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Reopening: COVID-19 Restrictions Slowing Tourists Return To Napa Valley Hotels

NAPA (CBS SF) -- Many hotels in Wine Country's Napa Valley have welcomed guests back, but rooms aren't fully booked yet. It's not because the reservations aren't coming in -- many rooms are intentionally sitting empty.

The Westin Verasa in Napa is following recommendations from state and county health officials to limit the spread of COVID 19. The Westin lets rooms sit for 24 hours after guests leave. Then the housekeeping staff comes in to clean and the room is left empty for another 24 hours.

"The first step is to ensure that the room sits vacant to protect the associates that have to go into that room as well as the next guest arriving into that room," General Manager Don Shindle said.

For guest coming into the hotel, they are greeted by hand sanitizing stations and guests are required to do one thing, to have a mask on. If they don't have one, they are made available in the front lobby.

In fact, there are 24 hand sanitizing stations just on the first floor of the hotel.

Guests KPIX 5 spoke with say they had very few reservations about staying at the hotel.

"We're the first person to stay in our room for the last 3 months," Miranda Eastin said.

Miranda and Peter Eastin just got married last weekend. They originally planned to go to Italy for their honeymoon but instead came to a wine country closer to home

Peter contacted the hotel before booking his stay.

"He assured us about the cleanliness and what they're doing so that made us really comfortable about coming here," he told KPIX 5.

For Shindle and his staff, it's been a long 3-month process to make sure the hotel can seamlessly open.

The hotel has brought back roughly 40 percent of its staff and Shindle hopes more will come back in the near future. He says they'll be able to turn rooms around quicker once they get an electrostatic sprayer to clean the virus off surfaces.

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