Quarantine hotels: Returning Brits struggle to book

Some UK residents trying to return from South Africa are still struggling to find quarantine hotel rooms on the day their flights arrive, more than a week after it went on the red list.

Others who managed to book called the system "appalling".

People returning from red list countries must pay for 10 days at an approved hotel.

The government has acknowledged problems, but said availability is being rapidly increased.

Nic Bowler is trying to arrange Covid quarantine hotel provision for his family of four. They were meant to fly back into the UK on 4 December.

"Eventually, on 2 December, on one of my many calls to [the booking company] CTM, they told me there is no availability until at least after the 10th."

The family now has a flight scheduled for 11 December. But they don't yet know if rooms will be available.

As they required a family room, they were asked to fill in a separate form rather than book through the general website.

Nic says: "I then followed up with a call and asked them to confirm the booking. They said I'd only get a confirmation 48 hours prior to hotel check-in."

With Christmas approaching, he isn't sure what to do if that confirmation doesn't come through. "If they come back and say no room, you are then having to reschedule flights for some seemingly random date in the future."

For now, his family is using their savings to fund their extended stay in South Africa.

"We are trying to do remote schooling with our kids, and I am trying to work full-time as my salary is our sole income now that my wife is effectively on unpaid leave.

"I think quarantine costs will cost roughly £4,500, but other costs have mounted up to £6,000 so far and will continue depending on how long we are stuck here."

The hotel quarantine system had been mostly wound down when there were no countries on the red list. It has now had to be reactivated quickly.

On Monday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told the House of Commons: "I know that there's been a spike in demand for these facilities, due to the rapid expansion of the red list, and that some people have experienced issues returning home.

"However, we are ramping up this capacity as quickly as possible.

"We've already bought several new hotels on board in the past few days and we expect to double the number of rooms that are available this week."

Lauren Hopkins travelled to South Africa for a holiday with her partner. It was added to the red list while they were there.

They spent a week trying in vain to secure a hotel quarantine room for their return.

They found a new flight home from Johannesburg to the UK just after 06:30 on Monday morning. The couple decided to take a chance and head for the airport, despite knowing boarding the plane would not be permitted without a quarantine booking.

They arrived early, logged on to their laptops and finally found an available room. Lauren thought they'd had a long-awaited stroke of luck.

After landing at Heathrow, they were bussed from the airport to the hotel. However, there was a problem.

"The gentleman went in with our passports, then came back and said the hotel in fact wasn't ready for anyone today, so has cancelled today's stay. Well, obviously we have to quarantine the day we get back."

Lauren and her partner then spent hours stuck on the bus waiting for alternative provision.

After seven hours on board, she told the BBC: "I'm so exhausted. I've never felt stress, anxiety like I have the past few days. In terms of the way it's been handled? Disgraceful. It's appalling, absolutely appalling."

It wasn't until that evening that they finally checked in to a quarantine hotel.

Caroline Debansi says she feels "stranded and seemingly abandoned" in Cape Town.

She and two others had planned to return to the UK on 29 November, but could not because all flights were temporarily suspended.

They booked another flight for 8 December and tried to find rooms for quarantine.

"We tried to book through the website, but our group wanted to have interconnecting doors because of medical issues. So we had to phone."

She says the process has been confusing. "We've made dozens of phone calls. In the process of asking, the line's being cut off or is very crackly. "

With just a day's notice, she was told there would be no availability on 8 December. The group then tried booking flights for two days later.

"We finally got available rooms which we paid with two separate payments, only for both payments to be declined by the banks and the bookings to be cancelled. "

With her phone bill and day-to-day living costs increasing, she is anxiously waiting to find out when she'll finally be able to get home.