Hotel
operator Arora Group, which runs a number of high-profile properties in the UK,
has started offering ‘Test and Rest’ packages at its airport hotels that include
a rapid Covid-19 test.
The Sofitel London Heathrow will
be the first Arora property to offer the package which will include a
self-administered, saliva-based PCR Covid-19 test kit provided by UK biotech
firm Halo. The group’s other Heathrow hotels will also offer the package
shortly.
Guests must download the Halo app, scan their test kit
and spit in a tube. The sample is collected and tested at Halo’s London lab and
the results reported in the app the following morning.
Test and Rest package prices at Sofitel London
Heathrow start from £179 inclusive of VAT and includes accommodation and
testing.
Surinder Arora, founder and CEO
of Arora Group, said: “Our beloved hospitality, airline and the wider
tourism industry has been devasted by the pandemic and we felt the need to do
something to give both business and leisure travellers the confidence to
travel. The ability to stay in a hotel the night before a flight and get a
recognised PCR saliva based Covid-19 test and subsequent result before the
flight the following day – just made sense”.
Dr Nigel Kellow, Halo’s chief medical officer said,
“We’re really excited to be able to work with Arora Group on this
pioneering initiative to help get the world moving again. We believe that in Halo
we have created a system that offers hotel guests and many others a safe,
secure and simple way to travel and enjoy life again in confidence. We hope
more organisations in the travel industry will follow Surinder Arora’s
example.”
Executives from the travel industry recently carried out a successful trial of a Covid passport on a transatlantic flight while Heathrow Airport launched pre-departure testing for travellers to certain destinations.