Some hotels getting away with banquet-license breaches

Nina Hotel chain and five-star Hotel ICON have allow couples to hold banquets without a proper license in breach of the law, Eastweek magazine, The Standard's sister publication, has found.

This came after more than 50 couples' banquets set to be held from this month to the first quarter next year were canceled by Nina Hotel Tsuen Wan West as one of its ballrooms does not have a license for banquets, a media report claimed.

Violators face a maximum penalty of HK$50,000 and six months in jail for breaching the law.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department told Eastweek that the hotel's Nina Ballroom only obtained a place of public entertainment license, which is not a permit to host banquets.

Banquet halls at Nina Hotel Causeway Bay and Nina Hotel Island South under Chinachem Group were also found without a restaurant license for holding banquet.

A man surnamed Cheung told the magazine that he booked 20 tables for his wedding banquet at Nina Ballroom for early next year but was told two weeks ago that the venue would have to be closed until the end of March next year.

Cheung, who made a HK$100,000 down payment, was offered several solutions such as postponing the banquet to after March or a full refund. The hotel and Cheung have yet to come to an agreement.

Eastweek said it understood more than 70 banquets could also have been canceled.

The magazine has investigated dozens of hotels that are popular for wedding banquets and found two did not have a restaurant license for several of their halls. One is five-star InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong. The FEHD confirmed that three of its five wedding banquet venues, such as the Picasso Room, do not have a license.

As of yesterday, information on the three banquet venues without a restaurant license was not available on the hotel's webpage for weddings.

Another five-star venue, Hotel ICON, wholly owned by Polytechnic University and an extension of PolyU's School of Hotel and Tourism Management, was also found to have two venues without license to hold banquets. They are the hall on the first floor of the Tsim Sha Tsui hotel and its Chinese restaurant Above & Beyond.

The magazine found that both venues in Hotel ICON have only obtained the Home Affairs Department's Club (Safety of Premises) Ordinance Certificate, which means they could only provide services to club members and their guests.

When Eastweek reporters visited Hotel ICON last week pretending to be preparing for a wedding, staff did not inform them that the venues were registered under a club certificate and did not ask them to register as members.

Hotel ICON told them their two venues have always complied with the operation guidelines of the certificate and each customer would automatically become a hotel member.

"In the future, the hotel would continue to keep this operation mode and provide [the venues] for members as wedding banquet, wedding venues and other usages," a hotel spokesman told Eastweek.

A consultant who helps catering premises obtain licenses said the FEHD's weak monitoring has made it easy for hotels to operate without proper license.

"When FEHD officers inspect the premises, they would generally focus on monitoring the hygienic issues," the consultant said. "They rarely check the license and architectural drawing in detail."

maisy.mok@singtaonewscorp.com