guests with symptoms of COVID determine whether or not they are COVID-positive;
- What staff or other guests can do if they notice that a guest or employee has symptoms consistent with COVID; or
- Any other measure the hotel intends to take in such cases, except to state: “Please note: As is the case with any public place, we cannot guarantee that persons will not encounter others at the property who are contagious; however, we are committed to cleanliness and our enhanced safety measures in response to COVID-19.”
The hotel’s protocols should address all of these questions.
There is no mention in the protocols of anything related to air circulation or HVAC systems. However, one of the cleaning protocols mentioned in the document is “Allowing a minimum of 24-hours for guest room cleaning between check-ins.”
One of the protocols is “Using electrostatic sprayers to apply CDC-approved cleaning agents,” but the document does not state where, when or how often electrostatic sprayers will be used.

Check the HTA site to see if protocols are updated.

Do you work at the Ilikai?

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Information on Hawaii hotels’ COVID-19 health & safety protocols

Ilikai Hotel

Ilikai Hotel

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