5 star hotels, houseboats, resorts in J&K offer rooms at 50% discount for quarantine

NEW DELHI: More than 100 hotels , including 5-star ones, resorts and even houseboats in J&K — one of India's top honeymoon destinations — have offered to serve as paid quarantine facilities for those entering the UT and are slashing their daily tariffs by as much as 50%.


Srinagar district officials said five star properties like The Taj and The Lalit have been designated as quarantine facilities with room tariffs reduced by as much as 40-60%.

As India opens its skies, latest guidelines in Srinagar dictate that all flyers must undergo mandatory quarantine until their Covid-19 test results are out. Depending on the results, people can opt for 14-day home quarantine or they will be shifted to hospital for treatment.

Officials have set up free quarantine facilities in 20 locations with a combined capacity of 3,000 beds. But people with deep pockets looking to enjoy a bit of natural beauty while in quarantine are likely to be spoiled for choice.

Srinagar DM Shahid Choudhary told TOI that over 100 hotels and resorts on the outskirts of Pahalgam and Gulmarg as well as houseboats have offered to serve as quarantine facilities. “In the first phase, 25 hotels have been notified. They have a combined capacity of 2,200 beds. The tariff for double occupancy room will be Rs 900 per person while single occupancy will cost Rs 1,200 per day. Hotels will charge nominal rates for meals,” he said.

Shafi Ul Alam, general manager of Sarovar Portico, Srinagar, said the hospitality industry has been reeling under losses for months now. “After internet shutdown in the valley last year, we lost out on advance bookings. There were hopes of revival this year but then we were hit by Covid-19 outbreak,” he said. Hoteliers admitted that stringent sanitation rules have to be followed, including a gap of 72 hours between a guest check-in and check-out for a room.

On Tuesday, 37 people out of 263 who reached Srinagar on a SpiceJet flight from Delhi sought paid hotels. Among them were Fatima and Ahtisham (who only gave their first names) who checked into a four-star hotel charging a daily tariff of Rs 3,800 per room. The two local residents work in private companies in Hyderabad and said they opted for paid hotels as they expected them to be more hygienic.