Guests going hungry at £1,750pp Covid quarantine hotel – claim
AWELSH woman claims a quarantine hotel left its guests with inadequate food during a 10day stay costing £1,750 per person.
Lucy Stone has been staying in a quarantine hotel in London after she was evacuated from Nepal and separated from her husband.
The 34-year-old arrived at the Park Plaza hotel, based in Waterloo, on May 29 after a number of military dependants and army personnel were told to leave Nepal as it entered the red list in Wales and England.
Lucy, from Pontypridd, had to leave behind her husband who is part of the British Gurkhas in Nepal because coronavirus infection rates are so high in the country.
Direct flights to and from Nepal have been banned and those leaving the country must quarantine for 10 days.
Although things started off well, said Lucy, the situation began to decline as more people arrived.
“We think issues started at this hotel because it’s at high capacity – 1,400 people. It was relaxing at first and our portion sizes were good, but after a few days we started having some issues and believe it’s because more people needed to be catered for,” she said.
“The issue is largely to do with food – they deliver food to us three times a day, but sometimes the food isn’t here on time or isn’t arriving at all. Some people don’t get their lunch delivered until 4.30pm some days and I got my dinner delivered at 10pm the other night.
“I didn’t think it was going to arrive at all, which is not ideal when you had lunch at 1.15pm.”
Mrs Stone is a vegetarian and said sometimes her meals, as well as the meals of other vegetarians at the hotel, arrive with meat in.
She said there are no vegan options and a child with a gluten intolerance was initially only able to eat fruit.
“A lot of us are seeing food as something that breaks up the day and when it doesn’t arrive it throws you off a little bit,” she said.
“It has been particularly difficult for those here with children. With the portion sizes as they are now, it’s as though we’re getting less food as it’s shared out with more people.
“Breakfast is supposed to come between 8am and 10.30am, but we’ve had it where some of the wives are waiting until lunch for that to arrive.
“Some of them are here with children so they’ve been getting up early at around 6am and then don’t have food until lunchtime.
“One woman’s nine-year-old son is unable to eat gluten and the only food he could eat at the hotel was fruit, so she had to order food out of her own
pocket. After she complained, they provided her son with with a glutenfree lunch, which was bread with a bottle of water.”
Lucy explained that it costs about £1,750 per person to stay at the hotel for 10 days, then more if they have children.
However, because they are military dependants the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is paying for it.
The money is supposed to provide beds, three meals a day and bottled water and any other essentials needed.
Lucy said many in her situation expected the process to run smoothly and to provide them comfort while they missed their partners in Nepal.
She said she has no issues with the hotel itself and that she was grateful to have “amazing” support from the MoD, but what either can offer is restricted by the managed quarantine system in place.
She said: “The army provided laptops for all the children, as well as colouring packs so they could carry on with home working. However, the hotel will not deliver them to the rooms because it is against quarantine policy, even though you can order a takeaway pizza.
“Many of the wives, especially the ones with children, are feeling quite desperate at this point. They don’t have anything to keep them occupied apart from the TV and you don’t want your children watching TV all day long.”
Lucy said that although the lack of food is causing everyone at the hotel the most upset, their situation has been exacerbated by the limited time they are allowed to spend outside.
She said: “My room is quite large, I have a double bed to myself, but we are only allowed to spend 15 minutes a day outside.
“There’s no greenery outside as we are confined to the terrace and we can’t move about much as we need to stay apart. There have been issues with some of us not going out at all some days. It would be nicer if we could spend a little bit longer outside or maybe to be able to get out more than once a day.
“Some of the women have said they think they’d be treated better in a prison. There are security staff sat outside every other door.”
With the situation as it is, Lucy said it means she and the other wives have a lot of time to themselves, making it even harder to be apart from their loved ones.
She said they are able to keep in contact with their husbands through messaging apps such as Whatsapp,
but they have no idea when they will be able to see them next – it depends on the infection rates coming down in Nepal.
Yesterday, Nepal resumed its stalled Covid vaccination campaign after one e million doses were e donated by China.
Lucy said she, as s well as others at the e hotel, tested negative e for coronavirus for the e second time on June 6 and it is highly likely y they will be allowed to leave today.
Lucy will be going to Pontypridd with her family, while others will be staying at a military base until they are allowed back to Nepal.
Luckily for Lucy, her husband is due to finish his threeyear post in Nepal around July.
She said: “The state of the virus is very bad out there – the border with India is open, so it’s spread there.
“We think a lot of the military personnel have had their vaccines which is something to be grateful for, but I think in general we’re worrying because we don’t know if things like riots might start.
“There is no furlough scheme out there and a lot of shops and businesses are shut down so people are in desperate situation. We’ve left [our husbands] in a country that’s s struggling to cope with coronavirus and th they are going to have an active role in trying to help that country de deal with the virus. “It’s like we’ve been rip ripped out of our ho home, put on a flight an and then sent to this ho hotel where we tho thought we’d be able to qu quarantine and relax. ““We completely und understand why we’re her here and want to follow the rules, but since we’ we’ve been here we’ve had issues every day as wel well as worrying about family at home and our husbands in Nepal – others are worried about their children.
“There are things that could have made things a lot easier for us.”
The UK Department of Health and Social Care and Park Plaza were approached for comment.