Creative hotel staff have come up with new measures to ensure people maintain an appropriate distance from each other if they attend any meetings at any of its sites.

Focus Hotels challenged staff at the businesses it manages to come up with alternatives to the two metre stickers which have become commonplace in shops and other outlets during the pandemic.

And the team at the DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre found the perfect solution, using items which aren’t out of place in any hotel but are easier on the eye than the stickers.

Sarah Monk. Commercial Director for Focus Hotels, said: “What they’ve come up is quite quirky, but very appropriate for a hotel environment. Full marks for creativity!”

Staff discovered that the two-metre distance can be measured using:

• Three standard umbrellas, end-to-end

• 22 water bottles, side-by-side

• 23 disposable coffee cups, side-by-side

• 27 white wine glasses, side-by-side.

Sarah said: “We’ve all seen things like footprints on the floor, and pieces of tape laid down to help people maintain the recommended distance from each other to prevent the spread of the virus.

“Most of our hotels have meeting and function rooms, so we thought we could have a bit of fun asking our hoteliers how they were measuring out the social distancing.

“After all, we could all use a bit of fun during these particularly difficult times.

“The DoubleTree team’s response was perfect, although I’m not sure we’d be able to set the meeting rooms of all our hotels up like this for every meeting or booking!”

All the hotels managed by the Focus group have been hosting essential meetings and training sessions for a wide variety of different businesses over the past few weeks.

Sarah added: “While this has been a bit of fun, we take the health and safety of our customers and staff extremely seriously.

“It’s important that people know they can book their meetings and training events with us with confidence, knowing that we have done everything possible to create Covid-safe environments at all our hotels.”

Last year, Focus Hotels invested in Certificates of Conformity from Buckinghamshire-based Clifton Environmental Services, a leading global provider in its field, for all its independent businesses, while branded hotels, like Hilton and Accor, were subjected to acclaimed safety schemes of their own.