Question says it all. Let’s say I plan to stay a week in the Kingdom of Wonder. I book a week at a hotel or guesthouse. I manage to get a visa, insurance, test results 72 hrs prior to departure. On arrival, I ‘wait’ in the airport 24-48 hrs for test results. Does the hotel refund me the 1-2 days I didn’t stay there? Or do I just claim I arrived late and eat the charge.

What if I’m then told to self quarantine for 2 weeks? And the hotel says that my reservation runs out in 5 days (2 spent waiting for results), and there are no more rooms left? Do I self quarantine at one place then move to another?

Final question. Let’s say, one person on the flight tests positive, and everyone goes into government quarantine for 2 weeks. Obviously I stayed zero days at the hotel. Does the hotel give me a complete refund?

This must be a real dilemma for hotels and guest houses as well. Because of waiting for test results and potential government quarantine they have no idea when guests will show up, if at all.

Any thoughts?

In these circumstances, Nuke, i personally would not pay for any reservation in advance.
And certainly that would not be necessary, i don't think there will be any shortage of hotel rooms available.

If this is just a hypothetical - i have no idea what the protocol is
probably a very individual thing to be played out between you and the innkeeper.

I’d echo Stern. Don’t book. Turn up. Check in. There will be plenty of rooms available.

You could email the hotel about rates and availability. Probably better rates than booking.com. A friend recently stayed in a bungalow on the beach on Koh Rong for $70, normally it is $210. If it was in anywhere else in the country it would have been $35 as it was nothing fancy, but Koh Rong is a premium spot. Lots of reasonable deals there now. Normally it's way too expensive.

I think you’ll probably find some places willing to hold a “credit” for you given the circumstances. just communicate via email so you have it in writing. I always stay at the same hotels and have made last minute changes a few times without problems so being a repeat customer also helps.