Intercontinental Hotel Sanctuary Cove: Guests forced to make way for rugby teams

A couple in their 60s are fuming after being forced to abandon their stay at a luxury Gold Coast hotel to make way for rugby teams.

A GOLD Coast couple in their 60s are fuming at being forced to abandon a staycation at a luxury hotel to make way for the arrival of South African and Argentinian rugby teams.

The small business owners checked into the InterContinental Hotel in Sanctuary Cove on Tuesday but got a call on Wednesday requesting they leave on Friday. It was a day earlier than planned and was to make way “for a sporting team coming for isolation”.

Fencing was erected around the hotel while the couple were out for dinner, making it “impossible” in the dark to find their way back to their room, they said.

“What upset me the most was when we booked the week before no one told us the players were coming, and they must have known,” Bryan, one half of the couple, said.

“If we knew that then we would have postponed our stay instead of cutting it short. What really made me cranky was the Premier saying there’s nowhere in Queensland to come to and we’re full up - but they keep letting footballers in.

“Why aren’t they letting Queenslanders trying to access chemotherapy or say goodbye to dying relatives in? It doesn’t seem right, it all seems backwards to me.”

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The InterContinental Hotel at Sanctuary Cove.

After discovering the hotel restaurant they liked to dine in was closed, and fencing surrounded the entire property, they checked out on Thursday.

They were only charged for one night.

“I don’t get much time off work and it was the first break we’d had in months,” he said.

“The staff were really nice, no problem with the service, but surely the hierarchy knew ahead of time and could have rung us and given us the heads up.”

InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort general manager Matt Rippin said IHG Hotels & Resorts was a proud partner of Rugby Australia and was “delighted to step up at short notice to support the Rugby Championship relocation to Queensland, which helps us to keep the resort operating and colleagues employed during this otherwise challenging time”.

“We do regret this has impacted a very small number of guest bookings, and we are working with those guests to agree on alternative arrangements.”

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The Argentinian and South African teams will be staying at the hotel.

The two teams arrived on August 27 ahead of their historical double-header rugby tests at Cbus Stadium on September 12.

There were 80 overseas arrivals and their arrival was prearranged with Queensland Health and the Queensland Government.

Rugby Australia was footing the bill for the stay.

It’s understood some sectors or groups enter into approved alternative quarantine arrangements, that the government is calling “bubbles”.

This involves the industry body submitting an official Quarantine Management Plan that is reviewed and supported by Queensland Health, with the applicant responsible for ensuring compliance.

Bubbles must meet thorough health and safety requirements and are subject to strict compliance, testing and monitoring to ensure they do not put Queenslanders at risk.

They require extensive planning by the industry applicant to ensure all public health risks are mitigated. Bubbles must be equivalent to government-quarantine accommodation, which means compulsory health overlays, 24/7 security, and welfare support.

It also means implementing strict cleaning and disinfection protocols, as well as regular Covid testing. Approved alternative quarantine arrangements are funded by the industry applicant.

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