Tel Aviv coronavirus hotel gets five stars from recent guest

“It was a five-star stay,” she said of her time in the Metropolitan. “The staff was so nice and so generous.”

By HANNAH BROWN
Palm Beach Hotel, Acre (photo credit: SIMPLEX HOTEL MARKETING)
Palm Beach Hotel, Acre
(photo credit: SIMPLEX HOTEL MARKETING)
“I had a first-class coronavirus experience,” said Marion Fischel, a journalist who recently spent 10 days in quarantine in a coronavirus hotel in Tel Aviv after returning from a trip abroad.
Fischel, who used to write for The Jerusalem Post, was sent to the Metropolitan, a coronavirus hotel in Tel Aviv after returning to Israel from a brief stay in Athens and several months in Spain. She had been visiting Madrid to research a book on Jewish sites in that city in early March when suddenly it became impossible to return to Israel, due to the high rate of infection in Spain. After a few months, she found her way back and was pleasantly surprised by the reception that she received upon her return.
“It was a five-star stay,” she said of her time in the Metropolitan. “The staff was so nice and so generous.”
She was enthusiastic about the location of the hotel, the food and all amenities. “There was one cooked meal a day, with chicken or fish and potatoes.” The staff of the hotel – to her surprise – accommodated her dietary requirements. She is lactose intolerant and prefers not to eat gluten.
“If they sent me something with lactose, they would apologize and try to find a substitute,” she said.
Hotel guests received Dove shampoo and body wash in large bottles, not the tiny containers that hotels are famous for.
“We were supposed to clean our own rooms,” she said. “If you wanted to vacuum, you were supposed to call the desk and a vacuum would be left outside your room.” New sheets were brought twice a week.
For the first four days, the guests were allowed to exercise, although Fischel was surprised to find most guests were “smoking and looking at their phones” instead of taking advantage of the time outside their rooms to get in some physical fitness. After the guests were no longer allowed to go to the gym, she watched music videos on VH1 and danced around her room.
The one odd part of the whole experience was that after being processed at the airport, she was expected to get to the hotel on her own and went by cab. Had she been infected with the virus, it would have been a dangerous ride for the driver and subsequent passengers. She was never tested for the virus but did not experience any symptoms. Since Greece has done so well recently in terms of containing the virus, she was released after 10 days instead of the expected two weeks.
Fischel, who recently published a short e-book on Amazon, Introduction to “Integrated Emotional Intelligence”: Book 1, had only one criticism of the way the hotel was run: that there was a great deal of waste because disposable plates, utensils and plastic and aluminum containers were used and not recycled. “It was dreadful.”
Seven of the country’s coronavirus hotels have been closed down or will be by the end of the week, but the Metropolitan is not among these. Fischel, who is currently working and babysitting her grandchildren, considers herself lucky to have had the experience.
“This generosity of spirit on the part of the state is something I had not seen up till then,” she said.


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