Stalag Heathrow: The bleak airport hotels set to become home for Brits returning from quarantine

Hotels near Heathrow Airport will take at least three weeks to be ready to host travellers arriving to the UK who have to quarantine, MailOnline has learned.

The Cabinet coronavirus operations committee is today finalising an Australian-style hotel quarantine system that will cost up to £1,500 for ten days’ self-isolation with meals served to their room and supervised by security.

But as Boris Johnson prepares to sign off the new tighter border controls, a manager at The Holiday Inn on the M4 near Heathrow warned: ‘I’ve heard it’s about a three week turnaround to convert them to quarantine centres.’

As the Holiday Inn boss told MailOnline some hotels would not be ready to accommodate guests until the middle of next month, a number of hotels along the A4 Bath Road leading up to the airport remained open and ready to take guests, but staff appeared unaware of the government’s plans.

Next to the airport, the Ibis Hotel already has two guests paying £44-an-night to self-isolate after travelling back to England from abroad.

From the outside, the hotel resembles a 1980s office block and the 356 rooms are basic and mostly small containing a Television, a wooden writing desk and bed.

A manager at the hotel said: ‘Guests are required to remain in their rooms at all times and must not leave while in self-isolation. We provide room service and have staff on 24-hours if they are needed.

‘The rooms are £44-a-night but that doesn’t include meals. If people want to quarantine here for ten days it’s going to cost about £500.

‘We have at least two guests staying with us at the moment who have themselves decided to self-isolate after flying back from other countries.

‘Whether this hotel will be included in an official list of quarantine hotels, I can’t say at the moment as I don’t have that information.’

Along the A4 Bath Road leading to the airport, the Radisson Blu is open to key workers and travellers from abroad as is the London Heathrow Marriott.

The Holiday Inn is a building site as it is currently being converted into a Best Western. The Premier Inn is currently shut. The Renaissance Hotel is open to flight crews and key workers.

The Novotel is open to key workers only but staff said they have no knowledge on quarantine plans. The Crown Plaza on the M4 is closed now to public and is being used as an immigration centre.

During the first lockdown last year, the Holiday Inn Heathrow Ariel was used as a quarantine centre for passengers entering England.

The circular hotel, just off the busy duel carriageway and underneath the thundering Heathrow flight path has seen better days and is now building site.

White panelling on the outside of the building is gaudy and the brickwork looks tired and faded but it is currently being renovated inside to re-open soon as a Best Western Hotel.

Rob Paterson, chief executive of Best Western Hotels, today revealed his hotels would be well-prepared for the expected new quarantine policy.

He said that some sites already have Covid infection controls in place because they have been used to host ‘step-down’ patients who complete their recovery in hotels to free up hospital beds.

Mr Paterson told BBC Breakfast quarantining customers would like to see reduced prices, a contact arrival process, CCTV and security to stop people leaving and meals delivered three times a day outside the door – along with clean linen and towels.

MailOnline visited the new Heathrow Best Western hotel today but a security guard, hidden beyond seven foot wooden boards surrounding the site, refused to be drawn on plans for a quarantine centre and said simply they were currently closed because of redevelopment work.

He said: ‘Will this hotel be a quarantine hotel? I don’t know, I can’t tell you. All I know is that at the moment, it’s closed and being redeveloped. It will re-open again soon as a Best Western Hotel.

Guests staying at the nearby Sheraton Skyline Hotel can pre-book ‘quarantine packages’ but at a cost of £110-a-night.

The hotel is currently being used by airline staff, one of whom told MailOnline: ‘I don’t really think too much of the service here to be honest, some of it leaves a lot to be desired.’

A receptionist said: ‘The rooms are £110-a-night but have to be pre-booked on our website. As to any official requests made by the Government for opening up our rooms solely for quarantining passengers, I don’t think we’ve heard anything yet.’

It was the same story next door at the Marriott Hotel, where a manager said: ‘The list of hotels requested to be used to quarantine people travelling back home from abroad has not yet been decided.

‘We expect more Information to be released either later today or tomorrow.

The Renaissance Hotel across the road, meanwhile, is currently open to key workers, mainly flight crew from airlines using Heathrow, but is very quiet.

A member of staff said: ‘We are expecting news on which hotels will be used as quarantine centres in the next few days, maybe as early as tomorrow, but at the moment we’re in the dark and haven’t been told anything.’

The Radisson Blu hotel say they have no plans to become a quarantine hotel while a large Premier Inn further along the Bath Road A4 is currently closed with notices on the reception door saying the decision is in line with the Government’s guidance on Covid-19. Snow and ice still coat the pavement outside the hotel.

A Courtyard by Marriott hotel nearby has also been shut down. A lone security guard who came to the door said: ‘I don’t know when it’s going to re-open – maybe next month or March?’

It comes as ministers continue to hammer out the details of plans for ‘quarantine hotels’ for travellers arriving in the UK today amid warnings that they would bankrupt the UK’s travel industry and ruin the summer plans of millions of Britons.

British holidaymakers have cancelled their 2021 summer breaks abroad and European beaches are empty today ahead of an expected decision tonight to introduce an Australian-style system that would see them locked up on their return.   

Mr Johnson is expected to sign off on plans this evening to divert travellers entering the UK from high-risk Covid countries into hotels to stop new mutant strains of coronavirus like the ones from Brazil and South Africa entering the UK. But a decision on whether to expand the plan to those coming from other countries would be delayed.

The PM wants to force travellers entering the UK into quarantine hotels for 10 days where guests will change the sheets, empty the bins and be fed airline-style food three times a day while paying £1,500 for the privilege.  

But there are grave concerns that the scheme will have no fixed end date – causing havoc for businesses – and may take weeks to set up.

Amid fury from the industry and consumers, a government source told MailOnline the decisions on the plan will ‘go down to the wire’, adding: ‘The meeting will be where the decision is taken. It’s not just rubber stamping.’ 

They also cautioned that some of those coming in might not be able to pay for their own hotel stay, and there might need to be means-tested support. 

‘There’s a problem with Brits with not a lot of money … you can see it coming like a slow motion steamroller.’

It came as Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was ‘too early’ to book a summer holiday abroad – but some anxious Britons took to social media to admit the warning came too late, with some having bought flights for as early as the half-term holidays in mid-February. 

Paul Charles, chief executive of travel company The PC Agency, said: ‘This is destroying confidence among holidaymakers. People are not booking summer holidays because they don’t believe there is an end game which will see these blanket measures removed. 

‘This is a sure-fire way of destroying Britain’s aviation and travel industries. The Government needs to signal that they will withdraw the hotel quarantine rules by the end of March and return to a system of quarantining arrivals from high-risk areas only.’

In a joint statement, the Airport Operators Association and Airlines UK insisted the country already has ‘some of the highest levels of restrictions in the world’ and that introducing tougher rules would be ‘catastrophic’. ABTA has urged all its travel agent members to lobby MPs in a bid to convince Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to agree a multi-billion pound cash bailout for the industry.

A small number of Britons say they are now stuck in Spain and the Canary Islands, where the usually bustling beaches and promenades were largely deserted, as experts fear Mr Johnson’s quarantine plan could bankrupt Britain’s already ailing tourism industry. 

And photographs from some of Europe’s most popular resorts, including Benidorm, show its beaches are deserted with bar and restaurant owners telling MailOnline they will go bust if the Brits don’t visit this year.

Stuey Lee Lewis, 70, owner of the Geordie Bar Tat in Benidorm’s Rincon area, said: ‘Things are really bad. We had locals in but we can’t survive on locals, we need the Brits. I know they’re missing our home-cooked chips, a cold beer and our sun terrace’. Expat Terence Burgess, 74, told MailOnline: ‘I was in Benidorm last week and there wasn’t a soul about. It was very sad to see. I went to my favourite karaoke bar to sing and I was the only one in there’.

The quarantine measures will lead to a slew of cancellations and people will not book summer breaks in yet another economic hammer blow to holiday firms and airlines, particularly if, as feared, the travel restrictions stretch into the peak season. Industry leaders have called for a better sector-specific bailout package from the Chancellor.   

But the Prime Minister last night said he wanted ‘maximum possible protection against reinfection from abroad’ to prevent new coronavirus variants jeopardising the vaccination programme. At a meeting of the Covid-O committee at 6pm this evening, Cabinet ministers will consider making it compulsory for all travellers to quarantine at hotels, regardless of their nationality and where they come from. A formal announcement on the agreed scheme may not come until tomorrow. 

One government source told MailOnline the decisions on the detail will ‘go down to the wire’. The meeting will be where the decision is taken. It’s not just rubber stamping.’

They also cautioned that some of those coming in might not be able to pay for their own hotel stay, and there might need to be means-tested support. ‘There’s a problem with Brits with not a lot of money… You can see it coming like a slow motion steamroller,’ the source said. 

British travellers arriving back from South Africa and Brazil will be the first forced to quarantine in airport hotels. Boris Johnson will today sign off on plans to toughen border controls by putting new arrivals into isolation.   

Passengers arriving into Heathrow Airport have faced chaos for days as they were forced to queue for hours to get through passport control. Pictures of crowds at passport control have become common, raising fears that the lack of social distancing could easily spread Covid.