Guests bumped at new Coast COVID quarantine hotel
Guests have had their bookings cancelled from one of the Gold Coast’s top hotels after its sudden declaration as a COVID quarantine hub.
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Guests are being bumped from one of the Gold Coast’s top hotels after its sudden declaration as a COVID quarantine hub.
The luxury Sofitel Gold Coast at Broadbeach has become the fourth Glitter Strip hotel to be used to quarantine people returning from overseas as well as those travelling from coronavirus hotspots Victoria and NSW.
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It comes after Queensland agreed to take another 500 to 1000 travellers a week as the Federal Government steps up efforts to repatriate Aussies stranded overseas during the pandemic.
The French-themed 296-room Sofitel, run by French hospitality giant Accor, joins Surfers Paradise hotels the QT, Voco and Crowne Plaza as Coast quarantine hotels.
The Sofitel’s website says the hotel is taking a ‘les vacances holiday for the summer’, closing until February. It did not specify the reason.
One guest who booked rooms at the hotel next month said he was told his booking would be honoured at another property and he would not be ‘left in the lurch’.
Gold Coast police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said the extra quarantine hotel was needed after Queensland agreed to take extra returned travellers.
“It’s really important we get this right,” he said.
“We’ve seen some of the outcomes playing out in Victoria over recent days (at the inquiry into the state’s bungled hotel quarantine scheme) – a failure in our hotel quarantine process would be catastrophic for our community.”
More than 4000 people have been placed in quarantine at Gold Coast hotels since Queensland closed the border to NSW on August 8.