News: Norwegian plans 142 weekly UK flights, get 25x Nectar points with Europcar car rentals

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• Chrisasaurus says:

  14 Aug14 August 08:44

  My £35 booking at the T5 premier inn still seems the better choice…

• tony says:

  14 Aug14 August 09:33

  Just to reiterate what others have said. It’s a small sofa bed. They will also (or at least have done in the past) add a roll away – there’s plenty of room – but if you’ve got a couple of teenagers with you, this isn’t likely to work.

• PM says:

  14 Aug14 August 09:41

  Guests (prisoners) held in quarantine hotels, harassed by security guards, fed low quality food and stressed due to lack of meaningful daily activities and reduced living space, cause – out of boredom or rage – so called microdamages to rooms.

  These are things like pushing items down the toilets to cause blockages, removing parts in shower heads, damaging cables by repeatedly twisting them, disabling certain digits on safety deposit boxes, tearing upholstery on edges, peeling wall papers in less obvious locations, hiding items of food inside sofas or beds etc.

  Some of these microdamages would normally get spotted by housekeeping or maintenance in normal times but due to covid risks staff spend minimum amount of time in rooms and since it is not a repetitive business model there is no push for meeting standards or ensuring product quality. Staff from customer experience or guest relations do not visit these rooms at all.

  Even if damages are discovered it is impossible to get any money from guests to cover them as it is impossible to prove they had caused them and legal route is costly and without any guarantee of success. Since the government scheme needs to continue rolling substandard rooms just keep on getting used.

  I would advise against booking any rooms at any hotels used as quarantine ones unless they are fully refurbished after they leave the programme or they are so basic and so cheap that microdamages do not really matter.

  • John says:

    14 Aug14 August 09:50

    Pretty much every hotel I have ever stayed in has had “microdamages” unless I was actually the first guest ever to stay in that room (and in that case I found evidence of shortcuts taken by the builders – that was a £150/night place)

    Not sure anyone is paid enough to inspect every single thing in a room unless a head of state etc. is going to stay there

    • Rob says:

      14 Aug14 August 10:43

      Crowne Plaza Sheffield had a massive hole in the plasterboard wall of the room I had last week 🙂

      • Doug M says:

        14 Aug14 August 11:00

        Was it that full the the were down to the less desirable rooms, or is that a new feature of ‘Upscale’ brands?
        Regardless how do you pretend you’re an upscale hotel and put someone in a room with a hole in the wall.

        • Chrisasaurus says:

          14 Aug14 August 17:45

          Coming to a Moxy near you…

    • PM says:

      14 Aug14 August 11:14

      The only difference in this case is that these damages are not just wear and tear but deliberately caused issues in form of cleverly hidden “revenge” damages.

    • meta says:

      14 Aug14 August 13:19

      Even at £1k+ hotel rooms, I can easily spot where builders cut corners…

  • Doug M says:

    14 Aug14 August 10:26

    I’d wondered about the ongoing negative effect of being a quarantine hotel. without a great deal of logic I could never think of a hotel as being genuinely 4* or 5* if it had previously been a Q hotel. Need a night at LHR, Premier Inn for £60 or the former Q hotel Sofitel for £200, no doubt it’d be the Prem Inn.

    • Mike says:

      14 Aug14 August 21:41

      Yup I am with you on that one – I don’t fancy a grungy ex quarantine hotel !

• Doug M says:

  14 Aug14 August 10:20

  Europcar discount was real for me. Just rebooked and received a genuine 15% off the previous rate, plus of course the Avios. So used to these offers just meaning higher initial price so (alleged) discount is meaningless. Cheers HfP.

• Bill says:

  14 Aug14 August 10:51

  A list of quarantine hotels would be welcome. Having seen the hmp Mercure Heathrow I would like to know what to avoid

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    14 Aug14 August 17:37

    BW Ariel is, Sofitel is, I assume the Renaissance is since it’s been full every time I’ve tried and has a lot of folks in high vis standing in the largely empty car park when’re I go past.

    Thistle has been closed for months but don’t know if quarantine?

    • Dubious says:

      15 Aug15 August 03:36

      I would hate to be stuck in that Thistle for 2 weeks! What a view you’d have! (at least some of the other hotels have something of a horizon).

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    14 Aug14 August 17:38

    Radisson Blu is too I read on here?

  • Mike says:

    14 Aug14 August 19:11

    Bill – ditto, I would like to see a list of all hotels and see for Covid quarantine in order I can avoid for 6 months or so . I am not dashing in to stay in a hotel room that has recently been used for quarantine purposes when it wasn’t designed to be used for such purposes

• Barnaby100 says:

  14 Aug14 August 21:31

  200+ cancelled and refunded flights
  msng bang more hotel rooms

  Only 1 that did not refund due to Cv19 was T5 Sofitel

  • Barnaby100 says:

    14 Aug14 August 21:32

    Or even many many more hotel rooms
    Need a spellcheck and edit function

• EwanG says:

  14 Aug14 August 22:11

  Europcar offer will stack with on card offers. I currently have 10% back offer (ends in 2 days, max £30 back) on MBNA and 6% money back on Virgin card (wys £170+, 1% otherwise)

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