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Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance to be amended
The Governor-in-Council has approved a bill to amend the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance with a view to eliminating several deficiencies in the ordinance, the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Michael Suen, said today (Tuesday).
Addressing a luncheon of the Lions Club of South Kowloon, Hong Kong, Mr Suen said the bill would be introduced into the Legislative Council later this month.
The Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance, which was enacted in May 1991 and came into effect in September the same year, provides for a licensing scheme to regulate hotels, guesthouses and similar accommodations to ensure that they comply with the requirements on fire and building safety, health and hygiene.
In the process of implementing the licensing scheme by the Licensing Authority (LA) of the Home Affairs Department, several deficiencies in the ordinance have been identified.
"A major weakness relates to the definition of 'hotel' and 'guesthouse', which has unintentionally allowed establishments offering accommodation only to certain categories of persons, such as those of a particular nationality or clients of one tourist agency, to operate outside the ambit of the ordinance," Mr Suen said.
Furthermore, he added, a potential legal loophole in the definition concerning the term "any person presenting himself" had arisen following an earlier High Court judgement which ruled that hotels which accepted guests with prior reservations were not within the purview of the ordinance.
To prevent the loopholes from undermining the integrity of the licensing scheme, Mr Suen said, amendments to the definition of "hotel" and "guesthouse" had been proposed so that the definition would include establishments which offered accommodation to limited categories of persons, and that a person might present himself in person or through an agent or a representative, with or without prior booking.
"There are also inconsistencies in the ordinance relating to closure order and cessation of use of the premises as a hotel or guesthouse," Mr Suen added.
Under the ordinance, premises closed by order may not be re-entered by a contractor to carry out remedial works.