By Ann Abel

Remember when we used to talk about high-touch service at five-star hotels?

That used to be a major selling point. Today I cringed just typing that phrase. Now the goal is contactless everything. It’s not that cleanliness is the new luxury—cleanliness should have been and generally was the expected baseline all along—but that personalized service and hands-on hospitality (shudder) we used to find when staying at a high-end hotel have become problematic.

Now travel is starting up again around the world. But it’s with a lot of protections. As Skift reported, nearly every international hotel brand has created some set of hygiene protocols, often in partnership with hospitals or research institutes. In Portugal, where I live, the tourism board started a Clean & Safe initiative to set travelers’ minds at ease.

As a longtime hotel junkie, I had some questions …

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Ann Abel is a travel writer and editor and was a senior editor at ForbesLife. She writes for Forbes, Departures, Conde Nast Traveller, Robb Report, Afar, National Geographic Traveler, Islands, Hemispheres, Brides, Modern Bride, Well + Good NYC, and other print and online publications.”In the name of lifestyle journalism, ” she says, ” I’ve gotten a tattoo in Bora Bora, been bitten by a massage therapist, and flown small aircraft above three continents.” She lives in Lisbon.