The Miaoli County Government fined a COVID-19 quarantine hotel for poor sanitation and inadequate service, it said on Friday, after the Consumers’ Foundation publicized complaints about the venue.
Guests who stayed at the hotel as part of their mandatory 14-day quarantines have lodged multiple complaints about the establishment, the foundation said.
Neither the foundation nor the county government named the hotel.
Guests complained of mold, cobwebs, roaches, ants, broken air-conditioning, a lack of room service at night and the hotel’s refusal to allow food delivery outside of certain hours, the foundation said.
Some guests compared the meals at the hotel to prison food, while others complained of misleading advertisements that exaggerated the hotel’s quality of service, it said.
The venue would bring shame to Taiwan if it was allowed to house foreign travelers during their quarantine period, foundation chairman Terry Huang (黃怡騰) said.
Chen Shui-chu (陳水竹), a professor of tourism management at Chinese Culture University, said that the hotel should have offered premium services, as it charged guests NT$2,000 per night, which is equal to that of some four-star hotels.
“The hotel might have caused the problems after downsizing too many staff members during the pandemic,” he said.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare should provide clear guidelines for quarantine hotels to ensure that the money the government and guests pay is not spent on subpar service, he added.
The Miaoli County Culture and Tourism Bureau said that inspectors were dispatched to evaluate the hotel in response to the complaints.
The hotel did not meet sanitation standards on the first visit and the conditions did not improve to the inspectors’ satisfaction upon their second visit, the bureau said.
The establishment was fined and its license to operate as a quarantine hotel is to be suspended from Thursday next week, it said.
The bureau said that the hotel can reapply for a license after it makes efforts to bring its facilities up to the required sanitation code.
Additional reporting by CNA
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