Hosts in full protective gear, limitations on how to move and where to eat with daily COVID tests for everyone; The Beijing Winter Games were not for the faint-hearted and saw even tougher restrictions than in Tokyo.

Khaya’s team tried to make the stay for our guests a pleasant one. The Chinese authorities had implemented tough travel restrictions and our team was not able to support our guests on the ground. Instead, they worked closely with the hotels in Beijing and the mountains, albeit from distance.

There were many issues to overcome for our guests. In the beginning the hotel restaurants only had limited opening hours and guests were only allowed to eat in. We urgently had to overcome this and could convince the hotel to extend their opening hours.

The convenience store inside one of the hotels hardly had any items to sell. The shelves looked empty. After the intervention of Khaya’s team, the hotel stocked up the fridges and shelves.

Khaya’s staff was available 24/7 and our clients made use of this service.

All said Chinese hotels were willing to help, but they needed guidance from outside. Khaya’s team had built up a close relationship with them and this paid off. While hotel staff did speak some English and were able to communicate with the guests, the Venue Health Teams couldn’t communicate in English at all. Again, Khaya’s team was the intermediary and helped overcome many issues.

Our guests from Norway, Sweden, Japan, Russia, France, Brazil and China made the best of their stay and we sincerely hope that Paris 24 will be a vastly different experience. Khaya is already preparing for the next Olympics and in Paris will surely be able to greet our guests in person and look after them in true “Khaya style”.