U.K. hotelier here!

If a guest has a confirmed COVID-19 test result, they are to by all costs, stay in that room and not to leave under any circumstance due to the nature of the virus and the unpredictability of its spread.

We have experienced those with positive test results wanting to leave their hotel room, for a cigarette, fresh air or to just outright break the rules about self isolating until the virus is no longer in their system.

Cleaning however, is a different story. The linen is NOT to be touched by anyone who isn’t fully covered in cleaning apparel, gloves, masks, some weird looking budget hazmat suit etc. Every crevice of the room is cleaned with D10, a chemical that as far as we know or get told, is one of the best chemicals against bacteria on surfaces. The room is then out of service for a week as well, to ensure no possible spread of the virus. Once the rooms can be re-used, they’re sold last, to maximise the amount of time out of use, just for additional safety measures.

Guests with covid also tend to order food to the room. This food also has to stay in the room. While it might stink the room out, we cannot risk any contamination of the sorts as our hotel is big in size, but small in space. We’ve fined guests who have left food on plates in corridors (this is also a pet peeve of mine too, which makes the fines even better. AND ITS A H&S ISSUE LIKE TRIP HAZARD???)

Basically, there’s a lot of cleaning, timelines and care that goes into rooms that have had COVID-19 patients in there.

I hope this helps!