Woodlands Malvern B&B Covid-19 Policy

This policy, reviewed on 4 April 2024, is based on our updated Covid-19 risk assessment. It is intended to reduce the risk of people visiting and/or staying at Woodlands becoming infected with SARS CoV-2 virus as well as various other, principally respiratory tract, infectious diseases. This is because although Covid-19 infections are now less common, it is endemic in the UK and remains a serious infection for some people. Similarly, infections such as influenza are also endemic and, like Covid-19, predominantly transmitted via aerosol inhalation.

Adequate ventilation of indoor spaces is a key component of reducing SARS CoV-2 virus and other respiratory infectious agents’ transmission. Being a certified Passivhaus, Woodlands has a permanently-on mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR) system that continuously brings fresh and filtered outdoor air into the house and expels stale air to the outside. Unlike many conventional air conditioning /air heating systems, there is no mixing of fresh and stale air in a Passivhaus MVHR system. We increase the MVHR rate to maximum when there are visitors or guests at Woodlands. Additionally, all rooms in the house (except the toilet (off the boot room) have openable windows should it be desirable to increase airflow still further.

We also ask that all guests and visitors to Woodlands practice social distancing.

We use only use one guest room at a time other than for single-household/close family visitors requiring two rooms. This means that only single-household/family guests use the dining area upstairs. We also offer to provide breakfast in guests’ rooms, placing them on a butler’s trolley outside the door.

We do not offer a room cleaning service during guests’ stays but provide fresh towels and clean cups and glasses, and replenish tea, coffee and bottled Malvern water, as may be required, again, using the butler’s trolley.

Vacated guest rooms are cleaned before re-use by: (i) steam cleaning tile floors and walls and sanitaryware; (ii) sanitising tile floors and sanitaryware, frequent-touch surfaces including window and door handles and light switches, kettle, drinks chiller, TV remote control etcetera with Peracide™ solution ;and (iii) washing bed linen and towels at a minimum of 60°C.

The second guest room (unless being used by a guest from the same household), the plant room, the downstairs WC, our office, and our own bedroom are kept closed when guests are present to reduce the risk of contamination of surfaces.

When breakfast is served in the upstairs dining area guest places are set at the end of the table furthest from the kitchen. We wash our hands with soap and water immediately before setting the table.

Breakfast cereal and other items are placed on the table in advance and we serve freshly prepared food and drink maintaining social distancing as much as possible.

Breakfast menus and in-room welcome letters are printed on single-use sheets.

Room and house keys are sanitised with Peracide™ solution after each guest's stay.

Should a guest be unfortunate enough to develop Covid-19 symptoms during their stay with us, we will:

• ask them to remain in their room until they leave and not use other parts of the house;

• encourage them to seek medical advice from NHS 111; and

• for those unable to travel home immediately, provide them with meals and drinks in their room. These will be left outside on a butler’s trolley which can be wheeled in and out of the room by the guest. The trolley itself and all items on it that are not disposed of will be sanitised with Peracide™ solution with crockery and glasses being washed in a dishwasher, and those that are not dishwasher safe hand washed and then sanitised with Peracide™ solution.

After they have left, their room will be deep cleaned, including the use of X-Mist whole-room aerosol sanitiser (which meets standard EN 1276 and has been confirmed as killing the SARS Cov-2 virus), in addition cleaning and sanitising of surfaces with to Peracide™ solution.

You can read our Full Covid 19 Risk Assessment here.

REFERENCES

[1] Indirect effects of the covid-19 pandemic on childhood infection in England: population based observational study. BMJ 2022;376:e067519. See: https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj-2021-067519 (accessed 27 June 2022)

[2] Effects of COVID-19 prevention procedures on other common infections: a systematic review. European Journal of Medical Research. See: https://eurjmedres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40001-021-00539-1 (accessed 27 June 2022)

[3] Impact of COVID-19 on Infectious Diseases and Public Health. American Society for Microbiology. See: https://asm.org/Articles/2022/February/Impact-of-COVID-19-on-Infectious-Diseases-and-Publ (accessed 27 June 2022)

[4] Effects of COVID-19 Prevention Measures on Other Common Infections, Taiwan. Emerging Infectious Diseases. doi: 10.3201/eid2610.203193. See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7510692/ (accessed 27 June 2022) It is clear that not only Covid-19 remains an issue in the UK but that seasonal flu is currently an issue in Australia and thus may become so in the UK in the coming autumn and winter. We therefore consider that protection against, especially, respiratory communicable diseases remains important.