Hotel quarantine booking site still not working
The new hotel quarantine booking platform is still not working, with the policy due to come into effect on Monday.
Since launching yesterday afternoon the online portal has run into numerous problems.
At the moment, it is not possible to book a room using the platform, which has been down for much of the last 24 hours.
Users trying to book a room are met with the message: “We are sorry, we are unable to proceed with your booking.”
They are given a telephone number to call instead but when one does that, one is told that it is not possible to book at this time.
The platform was meant to be running again at 12, but is still being fixed.
Yesterday it was not possible to book a room in a hotel near any airport but Edinburgh before Wednesday – although the policy comes into effect on Monday.
If one tries to book a room before that at any of the seven other airports included in the scheme – Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Farnborough, Birmingham, Glasgow or Aberdeen – one is met with this message:
“We cannot find any applicable hotels. Please revise criteria and search again”.
It is unclear whether the rooms are sold out or simply not available to book yet.
Earlier a “minor technical glitch” meant that it was not possible to access the booking platform at all.
From Monday, all incoming passengers from 33 “red-list” countries will have to quarantine in hotels for 10 days at a cost of £1,750.
The government is attempting to prevent new variants of the coronavirus being brought into the country from places like Portugal and Brazil.
It has contracted 4,600 rooms across 16 hotels to put in place the policy.
According to the latest figures from Heathrow, 11,000 people passed travelled through the airport from Latin America in January.
Due to fears over the so-called Brazilian variant, many South American countries are on the UK’s red list.
People coming from these countries will be fined up to £10,000 or jailed for up to 10 years if they do not quarantine.