Liliana Ratcliff, who spent 20 years working in hospitals, told Victoria's hotel quarantine inquiry she feared her family would catch COVID-19 during their stay.

She said she repeatedly observed security guards failing to wear personal protective equipment or maintain social distancing.

"They were very lovely people. I really felt for them actually because they had tried to make our stay pleasant," Ms Ratcliff said on Friday.

"But I was not observing infection control. I made the assumption they didn't understand infection control."

Her family returned from Spain on May 6 and were taken to the Stamford Plaza, which along with the Rydges on Swanston were the only quarantine hotels to record major coronavirus outbreaks.

She said even the nursing staff didn't follow procedure when testing guests for COVID-19.

"I never observed them change their gloves before they started or after. I didn't see spare gloves, I didn't see a glove bin, a PPE bin," Ms Ratcliff said.

Ms Ratcliff and her family decided not to leave their room after what they observed in the first few days.

She wrote a formal complaint to the Department of Health and Human Services on May 18 but is yet to hear back.

Sue Erasmus, who stayed at the same hotel with her family after returning from South Africa on May 1, raised similar concerns at the inquiry.

She said security guards and nursing staff told her they were working across multiple hotels.

"In terms of infection control it would have been more wise to keep a certain set of staff at a certain venue," Ms Erasmus, a trained nurse, said.

"We were pretty much sitting ducks."

Ms Erasmus' husband Ron lost his father during their visit to South Africa and his mental health deteriorated during quarantine.

"I have never seen him like that. He was extremely out of character," she said.

Mr Erasmus was told to call a DHHS phone number and ask for a mental health counsellor by name.

When he called, he was told the counsellor "did not exist".

"Call it chaos, call it a lack of organisation, it stopped me from doing (counselling)," Mr Erasmus said.

During one fresh-air break, Ms Erasmus fractured her foot playing with her children.

The couple said two security guards did not help her and she lay on the ground in "agony".

"They left it to me to carry Sue back up to the room. They wouldn't touch us, they wouldn't come close to us," Mr Erasmus said, noting it took six hours for his wife to be taken to hospital.

When she returned to the hotel in crutches, the couple asked for a room with a more accessible bathroom. It was not provided and Ms Erasmus went on to slip a disc in her back.

Luke Ashford, a senior employee at Parks Victoria who was seconded to the DHHS from May 25, worked in seven quarantine hotels as an authorised officer.

He told the inquiry he completed a one-hour training session in equity and diversity but was not trained in infection control or how to use PPE.

Mr Ashford resigned on June 18 after he saw security guards and hotel workers repeatedly breach infection control procedures.

"I didn't feel that was being taken seriously enough - that hygiene and PPE and people just doing the right thing to ensure that we didn't get infected," he said.

A security guard, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will appear before the inquiry in the afternoon.

He worked at two "hot hotels", where returned overseas travellers who tested positive to COVID-19 stayed.

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Australian Associated Press