A stay at notorious Jordan hotels may prove a night to remember

Over the years, travellers to Hong Kong have enjoyed high tea at The Peninsula and savoured the elegance and splendour of the Mandarin Oriental. But for the less well heeled, a stay in the city might consist of a night at the quarter-century-old San Diego Hotel or its younger sibling, the New San Diego.

If history is anything to go by, a night at either of the 122-room properties could be less than peaceful.

While the San Diego and New San Diego might not be household names, their notoriety is legend on the police crime blotter. However, despite the hotels' unfortunate and recurring brushes with crime, police say the incidents are dealt with strictly on a case-by-case basis.

The San Diego Hotel in Jordan's Woosung Street, which opened its doors in 1984, hit the headlines last month when police seized HK$20 million in illegal soccer and horse-racing betting records - believed to have been run by triads - in a raid.

It was linked with a raid in Kowloon Bay by officers from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau, in which HK$150 million worth of illegal betting slips were seized.

Altogether, it was the largest number of illegal betting records found in one police operation in the city.

Minor crimes make city spot news pages regularly, but a look back uncovers a list of higher profile misdemeanours.