Coronavirus: hotels adapt to COVID-19 with isolation packages
Hotels are adapting policies and packages in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
In light of social distancing and self-isolation, many hotels across Australia are introducing accommodation packages for those who need a solo break. Guests taking up the deals, including those who have recently started working from home because of workplace closures, cite reasons such as access to faster Wi-Fi, readily available meals, no unseemly shopping stoushes with hoarders over necessities such as toilet paper, and a quieter environment in which to think and plan.
The privately owned Emporium South Bank in Brisbane, for example, has also identified a demand from elderly Brisbane residents who “currently rely on others for meals, groceries and various daily needs” and those employed in essential services, such as medical care, who must continue to work at hospitals or clinics, but wish to be removed from other members of their households. The hotel’s Isolation Package, valid to May 31, covers the expected inclusions of secure accommodation, free parking and Wi-Fi, but it’s the extras that signify the new normal when it comes to hotel services.
For an additional $50 per person a day, three meals can be delivered directly to guests in their suites. For $75, additional extras cover unlimited movies and daily replenished “entertainment” pack of snacks and drinks. Emporium South Bank has also launched a daily grocery delivery service of fresh produce, pantry dry goods and staples, toiletries and cleaning and laundry products to neighbourhood addresses.
At its Australia-wide properties, Metro Hotels has taken a long-term view, slashing rates to as low as $75 a night for minimum 14-night packages, valid to April 30. The cheapest tariffs are for hotel rooms but serviced apartment-style options, such as Metro Apartments on King in the Sydney CBD, start at $99 a night and feature cooking and laundry facilities plus the much-needed fresh air bonus of a balcony. The deal is proving popular with work-from-home guests needing a daily break from cabin fever and overcrowded family or shared households.
Ovolo Hotels is redefining its accommodation model by offering Freesome deals of three nights for the cost of two, valid to December 29 at its properties in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane, with the third free night also available as a credit voucher for future use. Even regional hotels and inns are redefining their marketing, with Bells at Killcare on the NSW central coast, close to a national park beach, emphasising “contactless check-in” at its spacious guest cottages, where three meals daily from its onsite restaurant and bar can be dropped off to bunkered-down guests, plus larder items and a range of drinks, including pre-batched cocktails.
The Old Clare Hotel in Sydney’s Broadway has gone a step further with an inventive deal that requires no overnight housekeeping from its staff. Its day rates of $75 for a half-day, or double that tariff for a full day, apply to a WFH(otel) deal designed as a sanity break. Overnight options are dubbed Stir Crazy Staycations and include early check-in and late check-out plus treats such as free parking, minibar and French champagne. Like most hotels, The Old Clare is charging no cancellation fees for the foreseeable future.
Then there’s the new phenomenon of hotels as hospitals. Several hundred passengers from the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship, who were denied entry into Hawaii a few days ago under tight new US immigration laws, and then repatriated to Sydney on a Qantas flight, are now under mandatory 14-day quarantine at Accor’s Swissotel, a centrally located high-rise mix of hotel accommodation and private apartments. Room-service meals are being left beside guestroom doors by hotel staff who announce their arrival by three knocks and then presumably flee.
What next? At least one five-star Swiss-based hotel group is offering “luxury quarantine services” on top of room rates for guests who don’t want to risk the public health system. The customised add-ons at its top properties in Basel, Zurich and Geneva can include officially sanctioned Coronavirus testing, twice-daily visits by medical staff and more intensive nursing care if required. For those with healthy budgets, it’s a perfect remedy.