A doctor on call for your hotel: same-day GP care for your guests, arranged in minutes
Every concierge in London knows the call: a guest on the sixth floor is unwell, it is 11pm, and the family at reception is looking to you for an answer. What happens in the next hour decides whether that guest remembers your hotel for the right reasons or the wrong ones. At The Online GP by The Wellness, we look after unwell guests from hotels across central London, and the fix is simple: one WhatsApp message, and a GMC-registered doctor is assessing your guest by phone or video within minutes, or on the way to their room. This page explains how the arrangement works, what it costs, and why more London hotels are building it into their guest care.
Key points
Guests fall ill in hotels every night in London, and the first hour shapes their review, their loyalty and often their decision to return.
A doctor can assess most guests by phone (from £59) or video (£150) within minutes, with prescriptions sent electronically to a nearby pharmacy.
In-room GP visits can be arranged for guests who need to be examined, from our base at Unit 4, 10 Portman Square, minutes from Marylebone, Mayfair and Oxford Street.
One WhatsApp message to +44 7961 280835 is all it takes to arrange care, at any hour you need us.
An arrangement with a private GP partner costs your hotel nothing to set up; guests pay only for the care they use.
The moment every hotel knows
A child with a barking cough at 2am. A business traveller with food poisoning before a morning presentation. An elderly guest whose chest infection has flared on the first night of a family holiday. None of these are rare: central London hotels host tens of thousands of guests a night, and a steady number will need medical help during their stay.
For the guest, the experience is frightening: an unfamiliar city, an unfamiliar health system, and no idea whether to wait, walk to a pharmacy, sit in an emergency department for hours, or do nothing and hope. For your team, it is a test of service. The hotels that handle these nights well do not improvise. They have a number to call.
What a doctor-on-call arrangement looks like
The model is deliberately simple:
Your team messages or calls us. One WhatsApp message to +44 7961 280835 with the guest's situation is enough to start. No forms, no retainer, no minimum volume.
A doctor assesses the guest fast. Most guests can be assessed by phone or video within minutes. Phone consultations cost £59 for 15 minutes; video consultations £150.
Treatment follows immediately. Prescriptions are sent electronically to a pharmacy near your hotel, often within the hour. If the guest needs to be examined in person, an in-room visit can be arranged, or they can be seen at our clinic at Unit 4, 10 Portman Square, London W1H 6AZ, a short ride from most central hotels.
You stay informed. With the guest's permission, we let your team know the outcome, so the follow-up feels joined up rather than anonymous.
Guests pay for their own care, so the arrangement costs your hotel nothing to hold. What it buys is speed, discretion and a calm answer at the worst moment of someone's trip.
What guests most often need
The pattern is consistent across the hotels whose guests we treat:
Stomach illness and food poisoning, often arriving with international travel;
Respiratory infections, from heavy colds and flu to chest infections and croup in children;
Lost or forgotten medication, where a doctor can assess and issue an emergency prescription legally and safely;
Skin problems, ear infections, urinary infections and the everyday illnesses that feel much worse away from home;
Fit-to-fly assessments and medical letters when illness disrupts travel plans;
Honest triage: the calm, expert view on whether tonight needs a hospital or a pharmacy.
Each of these is a moment where a fast, kind answer changes how a guest rates their stay. A guest whose illness was handled beautifully often becomes the most loyal guest of all.
Why not simply send guests to urgent care?
Walk-in urgent care in central London typically costs £100 to £250 before any prescription, with an unfamiliar queue on top. An emergency department is the right place for genuine emergencies, and we say so plainly when it is, but most hotel-room illness is not an emergency. For those guests, a four-hour wait under strip lighting is the worst version of the night, and it is the version they will describe in their review.
A phone consultation at £59 resolves most situations within the hour, in the guest's own room, in their own language of reassurance. The NHS remains the right route for many guests, and 111 is always available; what we offer is the faster, more personal option when your team wants a doctor's full attention for a guest, now.
How to set this up for your hotel
There is no contract to negotiate and nothing to install. Most concierge teams simply save our WhatsApp number, +44 7961 280835, and our phone line, 020 3951 3429, and use them when a guest needs help. If you would like a short introduction call for your front-of-house team, covering how we work, what to tell guests, and typical response times, message us and we will arrange it at no cost.
Message us on WhatsApp at +44 7961 280835 or call 020 3951 3429 to arrange care for a guest tonight, or to set up an introduction for your team. You can also explore how we look after travellers in our guides to hotel doctor visits in London and private GP home and hotel visits.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly can a doctor see a hotel guest?
Phone and video consultations are usually available within minutes to an hour, day and night. In-room visits depend on the hour and location, but from our base at Portman Square we can reach most Marylebone, Mayfair, Soho and Oxford Street hotels quickly. Your team will always be given an honest timescale before anything is arranged.
What does it cost a guest?
Phone consultations cost £59 for 15 minutes, video consultations £150, and in-person appointments at our clinic £220. In-room hotel visits are priced when arranged, depending on the hour and location; we always confirm the cost with the guest before the doctor sets off. There are no hidden fees.
Does an arrangement cost the hotel anything?
No. Guests pay for their own care. Hotels hold our details as a service to their guests, exactly as they hold a trusted car service or florist. There is no retainer, no contract and no minimum volume.
Can you help out of hours, on weekends and on bank holidays?
Yes. Phone and video assessments are available across evenings, weekends and bank holidays, which is precisely when hotel guests most often need them. Message +44 7961 280835 at any hour and we will tell you honestly what we can do and how fast.
Which areas do you cover for in-room visits?
We are based at Unit 4, 10 Portman Square, London W1H 6AZ, so Marylebone, Mayfair, Soho, Fitzrovia, Oxford Street, Marble Arch, Paddington and Knightsbridge are all within easy reach. For hotels further afield, phone and video consultations remain the fastest option and cover everything that does not need a physical examination.
What happens if a guest needs a hospital?
We tell them, plainly and immediately, and help your team arrange the right route. Part of the value of a real doctor on the line is honest triage: knowing when home care is enough, when a prescription solves it, and when only a hospital will do. We never keep a guest out of an emergency department who belongs in one.
References
NHS: How to access health services as a visitor to the UK, reviewed 2024.
NICE Clinical Knowledge Summary: managing acute illness in the community, 2024.
UKHSA guidance on gastrointestinal illness for travellers and hospitality settings, 2025.
Written by The Wellness Team and medically reviewed by The Wellness Clinical Team. This article is general information for hotels and their guests and is not a substitute for a personal consultation. In a medical emergency, call 999.