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...

Also, I’m of Indian origin but British born and bred. My family in India would have an Indian breakfast like pav Bhaji but I’ve grown up on cereal, toast, etc for breakfast. I like pav bhaji but couldn’t eat it first thing.

I’d expect you to be given this for breakfast in a hotel in India but not in England. I can imagine a lot of people would struggle to eat it in the morning, maybe even eat it at all later if you don’t know what it is. I can’t see why they can’t give cereal, toast, fruit for breakfast in England.

@MauveMagnolia

I don’t agree the price is a rip off, hotel prices have shot back up in the last few weeks. 11 nights at done if the hotels they are using would be more than the fee without the food, transportation and security.

If I booked a hotel and they served up that shit as food I'd be complaining and demanding a refund!

@HalzTangz And yet people swear down that its all about the health. Aside from the fact that the food is dire its not healthy either. You cant toss out crisps and Mars bars one minute and moan about obesity the next.

@catgirl1976

I think isolation is necessary and should be enforced (and people cheating the system coming through green list countries are incredibly selfish) however I am sorry for your loss and think the profiteering is dreadful and outrageous. There is no reason for it to be that expensive or for you to have such poor food and facilities given the cost you have paid.

People are not cheating the system if they spend 10 days in a green list country before coming home. They are just spending 10 days in a place where they don't have to isolate rather than 10 days in a place where they do at huge personal expense. It's only cheating the system if they only spend one day/stopover there and then are allowed back in without isolating as was the case of people coming from America via Ireland I think, but hopefully that has been put a stop to (I'm not sure).

Did you miss the fact that OPs dad had died and she'd had to return home to make funeral arrangements?

If you read all of my post it is clear I did not miss that. She CHOSE to go. She did not say she had to be the one to make funeral arrangements, it's unlikely that was the case. Many of us have been far away when loved ones died and could not go to their funerals due to covid, as I said. It was a choice.

I’m sorry for your loss OP
And I’m sorry for the total shambles
It’s cost me nearly £2000 for my kids to see their dad this summer

I have no words
Get out soon x

TBf @BeauxRingarde
Isn’t wrong, many many people don’t get to be at their loved ones funerals. It is actually not a right in a pandemic as I know personally.

Totally someone’s right to complain about food they don’t like. But complaining about the price of it. Well that’s crazy I think

If I was so desperate that I needed to be somewhere, I would accept that we are in a fucking pandemic and it’s going to be fucking shit.

And it also comes across as racist too.

What I want to know is why aren't politicians and all the insta influencer mob subjected to this?

So about your dad OP and the truly shit hotel they've got you in. Tweet the shit out of it and maybe you can get moved? I personally would leave in your situation, take the chance their record keeping is as woeful as their catering.Then challenge the legality of any fine. I'm all for following the rules and have done throughout, fully vaccinated etc, but enough is enough. You can't treat a grieving person like this. I'm angry on your behalf OP.

Actually looks like some of the better quarantine foods I’ve seen. My husband’s was so bad he had to order deliveroo daily.

Are you the same person who said that it wasn't necessary to go out to get milk, and that you could make tea with butter instead?

They probably aren't making anymore than they would if there was no covid. It costs money to put in place and follow the security and hygiene procedures necessary to make isolation effective
This^
Not only that, but for many hotels where they make a huge amount of money is bar sales/ restaurants and the spa. The room rate is only a part of the picture.

@Sonarl
EYEROLL

So sorry for your loss and to return to this.

@DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo
Did you miss the fact that OPs dad had died and she'd had to return home to make funeral arrangements?

Hardly went for a random holiday, did she.

The fact it's a good reason to travel doesn't mean it's not voluntary. OP would have had to handle her grief in a different way if she hadn't gone, but it needn't have stopped the world turning. If a couple of weeks in a hotel with shitty food was too high a price to pay, she didn't have to go.

The cost of providing more choice and higher quality would raise the price on the room significantly. There are other options if people want to spend more. I think people should be able to opt for a no-food package and just get delivery if they want. But for something put in place relatively quickly whose prime aim is to keep people in the UK alive rather than provide a nice holiday for those staying, it's not at the bad end of contracting that has taken place during covid. (And God knows there are plenty of examples of that).

Gosh, is PurpleVerbena a caricature of the intolerant Englishman/women.

Personally we rarely eat traditional British grub. None of that looks like a good example of International cuisine though.

[quote PurpleVerbena]@DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo - it means no chinese, no indian, no thai, no japanese, no italian - just normal 'English' food, such as roasts, cottage pie, fish pie, grilled fish, lots of puddings, scones, crumpets, etc.[/quote]
That sounds awful

@Suppermumzy

Dinner

Have you asked for some specific diet requirement ?

@BeauxRingarde

Did you miss the fact that OPs dad had died and she'd had to return home to make funeral arrangements?

If you read all of my post it is clear I did not miss that. She CHOSE to go. She did not say she had to be the one to make funeral arrangements, it's unlikely that was the case. Many of us have been far away when loved ones died and could not go to their funerals due to covid, as I said. It was a choice.

I agree.

I can’t believe people are defending the price. Are you in central London? The food looks appalling, not a fresh fruit or veg to be had all day? Did you order an Indian food option? I can’t say I’d want to eat curry for breakfast and dinner whilst trapped in one room for days on end! If you’re forcing people to stay in these places I do think there should be a choice of plain food and international dishes and fulfilling nutritional requirements.

I thought they'd give you like hotel room service or something. Not a microwave meal.

I have been against all lockdown measures since 2020 an would rather my risk of death were 1000x . However most of the Uk supports them so there we are.

A solicitors has started a case by a man (Indian?) who was locked in one of these quarantine prison hotels. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58180307

If I were in one I would order take out food/veg every day and not accept a single bit of this junk food.

The food a gross. Mars bars shouldn’t be allowed ever full stop. However, voluntary travel in a global pandemic is going to be bad. Can you get a delivery so you have something better to eat?

@FreshFreesias

It is an appalling and unnecessary infringement of your liberties but you won’t get any support from the putative Covid Marshalls on here, I’m afraid.

This…am shocked at the disgusting replies! Wonder how many people commenting are recently bereaved and in a hotel eating shit ! Anyone who thinks that is ok need to seriously try and imagine how they would cope! In England you can actually go and do a supermarket shop if you have another householder with Covid if fully vaccinated…am actually really bewildered that people have become so uncaring for other human beings 😌

So sorry, and angry this has happened to you. This enforced imprisonment thing has tipped me over the edge: you can go on a completely unnecessary jolly to Spain and isolate at home, but people who have to travel for family reasons to the red list countries are being punished. It's heartbreaking. A person with a positive test ie ACTUAL FUCKING COVID is trusted to stay at hone but you have presumably been tested negative and you are holed up in a jail living on slop and paying for the privilege. Who is making money out of this?
My daughter has not seen her dad for 2 years because of the pandemic and now this. He arrives on Friday, he has spent 10 days in Dubai which is on the amber list so he can self isolate here. It has cost him a fraction of the price, and he can move about in Dubai doing whatever he wants.

Did you say you work for the NhS too? So sorry, I hope you and your family are Ok and fgs please please can we get rid of this self serving idiot rulers

Send those pictures to the solicitor Xenia mentioned OP.

What happens if someone has a medical emergency?