OYO and Unilever Partner to Lead the Way on Indian Hotel Cleanliness

Highlights

* Extension of OYO’s recently launched ‘Sanitised Stays’ initiative to ensure customer and hotel employees’ safety with minimal touch Standard Operating Procedures

* The in-progress changes made by OYO may include additional deep-cleaning of high-touch surfaces, individual Unilever hygiene kits for guests as well as "last cleaned" charts and further social distancing practices at OYO properties

* Unilever will provide education for hospitality workers and products from its portfolio of trusted hygiene and sanitation brands to help OYO create a cleaner and more hygienic stay for OYO customers

* Partnership will begin in India and then go live across Indonesia, Vietnam, US, LATAM and Europe

OYO Hotels & Homes, one of the world’s leading hotel chains has partnered with Unilever, the global consumer goods company, to enhance OYO’s ‘Sanitised Stays’ initiative with the help of Unilever’s leading home and personal hygiene brands which will be used in the cleaning and disinfecting of OYO properties.

With higher hygiene standards, minimal-touch services, and enhanced credibility topping the list of customer requirements, Unilever’s R&D team will work with OYO to co-create Standard Operating Procedures for cleaning to maximise the positive effects of Unilever products. OYO properties where these operating procedures are used will display a tag on booking pages to show Unilever products have been used in cleaning services. This global partnership will begin in India and then go live across Indonesia, Vietnam, the US, LATAM and Europe.

Through this partnership, select OYO properties will have Unilever hygiene kits for guests and cleaning supplies for staff, including products from brands such as Lifebuoy, Domex, Sunlight and Cif.

To provide a cleaner and more hygienic experience to guests right from check-in to check-out, OYO has upgraded its cleanliness and hygiene protocols to suit the ‘new normal’ with ‘OYO Sanitised Stays’. These include the following upgraded in-progress protocols using Unilever products:

* Deep cleaning and disinfecting in-room high touch zones: Disinfecting most frequently accessed touchpoints in the room like TV/AC remotes, phone, switches, door handles/knobs, bathroom surface & bath fittings, closets and all hard surfaces

* Hand hygiene products for guests: Alcohol-based hand gel will be made available at all key entrances, exits and high traffic areas for guests

* Sanitised common areas: Common areas (registration desk, lobby, elevators, business centres, dining rooms, etc.) will be cleaned at least four times a day

* Safety gear for staff: Hotel staff will be provided with personal protective equipment such as face masks and gloves. Housekeeping staff will be required to wear required protective gear while cleaning rooms. It will be mandatory for all hotel employees to wear masks and gloves at all times 

* Restricting housekeeping during the stay: Guest rooms will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected between guests. Housekeeping services/room cleaning will be performed only at checkout, or on-demand, when the guests are not present in the room as they may not prefer staff entering their room.

* Laundry & linen: Linens will be put in special, marked laundry bags and handled carefully to avoid potential contamination to surrounding surfaces or people. Linen will be changed at the guest’s request only. Linens will be laundered keeping in mind the high safety standards and best practices

* Encouragement of in-room dining: When ordering room service, guests will experience contactless delivery, with orders and single-use dishes placed outside their guest room door

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & Group CEO, OYO added, “As the world begins to travel again, we must all collectively ensure that health and safety remain the absolute priority. The scientific expertise of Unilever and assurance of their brands Lifebuoy, Domex, Sunlight and Cif are second to none and we are confident that our guests will have a quality and stress-free experience with ‘OYO Sanitised Stays’ with Unilever’s leading home and personal hygiene products. We’re pleased that by partnering with Unilever and providing their trusted products, we are able to help customers, as well as our staff, stay as safe as possible. With our committed asset owners, we are ready to host consumers across the world and we promise to give our customers the confidence to enjoy the OYO experience as we help drive higher standards in hygiene”

Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Unilever said, “With Hindustan Unilever’s long history in India, we are determined to do our part to protect lives and livelihoods and are glad to have found a strong partner in OYO who shares this vision. Through this partnership, Unilever is pleased to be able to help, through our known and trusted home and personal hygiene brands and education on correct use. We remain committed to improving the health and wellbeing of millions across the globe, and keeping our communities safe during these times.”

Harshal Sharma, asset owner of two OYO properties in Gurgaon, India added, “As a hotel owner, my first priority is the health and safety of my guests and staff. I have been associated with OYO for over two years. Over the last couple of months, the OYO team has been on their feet, coming up with innovative solutions to ensure that the customer’s changing requirements due to the pandemic are followed. My property is one of the first to have introduced ‘OYO Sanitised Stays’ with Unilever’s leading home and personal hygiene products and I am committed to continuing working closely with OYO to create a comfortable, safe and secure experience for my guests.”

With the Centre’s decision to open hotels in a phased manner, under Unlock 1.0, OYO, has begun welcoming guests across multiple states from June 8, 2020 onwards. Recently, OYO’s senior leadership including Rohit Kapoor, CEO, India & South Asia, Ankit Gupta, COO, Frontier Business, Abhishek Thard, Region Head - West II checked into various OYO Hotels in Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar among others to experience the ‘Sanitised Stays’ initiative.

Will Google, Yahoo and Microsoft collaborate to clean up web?

In a rare instance of collaboration among otherwise fierce rivals, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft said they would support a new web standard that will allow millions of publishers to remove duplicate pages from their websites. As a result, search engines would be able to make their search results more comprehensive.

"There is a lot of clutter on the web and with this, publishers will be able to clean up a lot of junk," said Matt Cutts, an engineer who heads Google's spam fighting efforts, the New York Times reported.

"I think it is going to gain traction pretty quickly," said Cutts.

The problem is the following: Many web publishers, especially those that have voluminous sites, like e-commerce companies, have multiple URLs that all point to the same page. This confuses search engines, sometimes causing them to index the same page multiple times. As much as 20 percent of URLs on the web may be duplicates, according to some estimates.

Engineers at Google came up with a simple way for web publishers to indicate when a URL is a duplicate, and if so, which is the principal, or "canonical," URL that search engines should be indexing. Yahoo and Microsoft, the no. 2 and no. 3 search engines, have agreed to support the same standard.

"We are happy that everyone is going to support the same implementation," said Nathan Buggia, a lead programme manager at Microsoft. "This is a clear benefit for publishers as it gives them an opportunity to get more exposure through search engines."

All search engines have developed technologies to detect duplicates that are more or less effective. The so-called Canonical Link Tag, as the standard is known, should make it easier for both publishers and search engines to address the problem, NYT reported Thursday.

"It is an important step because all the search engines are coming out with it," said Priyank Garg, director of product management for web search at Yahoo.

Agencies