London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 13, 2025

Covid hotel quarantine booking site taken down

Covid hotel quarantine booking site taken down

A new booking system for England's hotel quarantine scheme was taken offline minutes after it launched.

The portal, set up as part of efforts to control new Covid variants entering the country, is "undergoing work to correct a minor technical issue".

The Department of Health said the portal would be open "well before" the scheme comes into effect on Monday.

Officials are expecting to have the website back up and running by 10:00 GMT on Friday, the BBC has been told.

The requirement to quarantine in a hotel applies to British and Irish citizens, and UK residents arriving in England from 33 countries from Monday and will cost £1,750 for an individual booking.

The so-called "red list" countries - including Portugal, Brazil and South Africa - are deemed high risk due to emerging new virus variants.

In Scotland, residents arriving from any country by air will have to isolate in hotels.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wants the UK to follow Scotland and extend the rules to cover all international travellers, saying the borders will be "too leaky" otherwise.

The website had been accessible for some users intermittently since it was launched just after 13:00 GMT. The most recent holding message promised the site would be "back soon" and apologised for the inconvenience as it carried out "maintenance".

Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said ministers "must act to fix this urgently".

"It is extremely worrying that even the limited hotel quarantine booking system is showing signs of failing from the outset," he said.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Rooms are available from Monday 15 February and the portal will be open well before the go live date."

Around 1,300 people a week are arriving into the UK from those countries at the moment, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.

The Department of Health has arranged for about 4,700 rooms across 16 hotels to be available for the new quarantine system. Travellers have to book a place in quarantine - which lasts 10 days - before arriving in the UK.

International travel is currently banned, other than for a small number of permitted reasons, including for essential work, medical appointments and education. Holidays are not allowed.

The cost of the hotel quarantine packages is £1,750 per adult for 11 nights, which includes transport and testing.

For extra adults or a child over 12 the cost is £650, and for a child aged five to 12 it is £325.

In Scotland, the cost is the same for one adult - £1,750 - but the government is still working through the costs for extra travellers. The Scottish government is also launching a fund for people who cannot afford the charge.

Airlines and travel companies will be legally required to make sure travellers have signed up for the new measures before they depart, with fines for companies and passengers if they fail to comply, he said.

Failing to quarantine in a designated hotel when required will carry a fine of between £5,000 and £10,000.

Giving false travel history information on the mandatory passenger locator form filled in by travellers when they arrive in the UK will attract a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

All arrivals from countries not on the "red list" must see out a 10-day quarantine at home, but will be required to pay £210 for two additional private virus tests, booked prior to arrival.

It came as Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was "too early" to know whether summer holidays can go ahead this year.

Mr Hancock said there was still "a lot of uncertainty" but ministers were doing everything possible to make sure people could have a holiday this year.

He told the BBC he had booked his own summer break in Cornwall "months ago".


Sir Keir urged the government to "get rid of the mixed messages" about whether people should book holidays for later in the year.

Downing Street said Prime Minister Boris Johnson would unveil a roadmap for easing restrictions - potentially including travel - in the week beginning 22 February.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
×