SINGAPORE - Guests at the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport who wish to cancel their bookings can do so at no extra charge, the hotel said after two Covid-19 cases among its staff forced it to close for two weeks.
In a statement to The Straits Times, the hotel said that guests with pre-paid reservations will receive a full refund, and will also be given the option to move their stay to another hotel under its parent, the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).
Current guests at the hotel will also be given the option to move.
The spokesman for the hotel said: "If they prefer to check out before the end of their stay, they will be compensated accordingly."
She did not disclose how many guests were affected when asked.
The Crowne Plaza Changi Airport will be closed for two weeks from Friday (Jan 8) as a precautionary measure, following a second unlinked case of Covid-19 at the hotel announced by the Ministry of Health on Thursday.
She is a 43-year-old Malaysian woman who delivers pre-packed meals to air crew and hotel guests, and works at Azur, a restaurant in the hotel. She is also the second staff member to test positive after a Korean man, who also works at Azur, was confirmed to be infected on Tuesday. Both of them did not interact with diners at the restaurant.
The hotel has stopped accepting new guests, and foreign air crew and guests currently staying at the hotel will be checked out progressively.
Incoming air crew will be housed at alternative facilities.
Those who have booked their stay using the SingapoRediscovers vouchers will be given the option to postpone their stay or move to another IHG hotel in the city.
The spokesman added that restaurant and event spaces in the hotel will be closed till further notice and deep cleaning and disinfection is under way.
Close contacts of the staff member who tested positive have been issued with a home quarantine order from Jan 7 for two weeks.
Meanwhile, the MOH has started to test all staff working at the hotel, which was eerily quiet when ST visited on Friday morning.
Concierge staff and workers monitoring SafeEntry check-ins donned personal protective equipment as a precaution.
A Crystal Jade staff who worked at the restaurant at the hotel's entrance said the restaurant was also told to close. He came came on Friday morning for a swab test.
One of the hotel guests, 24-year-old Lee Jia Yi, told ST that she decided to check out a few hours earlier on Friday (Jan 8) after learning about the second case the night before.
She had stayed at the hotel with two friends over the past two days to celebrate a friends' birthday.
She said: "We're were a little concerned when we knew about the first case on the day that we checked in. We found out about the second case last night through the news and got a little more worried."
She was glad they had stayed in their room most of the time and did not venture out of the hotel.
Another guest who wanted to remain anonymous said she was having a staycation at the hotel with her husband over the past two days.
She said: "We went down for cocktails on Wednesday night and saw that the restaurant was shuttered. So we felt that maybe something had gone wrong. But we're not too worried because we did not really interact with the staff there."
