The government recently announced a new plan where travellers can stay in quarantine hotels for the first seven days after their arrival, and then finish their second week of quarantine at home. Though it sounds like this update would save people seven days of hotel fees, there wasn't the price drop that people expected.
Some netizens said on Facebook that if they want to add a second person to their quarantine room, it would cost an extra NT$3,000 a night. Overall, the average price for these quarantine rooms has risen NT$1,500 a night, meaning that travelers will be paying the price of ten days for a seven-day stay.
Even with these steep prices, it's not easy to get your hands on a quarantine room. The rooms in January are almost all booked in Taipei, New Taipei, and Taoyuan, with most availability only left in Hualien and Taitung.
Transport minister Wang Kuo-tsai says if hotels raise the prices of quarantine rooms by over 20%, they will no longer be eligible for the government's subsidies, which will be boosted from NT$1,000 to NT$1,500 daily per room.
Starting Wednesday, travelers can book their stays at one of the 21,600 quarantine rooms reserved for this high influx. Many people used to think the hardest part of quarantine was overcoming boredom, but now it seems that getting a room may be the biggest challenge.