UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has shared more details on the controversial hotel quarantine scheme that will come into force on Monday 15 February for UK and Irish residents travelling back to the UK from a ‘red list’ of 33 countries deemed at risk.
Hancock said in a statement “Before they travel, they will have to book, through an online platform, and pay for a quarantine package, costing £1,750 for an individual travelling alone, which includes the hotel, transport and testing. This booking system will go live on Thursday [11th February], when we will also publish the full detailed guidance”.
The travellers will be escorted to a designated hotel, in which they will have to remain in their rooms and not mix with other guests. As part of the package, they will receive three meals a day, tea, coffee and water, and they may be able to buy more through the room service provision at their own cost.
On the implementation of the scheme, Hancock said “We’ve contracted 16 hotels, for an initial 4,600 rooms, and we will secure more as they are needed”. The system will be enforced by security teams provided by the government: “We’ll be putting in place tough fines for people who don’t comply. This includes a £5,000 fixed penalty notice, rising to £10,000 for arrivals who fail to quarantine in a designated hotel”.
The scheme drew criticism from hoteliers when it was first announced last week due to its lack of planning: London Hotel Group’s Meher Nawab said there was “clearly a lack of dialogue between the government and the industry”.
Desmond Taljaard, MD of L&R Hotels, described the initiative as shambles in In Focus this week: ‘From what I understand the terms were not particularly attractive once you stripped out the fees being paid to various parties arranging it, plus having to arrange dinner, plus having to keep the hotel exclusive with no guarantee of longevity of contract. So basically suspending your portfolio. It sounds like a good idea not properly thought through".
On a more positive note, UK Hospitality’s Kate Nicholls, told the BBC “We are confident that our hotel companies can deliver a good quality service and help manage the quarantine scheme when it goes live. These are clearly small numbers at the start but discussions have been under way between our members and the government about the specifications and requirements”. She added “our front line hotels teams are focused on doing what they do best, which is to make sure that people in this situation have the best possible experience in what is very difficult circumstances, while making sure the health and safety of our teams is respected.