Singapore family ‘hit the jackpot’ with luxury Ritz Carlton hotel quarantine

Hotel quarantine has been a gruelling slog for most travellers, but a mum and her young son were surprised to snag a five-star dream.

A mum and her toddler who travelled to Singapore have hit the hotel jackpot by being sent to a luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel to complete their mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine.

Joy Van Dee recently arrived on the island from Amsterdam and said she was shocked to be shuttled to the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore for the government-mandated COVID-19 quarantine, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“We hit the jackpot,” Ms Van Dee told the outlet on Monday, explaining she didn’t realise where she’d be staying until she was taken there.

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The woman and her baby son stuck out the two weeks in a cushy 51sq m room with river views.

They were sent at random to the five-star hotel for Singapore’s “quarantine lottery”.

“No one has any choice in where they go and bus drivers shuttling travellers from the airport won’t say where they are headed,” the Journal reports of the system.

According to the outlet, most travellers have to cough up about $1,600 per person per hotel room and COVID-19 test for the 14-day quarantine.

The swanky stay Ms Van Dee and her son enjoyed, however, is reportedly valued at an even prettier penny; the cheapest room offered at the hotel for two weeks in early October is priced at almost $5,850 with taxes and fees.

The family’s quirky quarantine experience wasn’t quite the same as a stay at the Ritz in pre-pandemic times, however – people cannot leave their rooms, housekeeping does not visit and meals are left outside the bedrooms.

It’s also a far cry from the experience of other quarantined travellers, including in Australia, where guests have complained about “prison-like”, terrible food, dirty rooms and poor hygiene standards.

Since the pandemic began, more than half of Singapore’s 67,000 hotel rooms have been reassigned to quarantine-arriving travellers, as well as locals infected with COVID-19, Yahoo Lifestyle reports.