Post-COVID-19 biz travel: Jet in, go to hotel, meet in rooms sliced into sealed halves to separate locals and visitors. Still get jetlag
- Reference: 1613718913
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/02/19/the_new_normal_of_business/
- Source link:
The island state's offering is called [1]Connect@Changi and is a four-star business hotel created inside the Singapore Expo convention center that's just a couple of kilometers from Changi airport.
[2]
The facility promises transfers from Changi Airport, ongoing COVID-19 testing, three meals a day and concierge services. Facilities include an indoor courtyard and workout pods.
But visitors don't get to visit Singapore itself. It's expected they'll instead meet with locals in rooms that offer two airtight compartments, one for Singaporeans and another for hotel guests.
[3]
Foreign visitors and locals never physically interact, other than by passing sanitised documents through a small window.
Visitors to Connect@Changi can forego Singapore’s strict 14-night quarantine in favour of safety protocols and COVID tests.
By May the facility aims to offer around 660 hotel rooms starting at 384 Singapore dollars (289 USD) per night, and 170 meeting rooms ranging between 20 and 200 Singapore dollars per hour.
Travelers can therefore get the worst bits of business travel - jetlag and air miles - but miss the perk of squeezing in some tourism or souvenir shopping.
The facility goes a fair way towards illustrating how Singapore will execute the [4]August 2021 World Economic Forum meeting, aka Davos but not in Davos, that is scheduled to take place in the nation.
[5]
Singapore is betting the hotel can boost the local economy which, according to the [6]Trade and Industry Ministry , shrank a record 5.4 percent last year as visitor rates dropped by 86 percent. ®
Get our [7]Tech Resources
[1] https://connectatchangi.sg/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_personal_tech/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YC@aSn35p2oYMNLXFeGAgAAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_personal_tech/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YC@aSn35p2oYMNLXFeGAgAAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.weforum.org/press/2021/02/special-annual-meeting-in-singapore-to-take-place-in-august-2021
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_personal_tech/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YC@aSn35p2oYMNLXFeGAgAAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.mti.gov.sg/
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Interetsing technology here
No need to build new facilities. Most prisons have the requisite physically separated facilities to cater keep visitors and inmates separated, some with screens already. They already have the "hotel" facilities.
As for Changi, I believe there is a well known prison by that name. Could be a lucrative source of revenue for prisons.
How about a 3 day business trip spent at the "Bangkok Hilton"?
Prison food is not all bad - or rather, food cooked by prisoners...
"The Clink" at Brixton Prison
[1]https://theclinkcharity.org/restaurants/brixton
have a fine evening meal and bed down for the night in one of the cells. You may be risking things in getting back to meet your flight on time the next day at the hands of Group 4 who may be contracted to provide transport, but it all adds up to the "experience"
[1] https://theclinkcharity.org/restaurants/brixton
Re: Interetsing technology here
If the BOFH and the PFY manage to conceal some contraband into the PHB's laptop that gets detected when entering the facility... he may end up with a body cavity search
Why?
I mean why go to the trouble and expense and physical inconveniance for a slightly higher res version of Zoom, etc.
Oh, your company makes you use WebEx or Teams? Ah, yes I see why you would want to pay to go to a 5-star prison half way round the world...
Re: Why?
If the suits stayed put, they'd have to spend the time saved on travel doing some real work, and not get the air miles.
Telepresence and a commercial multifunction printer at each end should achieve the same. May be Telepresence could cut a deal with air miles to offer some incentive to not travelling
Why?
13 hours in a tube each way from London and there are several cases of spreading that have to have been on the flight
You cannot even exchange brown envelopes
Re: Why?
I parsed this as "13 hours in _the_ tube" as in "the underground"... surely the London underground isn't that bad, I thought to myself....
I think I should call it a day, take an early weekend, I'm just not awake enough.
Hole in the wall?
Pay a little extra and you get a hole in the wall with a cover over it. Self isolation except for a hole in the wall has been popular for years.
Interetsing technology here
" ... visitors [...] meet with locals in rooms that offer two airtight compartments , one for Singaporeans and another for hotel guests. Foreign visitors and locals never physically interact, other than by passing sanitised documents through a small window . "
A small airtight window?