Hong Kong’s guest houses happy to join government’s transitional homes scheme to stay afloat during Covid-19 crisis
- Pilot scheme aims to subsidise rooms rented in hotels and guest houses by NGOs for transitional housing
- Plan will provide stable income for the next two years at least, Tsim Sha Tsui guest house owner says
Steve Chan is keen on offering his guest houses in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui tourist district to the city as transitional housing to overcome the biggest crisis he has ever faced in 35 years of business.
His company, Man Hing Lung Hotel, owns and operates 30 rooms across six guest houses in Mirador Mansion. The rooms are usually full, taken up by tourists looking for cheap accommodation.
There are about 100 guest houses in Mirador Mansion offering 1,000 rooms. “On this floor alone, there are 100 rooms available from different operators. Between January and June, all these rooms were empty – we did not have a single guest,” said Chan, 52, during an interview at his offices on the building’s 12th floor.
The government scheme will provide stable income for the next two years at least, he said, adding that he was looking to offer 24 of his rooms.
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Covid-19 pandemic forces Hong Kong hotels to rethink hospitality business models
Hong Kong’s guest houses have been hit hard by a sharp decline in tourism, which started last year with the city’s anti-government protests, and has since worsened because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many have been forced to shut down, and those that have survived are now pinning their hopes on the transitional homes scheme.