‘Test & Rest’ – Irish hotel offers private Covid-19 testing for guests

The Carlton Hotel Dublin Airport is betting on it, with new overnight packages offering PCR Covid-19 tests to guests before and after travel.

Priced at €249 per room per night, a ‘Test, Rest & Fly’ package includes B&B and a PCR Covid-19 test for one – a nasal and throat swab taken on-site.

A similar ‘Test & Rest’ package is aimed at arriving passengers. The price for two guests sharing a room, and both taking Covid tests, is €418.

Tests are administered by Irish healthcare provider, Vida Care, with results available the next day by SMS and email and, presuming they are negative, certification stating that this is the case.

It comes as growing numbers of EU countries are allowing travellers from regions with high rates of Covid-19 to avoid quarantine if they show evidence of a negative Covid test result.

Ireland has adopted the EU’s ‘traffic light’ system for travel and this week began allowing passengers from ‘orange’ regions to avoid restricting their movements if they show evidence of a negative test result from the previous 72 hours.

From November 29, travellers from ‘red’ regions will be able to stop restricting their movements if they receive a negative PCR Covid-19 test result a minimum of five days after arriving into the country.

“The hospitality, airline and wider tourism industry has been devastated by this pandemic and we felt the need and saw an opportunity to do something positive to give both business and leisure travellers the confidence and peace of mind to travel safely again,” said Declan Meagher, GM of Carlton Dublin Airport.

Under Level 5 lockdown, the hotel is open to guests travelling for essential reasons only. But travel testing is gaining momentum – this week Cork and Shannon airports will begin offering €149 drive-thru tests provided by RocDoc, and Government is to hear back from a cross-Departmental technical group with a testing plan that could be in place by December.

"Obviously we want to get it live before the Christmas season,” Sales & Marketing Manager Aideen Kennedy said of the Carlton Dublin Airport’s package. “To give people that are travelling home a little bit of assurance.”

Conor Kelly, CEO of Vida Care, said the system would offer “passengers, businesses and many others a safe, secure and simple way to start travelling again with confidence.”

While the aviation and tourism industries have been crying out for testing solutions to reboot travel, however, there are also concerns at the affordability of private tests – particularly for leisure, budget and family markets.

“PCR testing should be widely available, but at a cost of £120 to £150 a test it’s prohibitive,” Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary told the World Travel Market virtual conference in London yesterday.

Testing should take place before passengers arrive at airports, he added.

“People should be coming to the airport with a negative test. Then we can go back to short-haul flying with reasonable confidence. Long haul will take longer.”