Premier Inn seeks to rehouse key workers and vulnerable familes as hotels close

Carol Karaca told Inside Housing that her daughter, a nurse working in intensive care, was placed at a Premier Inn in Romford near the Queen’s Hospital on Monday because she was not able to live at home with her mum, who is at high risk of contracting coronavirus.

After returning from her shift on Wednesday, Ms Karaca’s daughter, alongside other NHS colleagues, received a letter which said the hotel would be closing soon. Ms Karaca said her daughter was only given two hours to vacate her room.

According to Ms Karaca, Queen’s Hospital was able to find another independent hotel for its staff to stay in. However, Ms Karaca worries about what will happen if that hotel was to close, too.

A spokesperson for Premier Inn said NHS staff at this hotel have been transferred to another key worker hotel. It said if they had booked privately, they would not have been identifiable as key workers.

An Essex resident, who would prefer not to be named, told Inside Housing that they and their children had been given until today to vacate their hotel room. Both the resident and their daughter are severely disabled and have been placed in the hotel as temporary accommodation by their council.

The resident said the Premier Inn hotel they are staying in is the only accommodation with disabled access and appropriate facilities available to them.

The Premier Inn spokesperson said no families in this position would be evicted.

They added: “We will be working to help them on a case-by-case basis, including by either out-book them into one of our operational key worker hotels. We remain in ongoing conversation with government about how we can best offer our support.

“It is worth noting here that depending on how people made the booking, it is not always readily clear who is in a vulnerable group, but our site teams are working closely with individuals to identify this as efficiently as possible.”

On Monday, following prime minister Boris Johnson’s speech which introduced tougher rules on social distancing, hotels were among the business that were listed as needing to close.

However, the advice did state that these premises should be able to remain open if they were part of the response to support key workers or businesses providing support to homeless people.

A notice on the Premier Inn’s website posted on Tuesday reads: “Following the prime minister’s address to the nation last night, we have now received specific instruction that hotels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, campsites, caravan parks and boarding houses are required to close.

Homelessness minister Luke Hall sent a letter to hotel owners Wednesday confirming that hotels, hostels and B&Bs should stay open if they are providing accommodation to homeless people or key workers.

On Wednesday, Inside Housing reported that families living in temporary accommodation, including a large number of disabled people, had been forced onto the streets as Travelodge decided to close the majority of its hotels in response to lockdown measures announced by Mr Johnson.

A Premier Inn spokesperson said: “Following the prime minister’s address to the nation on 23 March we received specific instruction that hotels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, campsites, caravan parks, and boarding houses are required to close. As a result we will be temporarily closing our Premier Inn hotels as soon as it is practical to do so, for a minimum of three weeks in line with government guidelines.

“As a result our guest relations teams have been contacting Premier Inn customers directly and full refunds are being offered to all guests who have stays up to 14 April and now need to cancel. We’re also discussing with the government how we can continue to support the national effort by supporting frontline key workers with accommodation. We join the nation in thanking them for their tireless work.”

Update at 4.00pm on 26 March: This article was updated to include Premier Inn’s response and to make clear that the government guidance did list hotels as needing to close but this included advice that these premises should be able to remain open if they were part of the response to support key workers or businesses providing support to homeless people.

Update at 12.30pm on 27 March: A Premier Inn spokesperson contacted Inside Housing to confirm that long-stay guests, including families in temporary accommodation, would be housed elsewhere and would not be evicted. The spokesperson also confirmed that the chain would keep some hotels open for NHS staff. The story has been updated accordingly.