A getaway to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City will look a little different this year as the property gears up to welcome guests back in the age of the Covid-19 pandemic. The beachside resort released its “Safe + Sound” health and safety guidelines for reopening Wednesday. Highlights of the protocols include requirements for staff and guests to wear masks except when eating or drinking, thermal imaging temperature scans before anyone enters the property, and a partnership with local health system AtlantiCare that focuses on contact tracing, safety training and telehealth.
The guidelines follow directives from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They were also developed in accordance with protocols from Hard Rock International and the Atlantic City Casino Industry's Summary Plan of Proposed Reopening Protocols.
The Atlantic City resort doesn’t have an exact timeline for reopening and is awaiting word from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, resort spokeswoman Nikki Balles said.
Social distancing will be required in all of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City’s gaming and non-gaming areas, which will display 750 signs throughout the complex reminding guests of the procedures. Upwards of 200 hand sanitizer dispensers will be distributed in high-traffic areas such as valet, casino floors, restaurant entrances and meeting and convention spaces.
Temperature checks will be conducted by security staff before people enter the resort using thermal imaging technology from CERTIFY's SnapXT. Anyone with a temperature of at least 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit will be escorted to a designated area for a secondary temporal temperature screening. Those still showing a temperature will be turned away from the resort.
More than 100 of the Hard Rock’s team members will be a part of a cleaning team focused on disinfecting surfaces throughout the complex. Their job will include deep cleaning of high-touch surfaces like hotel rooms, chips, gaming surfaces, restaurants and pool areas.
The property also purchased more than 1,000 new air filters so that 10 to 12 air changes take place per hour inside the resort. Plexiglass will be installed at the front desk, casino cage, sportsbook, box office and select table games. One vacant spot is required between separate parties at slot machines and table games.
Occupancy will be limited in the casino. As such, guests must be at least 21 years old to visit Hard Rock Atlantic City unless they have a restaurant or hotel reservation.
There will also be a cap on diners permitted at the resort’s restaurants to enforce social distancing guidelines. Eight food venues will reopen at the property. Hard Rock Atlantic City Beach Bar will open at 11 a.m. daily, while Hard Rock Cafe and Sugar Factory will offer outdoor seating.
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City is still the new kid on the block in the storied gaming town, which has faced turmoil over the last decade. The resort opened in June 2018 after a $500 million revamp that shed the site’s former Trump Taj Mahal image. An investment group led by Hard Rock International acquired the closed Taj Mahal for $50 million.
New Jersey tourism officials have previously partially credited the state’s record-breaking tourism numbers last year to the 2018 debuts of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Ocean Casino Resort. Atlantic and Cape May counties are the two largest economic drivers for the tourism sector, which brought in $46.4 billion in visitor spending in 2019 and generated upwards of $5.1 billion in state and local taxes.
By: Laura Smythe