Behind the scenes of a quarantine hotel
As we all know, more than a year ago the world was turned upside down with the Covid-19 pandemic effecting countries far and wide. As Australia did its best to combat the virus we were faced with a new, uncomfortable but necessary normal – quarantine.
As a 5-star hotel our driving force is providing professional service, stylish and comfortable facilities for our guests to enjoy, top class in-room dining, restaurant and bar facilities, and a personal touch by all of our hotel departments. Faced with running a quarantine facility, all of these key factors which are part of our nature were suddenly limited, but our team took on the challenge admirably.
So what does happen behind the scenes at The Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney?
1. In the kitchen
On average our kitchen produces 1,200 individually packaged meals per day, 7 days a week for our quarantine guests, as well as onsite police, NSW Health and staff. One third of those meals are specifically cooked for guests with dietary requirements ranging from gluten free, dairy free, vegan, vegetarian, keto, diabetic, high carb, low carb, no carb, high protein, low sugar, Kosher, Halal, and any other allergen you can think of! And all this with only 7 chefs in the kitchen, covering 14 shifts. What most people don't know is that all meals are made in-house, including desserts!
See below our pastry chefs in action, baking and packing toffee nut sponge cake ready to serve for dessert.
2. Food Assembly Line
Our elegant Marble Room, which was previously the home of some of our largest conference, meeting and cocktail events, is now filled with a food and beverage team that runs like clockwork, preparing, packaging and delivering over 300 meals, three times a day, day in and day out.
3. Food Delivery
At set times per day, our efficient team prepares the food packages per floor for delivery, quickly distributing individual meals to each room. Once the food packages are delivered, our team knock on the doors and clear the floor to avoid any contact with guests. With a maximum 2 hour window for each mealtime, we have approximately 18 seconds per room to get the food from the assembly line up to the room!
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4. Quarantine Menu
5. So what do our guests get up to?
It’s a daunting thought spending 14 days straight in a small space, but our guests have become very creative in ways to keep entertained. We have guests following fitness programs, connecting with family and friends via video calls, getting creative with arts and crafts or learning something new. Here are Jade and Greg, one of our recent quarantine guests, sharing their top 5 tips of surviving hotel quarantine!
To make the stay bearable, we've made sure our televisions are equipped with mental and physical exercises for our guests to follow and we have also been delivering activities each day such as puzzles, quizzes and crosswords. However, the below photo paints an accurate picture of just how active some of our guests are!
Amount of exercise bikes being rented for a 2-week period.