By
Godfrey Benjamin
March 22nd, 2024
Le Bijou, a Switzerland luxury hotel, has re-invented its service to provide its guests with world-class quarantine apartments. The hotel is offering healthcare workers fighting coronavirus a free of charge stay at its apartments.
After struggling with low bookings due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis Le Bijou, a Swiss hotel brand, has re-invented its services to offer its guests world-class quarantine apartments. According to the ad on its official webpage, the hotel claims to be offering exceptional service of world-class, in privacy and personal surroundings of a beautifully designed apartment.
CNBC has learned that a one night stay in one of the apartments will cost the guest between $800 and $2,000. This is because the guest has several choices to make in the services offered by the hotel. In order to facilitate the coronavirus testing, the hotel is offering healthcare workers in the first line of defense against COVID-19, and in need of a break, a free of charge stay at its apartments. But do not forget that a guest should also pay $500 for a coronavirus test.
Le Bijou prides in hosting the famous ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort and also Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak.
What Makes Le Bijou COVID-19 Quarantine Apartments Special
As expected with the 5-star hotel of its caliber, fine-tuned services at a higher cost are in play. According to the hotel, its apartments stand out because they can be operated without any staff. This is in line with the ongoing social distancing caused by the novel coronavirus, which has spread worldwide.
The hotel is offering precautionary services like in-room coronavirus test. In order to fully quarantine its guest, Le Bijou together with its healthcare partner Double Check is providing medical check-ups and coronavirus tests inside the guest apartment.
Le Bijou is also offering a package with order services in quarantine. This allows the guests to convert their apartment into a private health center, whereby they have access to external specialists, food delivery and also a personal chef service. All these being guaranteed the utmost hygienic environment under medical control.
In addition, the hotel is promising its guest access to private monitoring, whereby all their apartments are centrally located and close to an emergency hospital. Besides all the above, the hotel is offering a home office 2.0 package deal. Whereby, each guest enjoys high-speed fiber quality internet and a staff free check-in.
Criticism of the Service
The re-invention of Le Bijou apartments into a quarantined hotel has been met by a huge criticism by different people from the country. Switzerland is among the countries fighting hard to control the spread of coronavirus among its people. According to Johns Hopkins University data, the country has so far at the time of reporting confirmed 16,605 COVID-19 cases, and 433 people succumbed to the virus.
As a result, the country has resulted in implementing strict measures like social distancing, encouraging people to stay at home and also crossing its borders. In addition, the federal council has resulted in closing most business operations in the country, to control people’s movement. After the hotel announced its quarantine services, it was met by huge criticism since it’s not acting in solidarity with the rest.
Rene Frey, CEO Rough Guides, said it is irresponsible, unethical, and commercially wrong for the hotel to operate during the pandemic. He added that the hotel showed a lack of solidarity with all the small shops closed by federal law.