If you ask me, wearing a mask during a hotel stay is even more annoying than a plane ride.
On a (domestic) plane ride, I more or less forget I’m even wearing a mask as I remain stationary listening to music or an audiobook.
When staying at hotels, I constantly found myself forgetting to grab my mask as I ran in and out of my hotel rooms (arms often full) and struggled to communicate with staff members between the masks and plexiglass installations.
To me it made sense that masks would be more of a necessity in a hotel than a plane but it was still twice as annoying.
Luckily, some hotels have decided to start dropping the mask requirement for fully vaccinated individuals.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association, a trade organization that oversees 27,000 members from hotels like Marriott and Hyatt, is suggesting that guests who are fully vaccinated no longer need to wear a mask and no longer have to social distance.
“In light of the recent CDC announcement that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in most settings, our Safe Stay guidelines will relax mask requirements for guests who are fully vaccinated,” Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said.
Unvaccinated guests are still required to wear facemasks and to continue social distancing.
Reportedly, the hotels will not be asking for a verification of vaccination status, a trend which seems to be setting the standard for these new rules.
Here’s a look at what some of the major hotels are doing, according to View from the Wing.
Marriott is no longer requiring masks indoors for fully vaccinated guests at US properties except where masks are required by law.
Hyatt also no longer requires vaccinated guests to wear masks indoors at US properties.
Hilton seems like they are being a bit more ambiguous regarding masks as a spokesperson stated:
Hilton Team Members in the United States will continue to wear masks when interacting with guests indoors or in public areas on property.
As guidelines begin to be relaxed around the world, our hotels will ask guests and visitors to practice social distancing and wear face coverings only where it makes sense to do so, including in indoor public areas and in jurisdictions where it remains required.
This is yet another major sign that things are starting to get back to normal for travelers, at least here in the US.
I would expect that there will be a good deal of confusion for many travelers over the next few weeks to months as these rules shake out, though.
At some of these places you’ll still need to make sure you are aware of the local laws and ordinances which may require you to wear a mask indoors. So keep that in mind.
It is still odd to me that masks are still required on planes even though the air is considered to be much more filtered than say, a hotel elevator. But it’s still looking like we may have to wait until September for mask requirements to drop for federal transportation.
H/T: VFTW
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
