A FURIOUS mum has slammed a hotel after claiming her family were forced to endure “inhuman” conditions in the £3,000 room.
Shabana Shah and her two children returned from Dubai via Turkey and have been staying for the ten day quarantine period at the Holiday Inn Express at Luton Airport.
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The family-of-three, from Rochdale, were given a family room at the hotel on May 14 which cost them £3,050.
Shabana, her 20-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter have been crammed into a single room with two double beds squeezed into them.
Putting their suitcases in the room has left them with almost no space, meaning they have to climb across a bed to get to the bathroom.
The rate of a hotel room for one person for ten nights is £1,750 and each person over the age of 11 then costs an additional £650.
The family refused to pay the £650 for an additional room and claim that they are only allowed to leave the hotel for fresh air in 15 minute periods.
Holiday Inn provides breakfast, lunch and dinner which has to be eaten in the confines of their rooms.
But the family have complained that the food has been “horrible”, and they have had to fork out for takeaways.
Shabana told the Manchester Evening News : “If we want to go out we have to ask permission.
“It gets very claustrophobic in the room. The room is so tiny we have to climb over the bed.”
“They bring us breakfast, lunch and dinner but it is not enough food for an adult. It’s like a bit of bread with tomatoes, couscous which was cold.
“It is horrible. My daughter has not left the room at all, she is 15 and I’m really worried about her.
“I’m really upset with how they have treated us.”
Shabana also claims that she has complained multiple times to the hotel management but nothing has been done.
In an email she sent on 17 May she wrote: “Why do me and my kids have to suffer, saying sorry is not going to make it easy to stay here.
“I request you all come and live here and see how horrible the state of it is, I cannot believe of you all being so inhuman.”
A spokesman for IHG Hotels and Resorts, which owns the Holiday Inn Express brand, said: “We are unable to share any comment as the approach to quarantine is a matter for the Department for Health and Social Care.
“We would recommend liaising with the relevant government media team who will be able to guide you on this.”
A government spokesman added: “Our top priority has always been protecting the public and our robust border regime is helping minimise the risk of new variants coming into the UK.
“The government continues to ensure every person in quarantine gets the support they need, and all managed quarantine facilities are accommodating the vast majority of people’s requirements.
“Hotels do their utmost to take any necessary steps to address concerns raised by guests.”
Anyone returning from red list countries has to book a stay at a quarantine hotel before they are allowed home.
Travellers returning to the UK will have to take a negative PCR test before arriving in England, as well as a second and third test on day s two and eight after they enter the country.
A spokesman for CTM, the company which arranges bookings for the hotel quarantine system, said: “While service standards are the responsibility of each hotel, we take on-board all feedback from people entering hotel quarantine and we have a robust complaint management process to share the feedback with hotel teams.
“We escalate concerns raised with us to hotel management and security providers in order to resolve any issues in a timely manner.
“We also provide ongoing feedback to DHSC and the participating hotels to enable continuous improvements to the quarantine programme.”
