Covid Isolation Hotel Nightmare

[Suppermumzy]

Stuck in this London Isolation Hotel...food is terrible...if you are lucky to go out for exercise you are hurriedly sent back in as there is always a list waiting to go out and use the outdoor space which can safely have 4 people in at a time..i will add photos of food. Cost for 11 days £2285.

I asked today "Would they stop me if I wanted to leave?" Answer No..but you will be reported as an absconder and may face a £10,000 fine....Surely this is not voluntary nor is it fair...who is monitoring this system..we seam to be a forgotten minority rotting away behind fences..

I am coming back from Africa to bury my 99 year old father who died 1/08....and I couldn't have not gone...I had to see him through....Surely this is not voluntary imprisonment as without the hotel booking reference you are not allowed on your flight at the departure airport...

AIBU to feel aggrieved by the system..when i left England the hotel fee was £1750...when I went to book it had gone up £500....NHS nurse looked after British public throughout the Pandemic but I feel that I am incapacitated to look after my own..including my young kids...

Wow. Very aggressive. I'm sure she knew the rules and she explained the reason she traveled. Just because something has been made a rule does not mean we need to agree with it or that that rule is a good rule. If we all just " lived with it " we wouldn't have women's voting rights today for example. In my opinion this rule is partly right and partly wrong. I think it's right to require hotel isolation but I think it's wrong to overcharge as much and wrong to not create a system to get those who clearly aren't infected released faster.

People talk about abiding by "the rules". It seems that some businesses care not a jot for the rules. On Panorama today they looked at people "staycationing". Some holiday accommodation - hotels, b&bs, self catering, etc -, are being given classifications denoting very robust hygiene procedures but it appeared from the programme's footage that, despite being awarded this classification, at least some of these establishments have been found to be absolutely filthy.

It seems returning travellers are easy pickings - they are threatened with £10,000 fines if they don't follow "the rules", but the rules appear to be quite fluid for some organisations - and no doubt for some individuals too.

Absolutely revolting this is one thread I hope the DAILY MAIL do pick up.

@ExpulsoCorona you've lost me?
How is saying I loath curry and other spicey foods racist??

I’m sorry for your loss and the hotel isolation that you have to pay a ridiculous amount for. A family friend had a horrendous hotel with awful food (she lives in South Africa and had come back to look after her Mother), she was however allowed to get a food delivery from a supermarket. Might be worth a try?

I'm appalled. This is a disgusting way to treat people! You need to put in some sort of official complaint. Just because there is a need for isolation does not mean you should be charged a fortune to be fed complete crap and with no proper exercise or fresh air. Someone is making a lot of money out of treating you like this. It is not right. I'd be tempted to send your pics to the UK media. I don't think people have any idea this is how it it. At such an awful time for you personally as well. I'm so sorry for your loss and that you are going through this.

So sorry to read of you sad news but I would not have gone to the funeral if it meant shelling out that sort of money to travel back and isolate. Your father would have understood that these are difficult and changing times. Nobody wants to be infected so isolation is what you have to pay for travelling abroad.

The 'food' looks dreadful. I wouldn't eat any of it as I don't like foreign food anyway and I'm vegetarian.
Can't be a proper cook dishing up those sloppy efforts. Indian food is usually nicely presented. That looks like low grade airline food.

This is absolutely disgusting. You're paying over 2k for this shite. This needs to end ASAP. Let's not forget these prisoners (passengers) are taking tests like every 3 days. UEFA officials didn't isolate. Why does our gov enjoy ripping off ordinary people in our country? Why is it that some of you think this is ok and the gov is doing the right thing because people like op went to a funeral? Why are some of you ok with people being ripped off? Why aren't any of you questioning where all these PCR tests, labs, PPE and quarantine hotel contracts are going to?

I wish some of the posters on here had the guts to question our governments motive in all of this instead of pointing the gun at people like op who simply wanted to attend her fathers funeral. I'm embarrassed for you. People returning from amber are bombarded with tests, visits and phone calls. Same thing can be done for red list. This whole traffic light system is utter bollocks anyway. How well does our gov know of all these countries covid data whether it's being dialled down to open up for tourism. It's all bollocks.

Op I'm sorry for your loss and sorry you have had to pay over 2k for this inhumane prison. I wish you had spent half that money on a 11 day holiday in a green list country and avoided all this utter bollocks.

We need this system unfortunately!
But the cost and that food is vile, unhealthy and grim. Food in isolation should be a joy and something to look forward to. A microwave in each room and a ready meal would have been better than that crap. Company who provides bin juice for breakfast should be named and shamed. Greedy money grabbing profiteering shameless non people. Some have gotten very rich during the pandemic

I disagree that most or the food examples here & elsewhere are "disgusting".
I'd eat most of it if hungry. It's not great but it's mostly ok.
DC would scoff it ok, too.

A lot of it isn't to my preference. I might lose weight in quarantine. But you can't get exercise anyway during quarantine, so not much appetite to have.
It's only 11-14 days.

Deprivation of liberty is the thing that would be hard on me. I perceive that most people think that's quite reasonable, though. Funny how these threads focus on something as trivial as food.

'So sorry to read of you sad news but I would not have gone to the funeral if it meant shelling out that sort of money to travel back and isolate. Your father would have understood that these are difficult and changing times. Nobody wants to be infected so isolation is what you have to pay for travelling abroad.'

I'm not sure you should be speaking for the OP's deceased father.

The issue is not about the rights and wrongs of travel. People have glitter about the globe the whole time under the guise of 'business need' and I've not seen complaints about that. Going to your father's funeral is a deeply personal choice and it's not for us to comment.

The main concern to me is the way in which private companies are approved by this government to provide such sub-standard quality in return for a huge amount of money. I accept the level of charge needs to be high in a quarantine hotel to discourage travel to and from
red countries. But when you get there you should receive certain minimum standards. The food posted above will have cost no more than about a fiver to produce for the entire day. Access to outdoor space should be properly managed. It's just not acceptable.

*flitted

🙄

That food looks disgusting 🤮

I would literally starve to death as I have to eat v low carb and low sugar for health reasons. That's all just slop and stodge!

So sorry for the loss of your father OP.

If a woman ate nothing for 14 days they'd typically have a calorie deficit of 28,000, and lose 8 lbs. I humbly submit that most women would like to lose 8 lbs. No adult person who entered quarantine in good health and not underweight would starve to death if they ate nothing for 14 days.

It's not racist to say that someone quarantining in Britain should not have to eat Indian food for every single meal for 11 days. I love Indian food, I've spent time in India, but I could not eat that all day every day. Especially breakfast. I never did get used to spicy breakfasts, and surely a carton of cereal and some milk could be available?

The people providing this contract should be offering a variety of foods, and unless OP opted for an Asian menu, I don't believe that what they're offering is acceptable. And that's without getting into the quality.

Even if it was excellent Indian food, it still wouldn't be appropriate to offer it, with no other choice, for every meal. Accusing those who've said that, of racism, is just ridiculous

I was the one suggesting weight loss first on this thread given how many of us are overweight. The NHS Newcastle study reversed diabetes when it put over weight people on 800 cal a day for a period. It would save the NHS if it were done more often. However I did not suggest eating no food at all. you could probably eat the meat from the burger or eat the sardines in tins you brought to the hotel so you do eat something each day but not the awful carb full junk food these expensive prison like hotel stays offer.

@ragged

If a woman ate nothing for 14 days they'd typically have a calorie deficit of 28,000, and lose 8 lbs. I humbly submit that most women would like to lose 8 lbs. No adult person who entered quarantine in good health and not underweight would starve to death if they ate nothing for 14 days.

Who pissed on your chips this morning? It was obviously lighthearted 😂

I wonder what sort of food you'd be given if you are coeliac. In 2005, each time my mother was admitted to hospital, she wouldn't have been able to eat for the first day or two if it hadn't been for my father and I because it took time before the hospital caterers caught up with her needs. Looking at the lunch, a coeliac couldn't eat the sandwich, the crisps or the mars bar without becoming seriously I'll.

*ill

The problem is that the money people like op are paying for should be able to receive the service they are paying for. She should be able to order room service, book a massage (joke of course), consume the mini fridge. The hotels aren't out of business just to accommodate red list passengers and aren't doing any favours for the government. The hotels are making their money from charging over £2k.

Have you tried not eating for 14 days, its painful and dangerous I've starved for five days (stress induced)and I started to hallucinate. Plus paying that amount of money and getting food that is rank is just ridiculous.

pah, what I wrote was quite non-emotive and simply factual, Much more 'light' than the posters expressing fury on this thread. Not pissing on anyone's chips.

I think I'm amused at how fussy people are, that they say that they would literally eat 'nothing' provided.

To make this thread light-hearted, would anyone like to post pictures of foods they would want to be provided during quarantine, can you think of universally acceptable items? Remember it has to come in disposable packaging, this is obviously a condition the Q-hotels believe they need to work in.

I've got suggestions of things I'd personally like here..... sadly, mostly inedible and "disgusting!" in the eyes of my MIL or teenage children. They would "starve" on these rations.

I think I'm amused at how fussy people are, that they say that they would literally eat 'nothing' provided.

Well if I was served curry every day, no, I wouldn't eat it as my stomach can't cope with spicy food. I would expect a choice for that amount of money!

1. Raise a complaint about the food and escalate it to the hotel manager.
2. Record who you spoke with and exactly what each of you said.
3. Keep photographing the food.
4. Emphasise the price you have paid versus the inadequacy of the food quality.
5. Read the "Consumer Rights Act 2015" (which replaced the original "Sale of Goods Act 1979").
6. Note that your rights under the Consumer Rights Act are against the retailer – the company that sold you the product – not the manufacturer, so you must take any claim to the retailer.
7. You must claim within 0 to 30 days to claim a full refund for goods that are of unsatisfactory quality, unfit for purpose or not as described. Note that "quality" takes account of whether the goods are bargain goods or luxury goods. You could argue that paying £2285 for 11 days warrants significantly better quality than what you received. Also, the fact that the price was advertised as £1750, you might be able to argue "not as described" too, if you have evidence to support it, although the price change occurred later.
8. If you claim later than 30 days (and less than 6 months) you must give the retailer one opportunity to repair or replace it before you can claim a refund
9. 6 months or more you must give the retailer one opportunity to repair or replace it before you can claim a partial refund, and the burden of proof is on you to prove the product is faulty.
10. Speak with Citizen's Advice to gain access to legal support.