Australia also has mandatory hotel quarantine.HK must have looked at Malaysia's experience. Malaysia initially started with mandatory 2 week quarantine for returning Malaysians (foreigners were not allowed into Malaysia at all). After a while they gave in to the many complaints about the additional costs of these hotel bills. So the government changed to requiring home quarantine. This resulted in several clusters and hotspots. All caused by returnees who did not follow the rules and did not home quarantine properly. After observing this the government very quickly implemented the mandatory 2 week hotel quarantine rule again.
The returnee cannot choose his/her hotel, this is done by the government at the moment of his/her arrival at KL airport. The returnee is not allowed to leave his/her hotel room. Meals are delivered at the door. The hotel is monitored by the government.