Delta Vacations announced today that when booking a vacation package with them, they’ll only be showing hotels that offer COVID-19 on-site testing.
The reason for this change is because all air travelers entering the US now have to be able to provide a negative COVID-19 result from a test that took place in the prior three days. That could be tricky depending on where you’re visiting, so this policy for new bookings will help provide peace of mind that you’ll be able to obtain a test and return to the US as scheduled provided the result comes back negative.
This update from Delta Vacations came into effect today and will be valid on all new reservations through at least March 31. It wouldn’t surprise me if that date gets extended, but there’s no certainty that’ll be the case. As things currently stand, the search results clearly state that in-hotel COVID testing is included and includes a link to show more details about the policy; I suspect that information will remain even when Delta Vacations starts showing all properties again.
While this is a positive development in that it’ll give you peace of mind, it does mean that for now you’ll be limited as to which hotels you can book via Delta Vacations. If more travel companies follow Delta’s stance, it’ll hopefully encourage more hotels to include this as part of a guest’s stay, similar to what Hyatt is doing with their properties in Latin America.
Something important to note is that the announcement from Delta Vacations only states that hotels will provide on-site testing – unlike Hyatt in Latin America, it doesn’t state that the tests will be free. There may well be properties that provide free COVID-19 testing, but be aware that there might be costs involved depending on the property you book a stay at.
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