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Home » Hotels » Hotels Use “Honor System” To Loosen Mask Rules
Hotels

Hotels Use “Honor System” To Loosen Mask Rules

Matthew Klint Posted onMay 19, 2021November 14, 2023 18 Comments

a man and woman wearing face masks

Hyatt today announced that guests who are vaccinated will no longer have to wear masks at properties in the United States. Expect all chains to shortly adapt similar polices, which effectively ends obligatory masks at hotels and resorts across the USA and allows anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers an easy pass under an “honor system” in which vaccination status will not be checked.

Hotels Shift To “Honor System” For Mask Wearing

Hyatt’s updated mask guidance now states:

  • At all Hyatt hotels in the U.S., guests who are unvaccinated are required to wear face masks or coverings in hotel indoor public areas, as well as outdoors where social distancing is not feasible
  • Hyatt colleagues at U.S. hotels are required to wear face masks or coverings indoors, and fully vaccinated colleagues working outdoors, who are not in close contact with others, are not required to wear face coverings.
  • All hotels are required to follow state and local requirements, if stricter than what is recommended by the CDC.
  • In all other countries across the Americas region, all guests are still required to wear face masks or coverings in hotel indoor public areas and when moving around in outdoor areas

In short, people who do not want to wear masks, will stop wearing masks. People who refuse to be vaccinated can still get away with not wearing masks by claiming they have been vaccinated.

No one will verify their vaccination status. No questions will be asked.

Is this insanity? Or is this simply the acceptable cost of dealing with outliers who will always resist conventional wisdom?

The good news is that those who have been vaccinated are protected from those who lie about their vaccination status. Furthermore, the idea of permanent masks was unsettling. As the vaccine is now widely available, even for walk-up appointments in the USA, loosening obligatory masks was appropriate and I will not be wearing masks in hotels any more unless those around me feel more comfortable or local ordinances require it.

While young people are less prone and more resilient to COVID-19, those under 12 cannot be vaccinated so the selfish behavior of anti-vaxxers does put them at elevated risk.

CONCLUSION

Over 60% of Americans have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccination. Those fully vaccinated are over 40%. Hopefully those numbers will continue to grow. Reflecting that trend and new CDC analysis, hotels are eliminating mask requirements for vaccinated travelers, but doing so on the honor system. I don’t see a better way that balances privacy and practically (CDC vaccination cards can also be very easily forged). But be aware: it is virtually certain not all of those who stop wearing masks will be vaccinated.

Is the “honor system” the only reasonable alternative to permanent mask mandates in hotels?

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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18 Comments

  1. Jerry Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 12:43 pm

    Proverbs 12:22

  2. Mitch Cumstein Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 1:06 pm

    “Is the “honor system” the only reasonable alternative to permanent mask manatee in hotels?”

    How about a yellow star to brand anti-vaxxers with a mark of disobedience?

  3. Holger V Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 1:13 pm

    Yeah, if folks want to lie about their vax status, no skin off my back. I’m fully vaccinated. What does bother me is that this is basically a free rider problem (those who refuse to vaccinate will nonetheless benefit greatly from others who have), and based on the smug nature of such anti-vax people (they are all smug a*swipes), they will of course not give us vaccinated folks any credit. Instead, they will only confirm their own skewed view that COVID is not real or was never a real threat. I hope they all die in their local ICUs.

  4. Derek Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 1:23 pm

    Now end the TSA mask mandate

  5. Asarious Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 1:26 pm

    I appreciate the analysis your article. Your interpretation of the situation comes off as the most realistic one I’ve read so far.

    Ironically, a double standard applies to employees, because let’s face it… this is more about fortuitous marketing than anything else. While there are far more potential guests attracted to mask-free living than those concerned with their children, it costs a hotel nothing to require employees to remain masked.

    I take issue with this policy only because the science also suggests that standard face coverings do more to protect others from the mask-wearer’s influence than the mask-wearer themselves. It’s precisely those who choose to remain unvaccinated who should be wearing masks to protect the vulnerable who cannot be vaccinated.

    I admit, my negativity stems from an exceedingly conservative belief that the risk of unknown and irreversible long-term effects from COVID demands greater precaution, even if there’s no immediate apparent benefit. However, I acknowledge that the rest of society seems to not share that view.

    Nevertheless, the idea that a business may be burdened to accommodate the needs of the few is not unprecedented. We certainly see it legislated via things such as the ADA, and I reject the notion that imposing a financial burden on a private entity to enforce mask-wearing is more appalling than anything else we regulate for the public good.

  6. Max Gross Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 4:02 pm

    So the unvaccinated by choice, at least in the U.S., can still contract the virus and possibly contaminate others who choose to not get vaccinated. Oh the humanity! Get out the crying towels and let the hand wringing commence.

  7. Ed Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 6:02 pm

    I’m all for ditching masks in public indoor settings — once every child can be vaccinated and the health care regime shifts the burden of care from the government back to normal health insurance.

  8. Derek Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 6:27 pm

    #Ed

    Science has proven it is very unlikely for the vaccinated to spread the virus. Thus, it really makes no difference if a vaccinated person wears a mask or not. Requiring vaccinated people to wear masks is nothing more than virtue signaling

  9. Steve Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 7:18 pm

    Masks dont prevent a thing. Hotels have no legal right to force you to wear a medical device. Welcome to Law 101.

    Keep wearing your masks sheeple

  10. Joe Chivas Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 8:02 pm

    Steve doesn’t follow the science. He follows DeSantis.

  11. cargocult Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 8:18 pm

    Why is it that vaccine-coercer types like Holger V actively wish death upon those who don’t choose to get experimental medical treatments? Is that what “following the science” entails?

  12. derek Reply
    May 19, 2021 at 11:09 pm

    The CDC was under political pressure to fulfil a campaign promise. Part of the equation should have been to evaluate the implications and public behavioral changes with a change. Perhaps, the CDC should have modeled on projected cases and deaths if they had waited until vaccination rates were 67%, 70%. 75%, etc.

  13. Christoph Trappe Reply
    May 20, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    Just wear one of these shirts to make sure people know you are vaccinated: https://amzn.to/3f5fHDT

  14. DC not in DC Reply
    May 20, 2021 at 1:43 pm

    If no one wears masks, those at highest risk are unvaccinated adults. Dropping hotel mask mandates may influence more adults to get vaccinated before they choose to travel.

    Hotel pools are “swim at you own risk.” Hotel parking is “park at your own risk.”

    I agree with dropping mask mandates in US hotels. “Travel at your own risk.”

  15. TimD Reply
    May 20, 2021 at 3:19 pm

    There’s no honor in this World

  16. UA-NYC Reply
    May 20, 2021 at 9:43 pm

    @cargocult – a billion-plus vaccinated and things are going quite well. Guess what? Science works.

    Enjoy being an anti-vaxxer and vacationing in Daytona Beach instead of London.

  17. Roland Scheckter Reply
    May 23, 2021 at 4:07 am

    I am anti-putting-unapproved-experimental-drugs/poison-into-my-body-to-see-what-happens.What are you?

  18. Luke Vader Reply
    June 28, 2021 at 7:15 pm

    “I am anti-putting-unapproved-experimental-drugs/poison-into-my-body-to-see-what-happens. What are you?”

    @Roland — Covid vaccines are well beyond “experimental” and have undergone Phase 1/2/3 trials, but not the years of trials which are normally required. Vaccines like Pfizer’s (which I received) have EUA (Emergency Use Authorization), which is an accelerated process given by the FDA to expedite treatments for the pandemic.

    Are you going to get vaccinated as soon as one of the vaccines is no longer “experimental?” Seems like you just don’t want to [bother to] be vaccinated, which would be a more honest and straightforward stance. Hopefully you’ll avoid contracting it, but you (voluntarily) take on a higher risk. Would you accept an EUA vaccine if was for an Ebola epidemic?

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