DOT to hotels: Cater to tourists 

or operate as isolation facility

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Jan. 8 (PIA) -- According to the Department of Tourism (DOT), under the Modified General Community Quarantine or General Community Quarantine, accommodation establishments can either operate as isolation facilities or as leisure stay, but not at the same time. 

In an advisory on monitoring of accommodation establishments operating for quarantine and leisure purposes, DOT-7 Regional Director Shahlimar Hofer Tamano said “we urge you to choose between continuing to operate as quarantine or isolation facility or provide accommodation for business and leisure or staycation purposes."

At the beginning of the quarantine, local authorities tapped accommodation establishments that closed due to the pandemic to open as isolation or quarantine facilities for Returning Overseas Filipinos (ROFs) or as quarters for healthcare workers and medical frontliners. 

Accommodation establishments offered to convert their leisure facilities to cater to the ROFs through the government repatriation program for locally stranded individuals who opt to spend their isolation in hotels and for authorized persons outside residence during their mandatory quarantine procedures.

But as the country continues to ease up on the stringent policies, the DOT allowed the accommodation establishments in MGCQ and GCQ areas to open at full operational capacity, subject to the hotel management’s decision and compliance with the safety guidelines.

DOT stressed that hotels and other accommodation establishments still cannot operate for staycation and temporary quarantine facility at the same time amid the health risks. 

For added safety and security, DOT reminded these facilities operating under MGC as quarantine or isolation facilities for ROFs or as quarters for healthcare workers that they are prohibited from providing accommodation to guests for business and leisure purposes. 

As stated in the DOT Administrative Order (AO) No. 2020-006, the only hotels that can accommodate guests for staycations are those that are not concurrently being used as quarantine or isolation facilities for repatriated OFWs or ROFs or as quarters for healthcare workers.

In the same AO, DOT defines staycations as referring to an activity involving a minimum of an overnight stay for leisure purposes in an accommodation establishment that is not utilized as a mandatory COVID-19 quarantine facility.

To be able to operate as accommodation establishments catering to business and leisure, they have to obtain from the DOT Certificates of Authority to Operate for Staycations (CAOS). (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

TAKE YOUR PICK. DOT Secretary Bernadette Romuo Puyat was quoted in reports as saying the accommodation establishments must choose between operating as isolation facilities solely or accepting only tourists for business and leisure stay, but not both. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol file photo) 

MODALA RESORT HOTEL. This new chic hotel tends to benefit largely from totally saying no to becoming an isolation facility. With the DOT policy for opening up accommodation establishment to business and leisure, Modala now needs no disinfection and does not carry the burden of having to defend themselves from people traumatized by the virus. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)