After being forced to temporarily close its doors by the Macau Government Tourism Office, the Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel has reportedly yet to start work to rectify any of the fire safety issues that led to its shuttering.
According to a report from Macau Business Daily newspaper, the Taipa venue, which was asked to close for an initial six-month period on July 23, is still in the process of “delivering requests to the Public Works office” for the required work but has yet to move forward.
“At this moment, from what we know, they have yet to conduct any works on the [Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel],” Helena De Senna Fernandes, Director for the Macau Government Tourism Office, told the newspaper. “Just yesterday 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 declared that the Macau?property may be forced to permanently close as her office is currently not considering an extension to July’s six-month deadline.
“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 told the newspaper.
The embattled hotel, which is home to the Greek Mythology Casino and was previously known as the New Century Hotel, is also facing a lawsuit from a group of travel agencies alleging that it sold more rooms than it could provide. The complaint lodged with the Public Prosecutions Office earlier this week claims that the venue had unfulfilled contracts for some 70,000 rooms at the time of its closure amounting to losses of around $32.2 million.
Fernandes stated that the issue was not under the supervision of the Macau Government Tourism Office as it is a “commercial conflict between various parties” and advised the plaintiffs to seek recompense from the enclave’s Consumer Council.
In their complaint, the travel agencies contend that the disputed rooms were sold to around 30 individuals and travel agencies from Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China. They are asking authorities to intervene and force the venue to pay compensation following a face-to-face dialogue.
“The [Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel] is only supposed to provide a maximum of 599 hotel rooms per day and we found out that they were selling more rooms than they could provide,” Wong Fai, a convener for the plaintiffs, told the Teledifusao De Macau radio and television network. “It doesn’t care if the rooms have been previously booked by other customers and it is charging us way more than it could offer, which was 599 rooms per day.”