Vaccines may be launched around the world, but the return from normal international travel may still be a long way off. Therefore, Singapore presented an intermediate solution: a COVID-safe “bubble” hotel for business travelers.
Billed as “the world’s first bubble facility for business travelers who are not quarantined”, Connect @ Changi offers business travelers a space to stay where they can bypass the city-state’s mandatory 14-day quarantine, from according to Business Insider. The only problem? They cannot leave.
The meeting room separated in half by hermetic glass panels in a short-lived installation, Connect @ Changi, in Singapore on February 18, 2021.
Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images
However, the facility has been designed to offer travelers everything they need for a short “test-stay-work-meeting” stay: built within a huge exhibition center originally designed for live concerts and conferences, Connect @ Changi has 150 hotel rooms, gym capsules and 40 secure meeting rooms with COVID.
The meeting rooms, designed to conduct personal business with external visitors, are separated in half by hermetic glass panels and separate ventilation systems. Those on opposite sides of the glass can communicate via a microphone system.
An overview of the Connect @ Changi courtyard, heralded as the world’s first safe coronavirus hotel and conference complex, was photographed in Singapore on February 18, 2021.
Roslan Rahman / AFP via Getty ImagesTravelers must take a COVID test before the flight and once again when they arrive at Singapore’s Changi Airport. They are then transported from the airport directly to Connect @ Changi, where they check in and wait for test results by text message for about six to 12 hours.
Nightly rates start at Singapore $ 384, or about $ 287, which includes meals delivered to a cubicle outside your door and COVID testing (the hotel has its own COVID-19 testing center on site, where all guests are tested periodically throughout their visit).
An overview of the Connect @ Changi room announced as the world’s first safe coronavirus hotel and conference complex was depicted in Singapore on February 18, 2021.
Roslan Rahman / AFP via Getty Images“Without this facility, travel options are essentially binary – staying at home due to travel restrictions or flying abroad and enduring long quarantine periods,” said Robin Hu, head of one of the project’s developers, in a statement to the press, according to Business Insider.
For more pictures of the facilities and information about the rooms, food and amenities, read the Business Insider story here.