Heartbreak hotel: quarantine ‘inmate’ forced to watch brother’s funeral via webcast

A former Hotel Chancellor guest has had to endure double quarantine – and now the heartbreak of watching his brother’s funeral via webcast.

A hotel quarantine subject has told of his heartbreak after being forced to watch his brother’s funeral via webcast.

Geoff Crooks and wife Kaz were among almost 130 Hotel Grand Chancellor guests ordered into another two weeks in quarantine after the mutant UK strain of COVID-19 broke out in the hotel.

The couple was relocated to the Westin Hotel on Wednesday after the Grand Chancellor was evacuated following the outbreak.

Posting on the Hotel Quarantine Australia Facebook page on Thursday, Mr Crooks said he had ‘bawled his eyes out’ after being unable to attend his brother’s funeral in Wollongong.

He said his 85-year-old mum was also in hospital recovering from a broken hip.

Kaz and Geoff Crooks in quarantine in Brisbane’s Grand Chancellor Hotel. Picture David Clark

“I don’t want sympathy, just some empathy from the QLD government,” he wrote.

“Three days getting home from the US, QT (quarantine) and now double QT has just drained us. We are positive pro QT people, not flight risks or criminals. But that’s how we feel …”

Mr Crooks said any request to the Westin required a form ‘which then takes 24 hours to get’.

“We are treated like absolute mutants, not people,” he posted.

The Hotel Grand Chancellor in Brisbane's Spring Hill was evacuated this week due to covid transmission concerns. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“I was told yesterday by a ‘hater’ on this site (that) if we were released we could decimate the indigenous population, really??

“We are private people never wanting to upset the system, (but) I have now changed.”

The heartfelt post has attracted dozens of comments from people expressing their condolences and support for Mr Crooks’ ‘heart-wrenching’ and ‘awful’ situation.