Thai people returning from abroad who don’t want to spend their 14-day coronavirus quarantine at a free government-provided site have some stylish options — if they feel like spending up to 144,000 baht.
The Royal Thai Consulate-General in Sydney recently released a price list for the “detention choices” — the English translation provided on its Facebook page — at seven Bangkok hotels.
Officially, the programme is known as Alternative State Quarantine or ASQ. According to the consulate in Sydney, Thais in Australia who want to select the option can make a booking at one of the hotels, agreeing to pay all related expenses, and then inform the consulate of their intentions.
Under measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, a 14-day quarantine is mandatory for all Thai nationals returning from abroad. The government provides free accommodation under an arrangement with hoteliers across the country for about 9,000 rooms. The participating hotels are reportedly paid 1,000 baht per person per day.
For those willing to pay for a slightly more upscale confinement, the following ASQ hotels have been evaluated and approved by the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Defence. The prices shown are the basic room rates for 14 days:
- Movenpick Wellness BDMS Resort Hotel (directly connected to the BDMS Wellness Clinic): 60,300 baht.
- Qiu Hotel Sukhumvit (79 rooms, 32,000 baht).
- The Idle Residence (64 rooms, 50,000 to 60,000 baht).
- Grand Richmond Hotel (79 rooms, 55,000 baht).
- Royal Benja (80 rooms, 45,000 baht).
- Anantara Siam (8 rooms plus access to Bumrungrad Hospital, 144,000 baht).
- Grand Centrepoint Sukhumvit 55 (114 rooms, 55,000 to 125,000 baht).