As tourism takes a dive, hotels offer isolation stay

BBMP official says such centres are permissible as long as COVID-19 guidelines are followed

As travel plans have been thrown out of the window due to the second wave of COVID-19, the hospitality industry is offering a different product to cater to the times – isolation packages. Many big hotels, chains and portals are coming up with ‘safe hotels’ that promise stay, meals and medical facilities for those who want isolation facilities. Most of the hotels say they have partnered with hospitals to offer medical care too. MakeMyTrip, for example, is offering ‘Safe Hotels for Isolation’, and has partnered with over 500 hotels. “Most of these hotel stays include meals, and may require a COVID-19-negative test report,” it said on the website. A MakeMyTrip spokesperson told The Hindu that the portal had launched ‘Stays for saviours’ during the first wave of the pandemic in a bid to support temporary accommodation needs of the medical frontline force fighting COVID-19. “We rolled out that initiative in partnership with hotel chains and independent hotels that pitched in to support our healthcare heroes across 26 States and four Union territories. During the second wave, as the healthcare infrastructure deals with the massive surge in cases amid a high infection rate, we have observed the need of individuals or even several family members to go into isolation until they are in the clear,” said the spokesperson. Currently, these hotels are available in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Pune, Jaipur, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Ludhiana, among other places.