Government ordered closure in July
After being forced by the Macau government to close its doors in July, the Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel has yet to begin work to rectify the fire safety issues that led to the shutdown, reports the Macau Business Daily.
On July 23, the Macau Government Tourism Office ordered the Taipa hotel to close for a minimum of six months. Almost two months later, the property is “delivering requests to the Public Works office” for the required repairs, but has not yet started the job.
“At this moment, from what we know, they have yet to conduct any work,” said Helena De Senna Fernandes, director of the MGTO. “We received letters from the hotel saying that they are having difficulties in terms of documents coming in, in regards to the construction works.”
Fernandes added that she is not prepared to extend the deadline, and if the six months pass without the work being completed, the property may have to close for good. “I can’t say that there won’t be other factors that might create another consideration but at this moment our decision is not to prolong the deadline,” Fernandes said.
The hotel, home of the Greek Mythology Casino is also under fire for allegedly overselling hotel rooms and bilking 30 travel agencies of more than HK$250 million (US$32.2 million), Macau Travel Industry Council President Andy Wu Keng Kuong said.
Travel agencies from Macau, Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland are among the plaintiffs as well as some travelers who booked the rooms. Wu said hotel management promised to provide the members of his group with about 700,000 hotel rooms for HK$250 million from 2014 to this year, but only 599 rooms were available each day.
“Even if they provided all the 599 rooms to us all 365 days a year, we don’t think they could fulfill all our bookings, which was altogether 700,000 hotel rooms,” Wu said.
In a statement in July, MGTO officials said it closed the hotel because of code violations including blocked exits and an inadequate number of fire extinguishers. It accused the management of “posing a threat to public safety” and “harming the image” of Macau’s tourism industry. According to the statement, it was the first time that the government had decided to temporarily close down a five-star hotel in Macau.
