Melbourne's bars and restaurants are reopening!

Melbourne is emerging from its 12-week lockdown today, and restaurants and bars across the city couldn't be more ready to roll up their sleeves and start serving diners inside their establishments again. 

We caught up with our Hospoworld Melbourne Senior Account Manager Nick Miney about what venues can do to prepare for reopening safely and operating over the coming months:

In an effort to ensure hospitality venues open safely Melbourne has a plan for dedicated safety officers to deliver COVID-19 safety kits to restaurants and cafes across the city.
These will include a digital thermometer, masks, hand sanitisers, floor markers and additional signage, information on options for digital check-ins and contact tracing for guests and staff and fact sheets for cleaning.

Along with the COVID Safety kit, many restaurants are also adopting some changes to their usual service which include;

• Temperature checking all your guests upon arrival and screen all patrons.
• Have all your patrons check-in upon arrival. There are many options on how you can do this effectively and efficiently, one of the simplest ways to do this is by setting up a QR code. 
• Be sure to have all your staff do the free Department of Health and Human Services COVID-safe training.
• Ensure your tables are at least 1.5 meters apart to comply with the social distancing laws.
• Limit all your bookings to a two-hour dining limit. 
• Make sure you have a reliable booking system, and that customers have a booking before dining, this will help combat long lines and people gathering at the entrance to your venue.  You can also monitor the arrival and departure of guests this way.
• Be sure to offer hand sanitiser stations in areas that have alot of foot traffic, like the entrance and outside the restroom.
• Clean high traffic areas such as bathrooms, counters and registers regularly. Thoroughly clean each table including menu’s between parties.

I have no doubt that Melbourne is ready to bring its vibrant, passionate hospitality scene back to what it was pre-covid, and that we’ll achieve it by doing everything we can to stick to the rules and keep our community safe. 

If you want to chat about anything I’ve covered here or about how the Melbourne Hospoworld team can help set your team up for reopening successful, flick me an email nickm@hospoworld.net.au or give me a call on 0396661506