RESILIENT CAPE MAY HOSPITALITY
Cape May became America’s first seaside resort in the 1800s thanks to its beautiful beaches and fresh sea air. At that time, most major cities were hot and crowded in the summer months, making Cape May the perfect spot to visit for much-needed recreation and rejuvenation outdoors. Sea air has long been considered an aide to health and longevity. In oceanfront resort towns like Cape May, the air contains tiny droplets of seawater enriched with salt, iodine, and magnesium – minerals we need to stay healthy and happy. Plus, the crashing ocean waves create negatively charged ion particles, which have an air cleansing effect. The air we breathe in Cape May helps us maintain a healthy atmosphere for your stay at The Queen Victoria!
We know that you visit Cape May for a relaxing, peaceful, and enjoyable atmosphere. During the months of our Spring 2020 Covid19 Closure, we spent countless hours contemplating how to ensure that those expectations are safely met when you select The Queen Victoria for your Cape May destination. We evaluated every aspect of our operation in an effort to elevate The Queen Victoria’s enjoyable, clean, and safe atmosphere to even higher levels. We would like to share with you some of the changes that we implemented for your peace of mind.
AMENITIES & HOSPITALITY
The Queen Victoria is renowned as a welcoming and friendly destination, and that has not changed. It is just a little different now (at least temporarily) than it has been in the past. The first change you’ll experience upon arrival is our “Express Check-in”. Rather than subject you to a traditionally comprehensive, but long, check-in process, upon arrival you’ll find a labeled envelope that contains all the information you need for your visit, complete with 2 sanitized sets of keys for your room. We will charge the initial balance due for each reservation a day prior to your arrival, so no actual interaction will be required at the desk for most guests (except those that prefer to pay cash or don’t have a valid credit card on file). These packets, which will be arranged on the dining room table in The Queen Victoria building, will also contain a registration form that may be signed with a sanitized Queen Victoria pen found in the mug marked “Clean Pens” (once you’re done with it, you can either keep it or put it in the “Used Pens” mug). One of our staff will be present in the room to collect your registration form and help with questions, directions, or any other necessary assistance you may need. Not only will our new Express Check-in facilitate appropriate social distancing, but it will also speed you along to enjoying your time in Cape May.
All the amenities you know and love are still available for you to enjoy at The Queen Victoria. We also added some additional amenities that have been very popular. The first you’ll notice will likely be one of the many “touchless” hand sanitizer dispensers that are placed strategically throughout every building. We invite you to make use of them during your time with us. We’ve also installed sanitizing wipe dispensers throughout the inn, allowing you to enjoy all the amenities you love so much, including our Cape May bicycles and beach chairs. We always clean these every morning and continue to do so with a sanitizing cleaner. These wipes, however, may give you peace of mind while you enjoy your ride around town or your visit to the beach. You’ll also find sanitizing wipe dispensers in each pantry and powder room (or nearby). Many inns are removing their Keurig machines, but we refuse to take your coffee away! Again, we’ll be sanitizing all commonly touched surfaces (like the Keurig handle) in these areas several times throughout the day, but the wipes will allow you to enjoy our amenities confidently. Finally, we installed high-efficiency HEPA air purifiers in every room. These units not only keep the air in your room smelling fresh and clean, they also help keep it healthy.
SUPERIOR HOUSEKEEPING
The Queen Victoria has always upheld the highest standard of cleanliness. It is our highest priority, and probably what we are best known for. In 2020 we took housekeeping to a new level by implementing additional protocols that provide extreme sanitization of virtually every surface in the inn. We started with our best in class laundry service, where we will now be bleaching all guest room linens prior to arrival (we have removed items like afghans and throw pillows that cannot be bleached and washed before each arrival). Next up was the room cleaning process, both for arrival and daily service. We added the sanitization of every commonly touched surface in the room, including all door handles, remotes, light switches (on the wall and on the lamps), thermostats, drawer pulls, safe keypads, refrigerator handles, alarm clocks, faucets, toilet flush handles, grab bars, handheld shower handles and hair dryers. Finally, and probably most significantly, we implemented a whole-room air sanitizing process with ozone prior to every arrival. This powerful process disinfects not only the air in the room but every surface in it, both hard and soft.
“SAFE SERVE” DINING
Breakfast is an important and integral highlight of every stay at The Queen Victoria. While many inns eliminated breakfast or moved to a continental, packaged breakfast, we have designed a “Safe Serve” breakfast service to replace our traditional self-service buffet. This new format for breakfast provides our guests with the same great breakfasts they’ve come to love and expect in a manner that respects their safety. We have also rearranged seating to accommodate social-distancing protocol, both in the House of Royals Dining Room, as well as the Prince Albert Hall dining areas. Every aspect of our dining operation was modified to accommodate the needs of the day, but no sacrifice has been made in the food that we serve.
We made similar adjustments to the way we serve afternoon tea to help assure your safety. In an effort to avoid group gatherings during teatime, we’ve replaced “Afternoon Tea”, with “All Afternoon Tea”. At noon each day, we begin tea service, which runs until 4:00 p.m. Instead of a buffet of savories and sweets, we put together a “Tea for Two” grab bag filled with homemade baked goodies from our kitchen, all individually wrapped, plus 2 cups with lids for tea on the go. We couldn’t figure out a way to keep our savory spreads fresh and cold, so we came up with the alternate solution of 2 bags of savory snacks. Our guests are welcome to enjoy all Afternoon Tea in our Prince Albert Hall gardens and porch, just as they have in the past, but many guests enjoy taking their treats to the beach.
SUMMARY
Many of our guests this year returned several times, knowing that The Queen Victoria is the safest vacation destination available to them. We are convinced that the many changes we made at The Queen Victoria for the 2020 season created a healthy, safe environment for your visit with us. Ultimately, however, all of the special things that make The Queen Victoria Cape May’s premier bed and breakfast destination are undiminished and awaiting your arrival.