ROUGH LANDING
Frustrated travellers face long waits, uncertain costs as new booking system for hotel quarantines is swamped
Twelve hours before his flight was to leave Monday, Ivan Basurto was on the phone, trying to book a hotel room in Canada — again.
He expected that it would cost him as much as $2,000 more than he’d bargained for when he first decided to come to Canada for college. But since the penalty for non-compliant travellers under Canada’s Quarantine Act is $3,000, the 26-year-old student from Tijuana, Mexico, wasn’t taking any chances.
“It is quite stressful, mostly because of not wanting to be fined,” Basurto wrote to the Star while he waited on hold on the same government hotline he’d been calling since Friday, trying to secure the hotel accommodation that is now mandatory for travellers entering Canada due to enhanced COVID-19 restrictions.
“It will be (an issue for me) if only the most expensive hotels are available,” he wrote. “I’ll have to scratch pockets and try to comply, but only if it’s the last resort.”
This was the story of Canada’s first day under new COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Travellers — many of them trying to comply, as Basurto was — found themselves frustrated by a swamped booking system that seemed almost unwilling to take the hundreds or thousands of dollars they were ready to hand over.
Under rules that came into effect Monday, those looking to enter Canada by air must book a three-day stay at one of 18 authorized hotels in Calgary, Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver while they await the results of a COVID-19 test.
Canadians entering through land borders, meanwhile, need to take a test upon arrival, in addition to providing a negative test result from the 72-hour period before getting to Canada — but they can quarantine at home or at an accommodation of their choosing.
The difference in rules has created a loophole whereby Canadians can fly to a U.S. destination close to the Canadian border and drive into this country, skipping the compulsory hotel stay for international air travellers.
But air travellers need to call either a toll-free or collect number to book their accommodations. There’s no online booking system in place.
Of the six Toronto airport hotels approved by the government for quarantine — Alt Hotel Pearson Airport, Fairfield Inn & Suites Toronto Airport, Four Points by Sheraton, Holiday Inn Toronto Pearson International Airport, Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Toronto Pearson International Airport and Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre — five had busy signals when directly phoned by the Star. The sixth, Fairfield Inn & Suites, said it was fully booked for quarantining guests but that, despite this, check-in and meal service was going smoothly so far.
That wasn’t the case on the government hotlines for those looking to book.
Passengers arriving at Pearson airport could be seen talking on cellphones as they lined up for screening by public health workers.
Yuchen Ge, who was flying to Toronto via London to begin a new job next month, described waiting on hold for hours, only to be disconnected before she could speak to someone.
Ge said that since Friday her call had been disconnected after three hours each time she tried to reach an agent. After searching online, Ge found that others had reported the same issue.
Shortly after speaking to the Star, Ge confirmed her call was connected to an agent and she was able to book a hotel stay for $329 per night. (Its rooms were being offered on its website on Monday for rates starting at $129.) In total, Ge said, she waited 15⁄ hours to speak to a representative 1
2 that could help.
Ge was communicating with a group of 77 others who were trying to return to Canada. Only two of those people had successfully booked their hotel stay, she said.
The Public Health Agency of Canada blames extensive wait times on travellers who were not set to re-enter the country until March or April. In a statement Monday, PHA said the booking line, operated by “Canada’s hotel community” and American Express Global Business Travel “is receiving a high volume of enquiries, creating long wait times for callers. Call numbers have been decreasing each day since it began on February 19.
“We are working with GBT, Canada’s hotel community and our federal government partners to mitigate caller wait times and support the people who are arriving in Canada in the new few days who need to book a hotel room.”
PHAC said travellers planning to travel in the future should not contact the hotline; travellers who were not able to connect with an agent will be assisted at the airport by PHAC officials, the statement said.
The federal government has estimated the three-day quarantine will run $2,000 per person, including the room, meals, security, transportation and infection-prevention measures. That was the dollar figure Trudeau cited late last month, when he announced the mandatory quarantine.
On Friday, when the list of approved quarantine hotels was released, it became clear that the cost would be a lot less than that for at least some of the hotels.
In Toronto, at least three of the hotels will cost less than $350 per night for a single person, according to hotel staff reached by The Canadian Press and the Star.
“The hotels are doing the billing directly and different hotels will have different rates,” Health Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters Friday. “The hotels are setting the price based on their own deliberations on their own expenses.”
At Pearson airport, long lines snaked around Terminal 1 arrivals as travellers waited to be tested for COVID-19. Passengers then lined up single-file to board transportation that would take them to their hotels.
Mohamed Ali, who arrived at Pearson to meet his wife, Fatim, and their 14-month-old baby, told reporters he found his family in tears when he met them at arrivals.
Fatim was initially refused a test and given a yellow sticker for her passport to denote that she had no hotel booking.
“They say if she does not get a reservation for the hotel, they will not test her. How can she have a reservation? She has no credit card number,” Mohamed said. After he arrived, Fatim was finally offered a COVID-19 swab, he said.
Mohamed said his family was scolded by employees at the airport and told they “shouldn’t be travelling in a pandemic.” Fatim left Canada in early February to be with her ailing mother in Sudan and her sister, whose husband had recently suffered a bad accident.
It’s fear of that kind of experience had travellers such as Basurto on their guard to make sure they follow the rules as closely as possible.
Prior to the announcement of mandatory hotel quarantine, he had already booked an Airbnb for $1,700, so that he has a place to quarantine separate from the friend he will eventually live with in London, Ont., as he attends Fanshawe College. He also moved his flight earlier so that he could do the hotel quarantine before his Airbnb booking begins.
“I can’t delay my flight any longer,” he wrote. “My last hope is someone picks up my call.”