Seven hotels are on standby to provide managed isolation and quarantine rooms if they are needed

Friday, 21 October 2022

'What were once justified and served our country well should now be removed,” said Chris Hipkins. (Video first published on October 18, 2022)

Seven former managed isolation and quarantine hotels are on standby to provide MIQ services if there is an urgent need to reintroduce border restrictions.

On Tuesday the Government announced it would wind down the most restrictive powers used to fight Covid-19, retaining the ability to reinstate isolation periods for travellers, if things changed.

Under a “readiness plan” developed by the Ministry of Business, Immigration and Employment (MBIE), seven hotels out of the 32 that previously operated as MIQ facilities have signed contracts to provide about 1250 MIQ rooms should they be required.

MBIE general manager of MIQ Shayne Gray said this would bridge the gap between the wind down in MIQ facilities and any investment in permanent MIQ facilities, due to be discussed by the Cabinet in November.

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About 230,000 travellers and 5000 community cases of Covid-19 had isolated in 32 hotels by the time managed isolation and quarantine stays for arriving travellers were halted in February.

“[The readiness plan] outlines details on what steps would be needed to implement quarantine and isolation capability under urgency, should legislation be passed requiring a need to reintroduce border restrictions, and the need for people entering New Zealand to quarantine or isolate.”

Gray said the contracts to reboot MIQ hotels were for exclusive use of the facilities in order to better manage any public health measures.

Sudima Hotels had four MIQ properties in Auckland, Christchurch and Rotorua, and chief operating officer Les Morgan said it had an agreement with the Government to keep them on standby for recommissioning if isolation facilities were needed again.

Although mask-wearing is now a personal choice for staff, the hotels have maintained stocks of PPE, and extensive CCTV systems installed in corridors remain, so they are “in a permanent state of readiness”.

Enforced MIQ stays did not always make for happy customers, and coping with bored and sometimes aggressive guests ordering in large amounts of KFC and alcohol was an eye-opening experience for Morgan and his staff.

He said a lot of MIQ guests had never stayed in a hotel before and did not have credit cards, so they roped in family and friends to deliver favourite takeaway food and drop off alcohol supplies to avoid paying hotel prices.

Unpaid MIQ invoices worth $56m were passed to debt collectors, and as of October 10, $27.5m in MIQ bills was outstanding.

“We needed to keep the prices reasonably high to deter people from consuming too much.

“Kiwis have a surprisingly high dependency on alcohol as it turns out … in the end we had to request that the amount of alcohol and KFC coming in was limited.”

MIQ hotels were paid $970m for accommodation, meals and other services, and those charges included an allowance for refurbishing rooms once isolation requirements were dropped.

Refurbishment costs for MIQ facilities were included in the hotel room charges paid by the Government, and MBIE spent $2.7m on alterations, such as removing walls installed in reception areas, to return MIQ hotels to their original pre-Covid condition.

Morgan said the average cost of refurbishing a room was about $5000, but more if there were holes in the walls and damage to beds and TVs.

He admits there was a degree of nervousness that New Zealanders would shun former MIQ hotels when the security fences came down and the last isolating guests went home, but that had not been the case.

“Omicron really changed that, once it was present in everybody’s household or business.

“On opening days I was worried we’d be quiet for a month or so, but we were immediately busy.”

Sudima hotels occasionally had guests wanting to voluntarily isolate away from family members, and Morgan said it was ready for overseas visitors who get sick with Covid-19 while on holiday.

As hotels return to regular business, debt collectors are mopping up $27.5m in outstanding MIQ bills.

Travellers returning during the Covid-19 border closure were invoiced $213m for MIQ services that in total cost MBIE more than $1.56 billion over two years to the end of June.

By October 10, more than 18,100 MIQ invoices had been placed in the hands of two debt collection agencies, that have been paid $3.1m for their recovery work, and close to 500 invoices are being paid off by instalments.

MBIE could not put a dollar value on the 10,681 MIQ fee waivers granted because in some cases they were processed in advance of travel, so no invoice was ever issued.