A luxury hotel chain in Switzerland is offering a quarantine package to its guests that includes in-room coronavirus testing, doctor visits and 24-hour nursing care.
Le Bijou is a part hotel, part serviced apartments company, and operates its luxury accommodation across Switzerland in cities including Zurich, Geneva and Basel.
With around 20% of the global population in lock-down and many countries restricting or even closing their borders, the hospitality industry has seen a significant drop in demand all across the sector. Switzerland, which shares a border with Northern Italy, was impacted early.
Swiss luxury hotel operator Le Bijou is offering a ‘quarantine package’ after its traditional booking dried up when the Covid-19 outbreak reached Europe
Le Bijou’s rooms are a hybrid of a hotel and service apartment, but now can come with a coronavirus test, access to doctors and 24/7 nurse care
Before the outbreak of COVID-19, Le Bijou already catered for a very exclusive clientele, playing host to the likes of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort and even the Saudi Royal Family, charging between £700 to £1,700 per night.
But even the most luxurious hotels have not been immune to the plummeting demand, which has led to the co-founder and CEO of the hotel chain to get creative.
Speaking in an interview, Alexander Hübner said: ‘In the beginning of March, revenues had dropped significantly. We said, OK, we need to react immediately to that.’
He explained how after the disease reached Europe, traditional reservations ceased, but he was getting new requests from people who wanted a luxury place to stay away from the outbreak, avoid hospitals, while still cook their own food and have access to doctors and nursing care.
The luxury apartments receive daily deliveries of food and even have their own chef service
Co-founder and CEO of the hotel chain says that at first, they were only having around two inquiries a day. This has now risen to five or six a day, having only been offering the service for a week and a half
To meet this new demand, Le Bijou began advertising quarantine-friendly perks to attract guests, including contactless check-in (to avoid contact between strangers) and medical services in guest’s rooms provided by Double Check, a Swizz private medical clinic.
Hübner said: ‘In the beginning, we just had about two inquiries a day. Now it’s ramped up to four, five, six a day, and we just started, I think, one week, 10 days ago.’
This five star service does not come cheap, and different packages are available. Coronavirus testing can be bought for around £400. A twice-daily check in from a nurse is £1,500 while the 24/7 nurse service costs £4,000.
The accommodation provides daily food deliveries and personal chef services, but to meet government regulations the management have cut the daily cleaning service to just sanitising the rooms between guests.
Le Bijou do request that anyone already with Covid-19 does not relocate to their hotels, with Hübner advising they ‘stay where they are’ and follow government guidelines.
An example of a coronavirus test kit. In this case, a doctor is using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kit
The hotel chain’s offering represents the latest sign that the rich and famous are more likely to be able to get tested and treated than others.
A number of celebrities and professional athletes have taken to social media to say they have been tested, drawing criticism from some who say tests should be reserved for those with symptoms, regardless of wealth.
When asked about this issue last week during a White House press briefing, President Trump said no one should be given preferential treatment, although admitted that sometimes the wealthy get perks.
‘Perhaps that’s been the story of life,’ Trump said. ‘That does happen on occasion. And I’ve noticed where some people have been tested fairly quickly.’