A hotel along the Chao Phraya river bank in Bangkok. Global hotel occupancy rates are way down.
Photo: soe zeya tun/ReutersWith the coronavirus pandemic pummeling global travel, some hotels are employing a new tactic to boost bookings: targeting guests who face lengthy quarantines.
The risky strategy is a reaction to the unprecedented challenge that the world’s hospitality companies now face, with few people traveling and few likely to do so for some time.
Hotel occupancy rates have plummeted as coronavirus infections have spread throughout the world. In Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, where cases started climbing early in the global crisis, occupancy rates have fallen from about 70% or higher in January to as low as 20% this month, according to hotel data tracker STR. Hotels in the U.S. and Europe are now suffering a similar fate, as the pandemic causes widespread shutdowns and travel restrictions across the country.
Conversely, New York City is working with the hospitality industry to possibly convert entire hotels into hospitals for patients without the coronavirus, in an effort to increase capacity at medical facilities.
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With few tourists visiting Hong Kong, where confirmed coronavirus cases reached 208 on Thursday, hotels are now offering special packages for people who need—or want—to quarantine themselves. On Thursday, a new rule took effect requiring all people arriving from abroad to be in quarantine for two weeks. Some individuals who returned to the city in recent days have also opted to self-quarantine and avoid contact with family and friends for a while.
At the Dorsett Wanchai, which describes itself as “a 4.5 star hotel,” a reservations employee said the hotel was receiving dozens of inquiries a day about its 14-day quarantine package. For 9,688 Hong Kong dollars ($1,248), or about $89 per night, guests can book a “Premier Room” with a window that can be opened to let in fresh air, an unusual feature for high-rise hotels in the semiautonomous Chinese city.
“Together we fight the pandemic. Safeguarding our home,” said a recent Chinese-language advertisement for the Dorsett chain that listed 14-day and 27-day package rates for rooms at nine hotels.
The Dorsett Wanchai has designated several floors for quarantined guests, the employee said. Their rooms will be cleaned once a week with disinfectant sprays, with trash bins emptied daily.
Quarantined guests also must undergo temperature checks twice a day to help determine if they might have the virus. They can order meals from an online food delivery service, whose options include Chinese food, pizza, pasta and Indian cuisine. If they prefer to order from other food outlets, the hotel’s concierge will deliver the food to the room, the employee said.
On Wednesday afternoon, three hotel employees were cleaning door handles and windows near its entrance with disinfectant spray. A sign on the check-in desk said guests could get bottles of hand sanitizer refilled.
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Most hotels offering quarantine packages normally cater mostly to tour groups or budget travelers and have seen that business largely disappear, said Gloria Chang, executive director at hospitality consulting firm Horwath HTL in Hong Kong. While the hotels are providing fewer cleaning services to quarantined guests, they run the risk of the virus spreading to other guests, she added.
But some upscale hotels are also getting in on the action. At the Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View Hotel, a staffer greeting visitors at the front desk Thursday said the hotel had recently begun offering 14-day packages for guests needing to be quarantined. Rates begin at about $160 daily before service and taxes, a discount from standard prices. Guests must remain in their rooms but are eligible for discounts on food and laundry services.
The Park Lane Hong Kong hotel is offering a 14-day package for about $1,622 before service and taxes, or about $115 per night. Typical rates are about $165 nightly. A costlier package for $2,525 includes three meals from room service daily. Four or five floors are designated for quarantined guests, according to a reservations employee, adding that the program has been successful.
Some Singapore hotels are also offering sharply reduced rates to those who need to quarantine. At the Fairmont Singapore, where a hotel employee said rates are normally 320 Singapore dollars ($221) plus tax and service per night, rooms are now available for two weeks for as little as $110 plus tax and service daily. All rooms have balconies, and while housekeeping staff cannot enter rooms, fresh towels are left outside the room.
In South Korea, which has seen more than 8,000 coronavirus infections, 11 hotels have volunteered to house confirmed Covid-19 patients that aren’t in critical condition, said a spokesman for the Korea Hotel Association, a local trade group.
A Hyatt hotel Singapore. Some hotels in the city state are offering sharply reduced rates for people under self-quarantine.
Photo: tim chong/ReutersBut the hotels say they will only take the guests if the government pays for most, if not all, of the rooms costs, according to a Korea Hotel Association document reviewed by The Journal.
“If hotels quarantine patients, they will be locked down, and unable to take in other customers, or hold events such as weddings,” said the spokesman. “So I think it’s natural the hotels are asking for that kind of guarantee.”
Seven hotels in Seoul, most of them midrange or lower, have signed up for now. Four hotels outside the capital city have enlisted.
An executive at one of the hotels said his establishment volunteered because it saw the arrangement as a win-win situation. The government can secure space for patients needing quarantining, while hotels can make up for lost revenue that is befalling hotels world-wide. The hotel had experienced an 80% fall in sales, the executive said.
— Andrew Jeong in Seoul contributed to this article.
Write to Newley Purnell at newley.purnell@wsj.com and Frances Yoon at frances.yoon@wsj.com
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