Reopening Your Theatre / Event Space? Ensure You Handle These Vital Cleaning and Prep Items

The coronavirus has forced just about every industry to implement new cleanliness practices to ensure guest and employee safety. More and more businesses are starting to reopen, if that’s legally an option in their respective cities. The public is ready to figure out their new normal – a new normal where they can safely meet with friends and enjoy various entertainment options. As the hospitality industry slowly starts to make a comeback, and you’ve decided to reopen your theater and/or event space, make sure you are prepared and have a cleaning routine set.

Venue sanitation

Before you open your doors for patrons, you’ll need to do a thorough clean of the entire venue and/or theater(s). Begin with cleaning, using soap and water, to remove dirt, impurities, and reduce the amount of germs. This process is important, but a second step is what’s really going to make a difference. Once everything is cleaned, you’ll need to go in with your disinfecting products that have been proven effective against COVID-19. This two-step process is fairly simple, but needs to be taken seriously if you’re going to keep your employees and patrons safe. Make sure your employees are trained on the proper cleaning protocols and the seriousness of the matter. If you’re a theater that is reopening, consider using electrostatic cleaning – which is spraying a fine mist of positively charged disinfectant particles – to help you quickly clean the seating area between events and/or movies. As always, you’ll want to consult the manufacturer’s instructions on use, storage, and disposal of all cleaning and disinfecting products.

Areas to prioritize

As guests and vendors start to enter your venue, you’ll need to pinpoint the high-touch areas and ensure they are getting cleaned and disinfected on a regular basis throughout the day. Some of these surfaces in public areas include door handles, handrails, ticket counters, all digital touch machines, tables/chairs, faucet handles, baby changing stations, and more. Common public areas aren’t the only places that need careful attention, keeping a clean back of house is also incredibly important. Continuous disinfecting of items such as telephones, employee clock in screens, microphones, computer areas, light switches, and more will help prevent your employees from taking the back of house germs to the public areas. During your cleaning process, it’s recommended you keep documentation on what you’re doing and how often you’re cleaning these areas and items for the sake of future audits.

More than cleaning

Cleaning and disinfecting high-touch areas is one of the best ways to help mitigate the spread of the virus. Partnered with social distancing measures, you’ll be setting your venue up for long-term success. If you’re a theater, limit the capacity in each auditorium by blocking off particular seats to enforce a 6-ft distance between groups. Also, consider moving beverage stations behind the counter and have employees handle beverage orders to reduce more populated stations.

Reopening theaters and venues is not a one-sided process. Both the venue and its employees, along with the guests, all need to be on the same page. Adding signs around the venue to let everyone know about the safety protocols in place will add in an extra reminder for those who have maybe not adapted to the new normal yet. Being prepared with an effective cleaning routine, proper signage, and employee training will only help in keeping your business open and guests safe.