Why ASQ?

[CanadaSam]

As I understand it, official ASQ hotels only make you stay inside your room for the quarantine period, and deliver your meals to you outside your door.

 

So, WHY not allow ANY hotel be used for ASQ?  Any hotel willing to do the above should be able to host incoming guests for the required quarantine period.

 

The only other thing that they do at ASQ is to have somebody come and do the regular covid test on you, but as I understand, that is done entirely by a nearby hospital.

 

So, once again, ANY hotel in Thailand should be allowed to be an ASQ hotel, if they can fulfill the above 3 simple requirements!

 

Why???   Well, firstly, this would drastically reduce the cost of the quarantine period, as it allows free market competition.

 

Secondly, many needy hotels (and staff) would benefit from the much needed income at this difficult time, instead of just a few hand-picked hotels.

 

Many other parts of the country could also benefit, if hotels there are able to provide the above necessary arrangements to be a "quarantine" hotel.

 

I think this simple alteration to the existing policy can go a LONG way to opening up tourism very quickly, and with great benefit to the country! 

 

Your thoughts?

[kokesaat]

As you said, the hotels have to be paired with a hospital.  And the hotel has to take the necessary precautions to ensure that people in ASQ stay in their rooms and not roam around.  The incident with the Egyptian diplomat who skipped out, Covid positive, and went shopping while quarantined back in ?June? probably didn't help matters.  I doubt that many hotels would take the necessary precautions to meet the government requirements.  The fact is that most all the Covid positive cases over the last 6 or so months have been from inbound passengers who are in quarantine.  

In the early days of trying to return to Thailand, finding an ASQ qualified hotel wasn't easy.  I believe there are now many more hotels that qualify as ASQ hotels.  They run from very cheap to very expensive. I'd guess the hotels have to follow a rigid list of requirements to qualify......I'd be happy to take a stab at translating the list if anyone has it.

 

[richard_smith237]

 

4 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

As I understand it, official ASQ hotels only make you stay inside your room for the quarantine period, and deliver your meals to you outside your door.

 

So, WHY not allow ANY hotel be used for ASQ?  Any hotel willing to do the above should be able to host incoming guests for the required quarantine period.

Any hotel can be an ASQ hotel - it has to meet the government requirements. 

 

4 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

The only other thing that they do at ASQ is to have somebody come and do the regular covid test on you, but as I understand, that is done entirely by a nearby hospital.

The hotels team up with nearby hospitals. A nurse is on standby at the hotel. 2x Covid-19 test are taken,

 

 

4 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

So, once again, ANY hotel in Thailand should be allowed to be an ASQ hotel, if they can fulfill the above 3 simple requirements!

There are additional requirements such as no carpets 

 

 

4 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

Why???   Well, firstly, this would drastically reduce the cost of the quarantine period, as it allows free market competition.

Once you remove the costs of the meals, the standby nurse, the Covid-19 tests and transport from the Airport the costs per night works out at approximately what the hotel would be charging under normal conditions. 

 

The Maths: 

TwoThree hotel - usual nightly cost THB 2,000 (Agoda)

Total Cost of ASQ: THB 45,000 (15 nights)

Cost of 2x Covid-19 tests = THB 12,000

Meals for 15 days = approx THB 500 per day

Airport Transfer = approx THB 600 

 

Cost per night: THB 1660 for a hotel which would normally charge approximately THB 2000 under normal conditions before Covid-19.

 

4 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

Secondly, many needy hotels (and staff) would benefit from the much needed income at this difficult time, instead of just a few hand-picked hotels.

 

Agreed: Owners can apply to become ASQ hotels, the list is increasing all the time - there are now over 100 ASQ hotels

https://thaiest.com/blog/list-of-alternative-state-quarantine-asq-hotels-thailand

 

4 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

Many other parts of the country could also benefit, if hotels there are able to provide the above necessary arrangements to be a "quarantine" hotel.

 

There are ALSQ hotels in Phuket, Chonburi, Buri Ram and Prachinburi - obviously the issues surrounding getting a ‘repatriatee’ to hotels further from the Airport are more complex. 

 

4 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

I think this simple alteration to the existing policy can go a LONG way to opening up tourism very quickly, and with great benefit to the country! 

 

Very few tourists will be interested in coming to Thailand if they have to quarantine for 2 weeks. 

Quarantine is tolerated by those with ties to Thailand wishing to return to their families and homes. 

 

The tourism conundrum needs a simpler answer such as removal of the CoE application process, pre-flight Covid test, arrival Covid-19 test and track and trace - anything more invasive and very few potential international tourists will have any interest in visiting Thailand. 

 

[CanadaSam]

I feel a bit stupid after Richard's informative answer, I was only going by earlier reports from TV folks who mentioned many times that ASQ is very expensive, and that the few hotels available were all full, and that to be an official ASQ hotel you needed to grease many palms, etc. etc.       

[androokery]

2 hours ago, kokesaat said:

As you said, the hotels have to be paired with a hospital.  And the hotel has to take the necessary precautions to ensure that people in ASQ stay in their rooms and not roam around.  The incident with the Egyptian diplomat who skipped out, Covid positive, and went shopping while quarantined back in ?June? probably didn't help matters.  I doubt that many hotels would take the necessary precautions to meet the government requirements.  The fact is that most all the Covid positive cases over the last 6 or so months have been from inbound passengers who are in quarantine.  

In the early days of trying to return to Thailand, finding an ASQ qualified hotel wasn't easy.  I believe there are now many more hotels that qualify as ASQ hotels.  They run from very cheap to very expensive. I'd guess the hotels have to follow a rigid list of requirements to qualify......I'd be happy to take a stab at translating the list if anyone has it.

 

It's interesting how information gets scrambled over time...

 

There was a plane of Egyptian soldiers who declared they were all exempt from any quarantine requirements (as crew? or it might have been that military staff were excluded, but they were not diplomats). They were hopping all over Asia and when they stopped at U-Tapao they visited a shopping center. They were not in quarantine, it was just a short stop. July 8-11, with a day trip to China. All the soldiers had to be tested for Covid 19 before they left, but the results weren't in until they had gone home, at which point one of the soldiers tested positive. 

At the same time a young daughter of a Sudanese diplomat tested positive in Bangkok.

 

My memory might be scrambled too...

[treetops]

19 hours ago, kokesaat said:

I'd guess the hotels have to follow a rigid list of requirements to qualify......I'd be happy to take a stab at translating the list if anyone has it.

I believe it can be found on here:

 

http://www.hsscovid.com/

 

[EVENKEEL]

Are you assigned a hotel or do you reserve it before arrival?

Do you the traveler have any say in which hotel you stay at?

Edited October 30, 2020 by EVENKEEL