Beginning on Monday, Feb. 15, United Kingdom and Ireland citizens returning home from 33 countries will be required to quarantine at designated hotels for 10 days at their own expense, the government announced.
Portugal is the only European country in the top-priority list of 33 nations, which is also comprised of Panama, United Arab Emirates, 17 African countries including South Africa and every South American country.
Rules in the other U.K. countries will be legislated separately but are similar, applying to arrivals from a third country after travel that includes one of the 33 listed nations.
U.K. health secretary Matt Hancock stated the mandatory cost for each traveler over the 10-day quarantine period will be 1,750 British pounds ($2,402).
(For the full rules for all travelers, including the COVID-19 tests required, visit here.)
Some hotels might benefit from increased revenue as a result of the new quarantine rules. Stays need to be pre-booked before arrival.
Bath Road, which runs along the northern edge of Heathrow Airport and contains several hotels, is one obvious choice of location for the program, as are a couple of seaports and train stations.
At time of publication, 17 hotels representing a total of approximately 4,600 rooms had been contacted by the government regarding participation.
Not all hotel operators have agreed to take part.
Alan Morgan, CEO of GLH Hotels, said he had been contacted by agents acting on behalf of the U.K. government, but for basic business reasons declined to take part. His company's portfolio includes the 266-room Thistle London Heathrow Terminal 5 on Bath Road.
“For operational reasons we said no, but we made it crystal clear that if the government is not able to secure sufficient rooms then we would do our duty and provide them,” he said.
Radisson Hotels Group operates the 108-room Radisson Hotel & Conference Center London Heathrow, 258-room Radisson Red London Heathrow and 464-room Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow Hotel & Conference Center — all on Bath Road.
Radisson declined to comment on whether executives were contacted by the government regarding participation in the quarantine program, instead providing a statement that said “throughout the pandemic, [we have] consistently supported local governments and provided quarantine services at select properties for travelers and front-line workers.”
Other international chains with hotels on Bath Road include Accor, Fattal Hotel Group, IHG Hotels & Resorts and Marriott International.
Some hoteliers said their properties do not have the necessary facilities, such as laundry, to help out, and likely midscale hotels will be utilized to house what the government expects to be 1,300 people per day.
Alison Brittain, CEO of Whitbread PLC, said during a third quarter 2020 earnings call on Jan. 12 that the company is willing to help where it can but there are more obvious options than limited-service hotels, which comprise Whitbread's portfolio.
Whitbread has the Premier Inn London Heathrow Airport on Bath Road.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today show on Feb. 4, Rob Paterson, CEO of Best Western Hotels U.K., said the government has not contacted him or, as far as he knew, any hotel operator, despite his best efforts at opening dialogue.
“I think in any normal company if you went out and announced a program nationally and you hadn’t thought about how you were going to plan that and hadn’t spoken to the people involved, well, I’m not sure if I would have a job if I did that in my company,” he said.
“It seems logical to me that you will sit down with the airlines, the airport operators and the hotel operators and thrash this out on a Zoom call, or whatever it might be, and to this day we simply haven’t heard anything despite multiple offers,” he said.
Paterson said Best Western, which has its Best Western Plus in Wembley nine miles from the airport, said guests arriving at one of his hotels would be greeted by staff in full personal protective equipment, food would be placed outside of each occupied room three times a day, and linen would be bagged and sealed in line with coronavirus regulations.
“It is an entirely contactless customer journey,” Paterson added.