The lobby is in virtual darkness, occupied only by members of the police force who lounge in scattered leather armchairs - at a suitable social distance, of course.
of Enlarge image Advertisement It's not often that you arrive at a normally bustling and inviting five-star hotel on an early weekday evening to discover that there's no sign of a top-hatted driveway commissionaire to greet you and that the sliding glass front doors are shut tight. What's more, the lobby itself is in virtual darkness. Occupied only by members of the police force who lounge, suitably socially distanced, of course, in its scattered leather armchairs.
It'll also be an opportunity to gauge how hotels - after a decidedly rough start when the Federal Government first introduced hotel quarantining of Australians travellers returning from abroad - are endeavouring to make their guests' protracted 14-day stays as comfortable, entertaining and endurable as possible.
"It's important for us that we look after our guests, even if they are here under quarantine," says Sam Panetta, general manager of the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth. "They're here for 14 days and the concert is a gesture of goodwill on our behalf, especially as this group is on its last week of quarantine."
Slowly the guests begin to emerge from inside their room and out onto their balconies, with those with only windows to watch from having the music ingeniously live-streamed to their suites. All ages, the assembled guests are a microcosm of the Australian travelling public. Remarkably, after so much time spent in their rooms all of those visible seem to be cheerful enough, too, and ready and willing to party and dance even.
Inside the nearby ballroom, which is normally reserved for functions and events, hotel staff have arranged each dinner, packed inside scores of neat standard brown paper shopping bags, on top of large tables, according to room numbers, dietary and even religious requirements.
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