Vaccines may be rolling around the world, but the return of normal international travel may still be a way. So Singapore came up with an intermediary solution: a COVID-safe “bubble” hotel for business travelers.
Announced as ” The World’s First Bubble Facility for Non-Quarantine Business Travelers ”, Connect @ Changi offers business travelers a space to stay where they can bypass the city – state’s mandatory 14-day quarantine . The only catch? They can not leave.
The meeting room was halved on 18 February 2021 by airtight glass panels at a short accommodation facility, Connect @ Changi, in Singapore.
Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images
However, the facility is designed to offer travelers everything they need for a short test stay “test-stay-work-meet”: built in a massive exhibition center originally designed for live concerts and conferences. Connect @ Changi has 150 hotel rooms, gyms and 40 COVID-secure meeting rooms.
The meeting rooms, designed to do business personally with outside visitors, are separated in the middle by airtight glass panels and separate ventilation systems. Those on either side of the glass can communicate via a microphone system.
A general image of the Connect @ Changi Courtyard, considered the world’s first coronavirus-safe hotel and conference complex, will be unveiled on February 18, 2021 in Singapore.
Roslan Rahman / AFP via Getty ImagesTravelers must take a COVID test before their flight, and again when they arrive at Changi Airport in Singapore. They are then transported directly from the airport to Connect @ Changi, where they wait about six to twelve hours for the test results by text message.
Room rates per night start at Singapore $ 384, or about $ 287, which includes meals delivered in a cube hole outside your door and COVID tests (the hotel has its own COVID-19 testing center on site, where all guests regularly tested is visited).
A general view of the Connect @ Changi Room is described as the world’s first coronavirus-safe hotel and conference complex on February 18, 2021 in Singapore.
Roslan Rahman / AFP via Getty Images“Without such a facility, travel options are essentially binary – stay home due to travel restrictions, or fly overseas and endure long periods in quarantine,” said Robin Hu, head of one of the project’s developers, in a press release. . according to Business Insider.
Read the Business Insider story here for more photos of the facility and information on the rooms, food and amenities.