'Shorter Quarantine Means More Work For Hotels'

People who are allowed to leave their hotel quarantine early on Tuesday welcomed the new arrangement, but a hotel manager said the shortened isolation period will add to its administrative and cleaning work.

In addition to slashing the hotel quarantine period from seven days to three from Friday, the government said anyone who arrived in Hong Kong between August 3 and 8 will also be able to leave their hotels after spending at least three nights in isolation, as long as they test negative for the virus.

A man, surnamed Zhou, was among those who left their quarantine hotel early.

"[I am] happy, I can leave early today...What [do] I want to do? I'll go back home to see my family, and then work," he told RTHK.

Another traveller, surnamed Ng, also got out one day early.

"It's more convenient, because I can see my family and friends earlier," he said.

But Raymond Liu, general manager of Metropark Hotel Kowloon, which is currently serving as a designated quarantine hotel, said the shortened isolation period meant more work for its staff.

"Apart from having to [deal with] a large amount of refunds for our customers, in terms of room cleaning, we normally do it once every seven days, and now we have to do it every three days, it would increase our workload. In turn, we would increase our manpower for housekeeping and at the front desk," Liu said.

The hotel manager added that he believes more rooms would become available after the mandatory isolation period is slashed, which would likely bring prices down.