Call for action on unlicensed guest houses after fatal fire
The government should step up inspections of unlicensed guest houses across the city after a fatal fire in Tsim Sha Tsui, the tourism lawmaker and a district councillor have said, arguing that safety was a concern not only to travellers staying there but also residents in the same building.
A traveller from the mainland died and a 70-year-old Hong Kong man was in critical condition in Queen Elizabeth Hospital last night after the fire broke out in a first-floor flat in Hai Phong Mansion on Monday morning.
Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing said on Monday that it was possible the flat was operating as an illegal guest house.
The Home Affairs Department earlier said seven inspections had been carried out at the flat since 2005, with the last one conducted in January last year, but no evidence had been found that it was operating as an unlicensed guest house.
'We are still investigating the case,' a spokeswoman for the department said, adding that its Office of the Licensing Authority would step up inspections at suspected unlicensed guest houses.
The Fire Services Department also established a special task force to investigate the fire.
Tourism sector lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun said the number of unlicensed guest houses had increased since 2003, when mainlanders were first allowed to visit Hong Kong on an individual basis.
'There is simply not enough budget accommodation for these travellers,' he said, adding that unlicensed guest houses would charge as little a HK$200 a night.
According to the Tourism Board, mainland visitors accounted for 57.1 per cent of travellers to the city last year and almost all - some 9.6 million - were on individual visits.
Yau Tsim Mong District Council member Henry Chan Man-yu said there were many so-called shadow guest houses in Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok.
'For guest house owners, it is difficult for them to obtain a licence, and the cost of operating one guest house is similar to operating a number of them in a single building.
'It is how shadow guest houses operate: the owner of a licensed guest house opens a few more unlicensed guest houses in the same building so that they can lure customers and cheat officials during inspections easily,' Mr Chan said.
Mr Tse said that the safety of visitors at unlicensed guest houses could not be guaranteed. They might also cause a nuisance to residents of the same buildings.
'Residents have to share public facilities such as lifts with guests, while the building has to open around the clock,' Mr Tse said.
Mr Chan added that such guest houses would put serious pressure on electricity and drainage.
'Imagine a guest house with seven guests inside a flat who turn on seven air-conditioners around the clock. How often will an ordinary household in a flat have seven air-conditioners all switched on all the time?' Mr Chan asked.
Here to stay?
Prosecutions of guest house operators have fallen
Last year there were 28 prosecutions under the Hotel and Guest House Accommodation Ordinance, from 2007's: 38
