Need to self-isolate? These hotels are offering ‘quarantine packages’
It's no secret that hotel occupancy rates have significantly decreased in the United States and around the world, due to the novel coronavirus.
Get Coronavirus travel updates. Stay on top of industry impacts, flight cancellations, and more.
Hotels are finding new ways to repurpose those rooms for those who need them most, with San Francisco considering housing homeless residents to Miami-Dade County restricting rooms to medical personnel and first responders. But to make money, several hotels around the world are offering up their rooms to paying travelers wanting to self-isolate due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Novotel Sydney Brighton Beach, an Accor Hotels property, is offering an extended stay discount of 40% off the best available rate for bookings 14 nights or more. The promotion comes with several perks, including a complimentary room upgrade, an all-inclusive room service package and complimentary Wi-Fi & parking.
Related reading: Should I travel? Advice for the coronavirus outbreak
Don't worry, guests and staff won't have to interact. The hotel says that self-isolating guests will be provided fresh linens and amenities on request, delivered to their door, and left outside for collection.
"Rest assured that enhanced cleaning and hygiene practices have also been implemented in all areas of the hotel," the hotel said on Facebook. "All common areas, as well as back-of-house, are frequently and thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to the most stringent standards, paying special attention to high touch-point areas, such as door handles, switches, counters, etc."
The Park Lane Hong Kong is offering a 14-day quarantine package for $1,600. Several floors dedicated to quarantined guests, according to the Wall Street Journal. Skift also reports that several hotels in Singapore are offering quarantine packages, as the country enacts a 14-day stay-at-home notice for returning travelers.
Several other companies are offering extended stays for first responders, medical professionals and journalists on the front lines. Hospitality start-up Sonder is offering 40% off on extended stays of 14 days or more while Domio, an apartment-hotel hospitality brand, is providing free stays to first responders and medical professionals in three cities.
As the coronavirus pandemic evolves, hotel occupancy rates will continue to decline. Several hotels have shuttered their doors altogether as airlines have grounded flights and countries worldwide have closed their borders.
A company that provides insight into the hospitality industry provided TPG's Jennifer Yellen with data from the last few weeks that showed that occupancy rates are significantly lower than the same period the previous year.
The company measured three key performance metrics to compare the first week of March in 2019 to 2020. All metrics showed a decline, much more than what the company sees typically year after year when comparing similar weeks.
Additional resources for traveling during the coronavirus outbreak:
- How coronavirus is impacting airline award availability
- How coronavirus has left the travel industry reeling
- Airlines scale back in-flight offerings due to coronavirus
- How to ward off coronavirus in your hotel room
- Guide to traveling during the coronavirus outbreak
- Extreme measures cruise lines are taking during coronavirus
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