When I booked my flight from Australia to Germany in July, I knew already that I would probably have to go through mandatory hotel quarantine on the way back. Every incoming traveller has to go through this procedure in the state of Western Australia. Other Australian states, such as New South Wales, have terminated hotel quarantine as of today, 1st November, and opened their borders at last. In Western Australia, timelines for opening will be revealed when 80%* vaccination rate has been reached. In this post, I’m going to share my experience with the hotel quarantine system.
*Note: This figure has been revised to 90% as per 5/11/2021.
What is hotel quarantine and how does it work?
The hotel quarantine system has been put into place to deal with the risk of returning travellers bringing COVID into our case-free bubble of Western Australia. Entire hotels were turned into quarantine centres. Hotel quarantine was initially paid for by the government, but as of 17 July 2020, returning travellers must pay for their own quarantine. In my case, I was informed that the cost will be 120 AUD per night for the room plus 60 AUD per day for food. Upon check-in, returning travellers must stay in their room for at least 14 days, during which COVID tests will be administered on day 1, day 5 and day 13 of quarantine. If these tests are negative, the traveller can check-out on day 14 of the quarantine period. During these times, food and other items are delivered by hotel staff to the room door, upon which they call and let you know that the food is outside. Then you have to wear a mask to go to the door and take the items in. In addition to these notification calls, reception calls in every other day to ask if you need any housekeeping items, the medical teams call every few days to check on you and the food and beverage team calls in daily to take your food orders. Items from home can be delivered to the hotel reception, who make sure to bring it up to the room. Alcohol, tobacco, and sharp items are strictly not allowed – but it’s possible to order a limited amount of alcohol with dinner.
Preparing for hotel quarantine
I didn’t do any research on hotel quarantine beforehand, for one because I didn’t have the time, and also because I knew this was something I had to go through anyway, so I decided to just take it as it comes. I also decided to treat my quarantine period as a bit of a “retreat”, which in hindsight, helped me tremendously. Since I’d made the conscious decision to fly home despite all the risks, the costs and the fact that I had to quarantine, I felt obliged to try my hardest to make the most out of it. Also, the last few years had been so busy that I constantly felt like had too little time for myself and to relax – and I felt this period, especially since I was also on extended leave from my job, was the perfect time to make up for that. The only thing that did worry me is that just before flying back to Perth, I’d learnt that I probably wouldn’t even be able to open a window. I was worried about that because I have asthma and that usually gets triggered in dry air (e.g. from air conditioning etc.).
Arriving in hotel quarantine in Perth
Upon landing at the ghost town that Perth airport is nowadays, our group of less than twenty people from the flight was directed to the controls that incoming travellers have to pass these days. In addition to the usual border controls for passports and customs, WA police is checking if one has filled in the G2G pass required to enter WA. This pass must be lodged prior to departure, as if it’s rejected, you can’t travel. Police explained to me that I’d be quarantining in the Novotel in the CBD and ran through the quarantine procedures with me. Then we were led to a health checkpoint and to a holding area where we sat, masks on, in respectable distance from each other, waiting to be shuttled over to the hotel. I briefly spoke to a Dutch lady with Australian passport who hadn’t seen her son in two years and was now going through two weeks of quarantine so she could visit him for three weeks after. I also saw a family with three small kids going into quarantine, and I really felt for them.
When the bus arrived, it did feel a little like a prisoner transport as we were shuttled to the hotel. All of us were sitting in the bus with masks on, whereas in the world outside, no one was wearing a mask and people were just enjoying the sunshine. Upon check-in, we were given our room number and a snack pack to tick us over until dinner.
I admit that I had a little cry when I entered my room, because the reality that I’d be stuck in here for at least two weeks really hit me then, and I indeed wasn’t able to open a window (there are simply no windows that can be opened in this hotel). I also found that even though I was the only visitor, I had two double beds in my room, which meant that there was very little space for moving about and exercising. When speaking to reception about that, I was told that all rooms were allocated by the government, and nothing could be removed from the room. This meant that I couldn’t change rooms or get rid of one bed. I just had to make do. I was told by a nurse from the medical team, upon explain my concerns about my asthma, that I’d be able to purchase or bring in an air purifier or air cleaner, however air humidifiers were not allowed. I did end up getting an air purifier but it just seemed to aggravate my asthma even more, so I stopped using it after two attempts.
The first days in hotel quarantine
I’d arrived on a Friday, so I took the weekend to slouch, sleep off my jet lag, read and catch up with people. On Friday and Saturday, food was pre-selected; afterwards I was able to choose from two options daily per meal. Food is usually delivered at around 7-7:30 am (breakfast), noon (lunch) and 6 pm (dinner), and every time food had been placed in front of the door, the restaurant called me to let me know. I was pleasantly surprised by the food. It was very fresh and tasty, plus there were lots of healthy options (two for each meal) and the portions were more than sufficient for me.
However, that early morning breakfast situation didn’t sit well with me. If I’m stuck in quarantine with nothing to do, the least I want is sleep in. Thankfully, after a couple of days of struggling with the early phone call, I just asked the food and beverage team what could be done about the situation. They agreed to deliver breakfast last to my room as well as not to call me in the morning. I made sure to order the continental breakfast option (cereal, boiled egg, brioche bun, piece of fruit and juice) or other cold breakfast options so that it didn’t matter if the food sat in front of my door for an hour before it was taken in. I also asked them to bring my lunch as close as possible towards 1 pm, because with my late breakfasts, I wouldn’t be hungry at noon. This schedule worked well most days.
On Sunday, I put together an entire list of items for my partner Liam to drop off at the hotel for me, including more slouchy clothes, my guitar, sports gear, a paint by numbers painting that I had been working on since December last year, and a plate and a bowl (as the hotel only provides cutlery and the food is delivered in plastic containers). I also decorated my room a little with the help of some sticky tape, by putting up some pictures and home-made things that my nieces and nephews had given to me at my departure from home.
My schedule in quarantine
After the slouchy Saturday and Sunday, I put a rough schedule in place because I felt that this would prevent me from getting into total sloth mode:
- I celebrated being able to wake up whenever I wake up. Who has the luxury of doing that for an entire two weeks nowadays? Usually, I ended up waking by myself between 8 and 9 am. Then I just dozed a little and got up between 9 and 9:30 am to stretch and have breakfast
- In the morning, I took things easy. I read a lot, did some journaling, listened to some music, played the guitar, or caught up with people via phone or messaging.
- Between just after lunch and dinner was my most productive time. I set myself a goal of doing most of these things every day:
- Play the guitar
- Blogging or life admin
- Painting
- Exercise
- After dinner, I usually switched the TV on or read a book. I tried not to go to bed any later than 11 pm (it worked most days).
I’m quite pleased to say that I never (aside from the first weekend) switched the TV on during the day, and I feel better for it. Moreover, I discovered the Digital Health and Wellbeing setting on my phone, and I had quite a shock when I realised that I had spent six hours of screen time on my first Sunday. From then on, I limited the use of my most time-wasting apps – Facebook and the browser – to one hour a day each, which was still more than enough. When the hour is up, the app is greyed out, and whilst you can add time, I generally didn’t. It’s just good for awareness of screen and app time spent.
Exercise in quarantine
While it’s possible to hire gym equipment for the room (the hotel will give you details of the rental company upon check-in), I refrained from that because the room wasn’t large enough and frankly, I also didn’t want to spend the extra money. Instead, I downloaded an app called “Workout for Women”, offering daily workouts of 10-15 minutes, and I also subscribed to the free 30-day body challenge by Betty Rocker – also 15 minutes every day. Both apps do not require equipment (aside from a mat). I usually did one after the other, followed by some yoga or stretches. I didn’t do extensive research and there are probably better apps but I found them both surprisingly good (and they’re free). I usually did Betty Rocker first (unless she did some yoga) because it’s a bit more high-paced, and then the Workout for Women after, and I was surprised how out of breath these 30 minutes a day got me. And I think it helped with my sleep during quarantine.
Other observations during quarantine
As time in quarantine went on, I realised that my appetite reduced progressively. Probably because, even though I exercised daily, I would have still moved around considerably less than usual. I also found it harder to motivate myself as days went by, and if I didn’t have anything to do, I became somewhat fidgety. Thankfully, I only became a bit claustrophobic in the last couple of days of quarantine. Towards the end, I was very much longing for fresh air and sunshine. My asthma has definitely got worse, I usually only need to use my puffer once a week, whereas I had to use it twice daily pretty much from day 2 or 3 during hotel quarantine. My eyes and throat were also dry from the aircon and my left eye was twitching quite a bit which has stopped two days after leaving quarantine.
The night before leaving, I barely got any sleep. I kept wondering what would happen if my last COVID test on day 13 would come back positive – at this point, it really felt like I wouldn’t last another two weeks in quarantine without flipping out somehow.
In conclusion, I’d say that the experience was interesting, and I made the most from the situation. Saying that, I sincerely hope that is the first and last time I’ll have to do hotel quarantine – in Australia or elsewhere, for that matter – unless the experience improves especially with regards to having a balcony or outdoor area, or at least a window to open. I get that the reason for the hotel quarantine system in Australia is to prevent outbreaks and keep residents safe but there’s got to be better, healthier and less drastic ways than locking people that haven’t done anything wrong into a hotel room without fresh air for two weeks.
