Beijing's Imperial Palace Hotel has reportedly been forced to close temporarily by the Macau government's tourism agency, but has yet to begin work to correct the fire safety issues that led to the closure.
According to a report by the Macau Economic Daily, the Taipa venue, which was initially asked to close for six months on July 23, is still in the process of "delivering a request to a public office" for necessary work, but no progress has yet been made.
"From what we know now, they have not yet proceeded with any work on [the Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel]," Helena de Sena Fernandez, director of the Macau Government Tourism Authority, told the newspaper. "Just yesterday we received a letter from the hotel saying that we were struggling with incoming documents regarding construction work."
Fernandez has declared that Macau's properties may be closed permanently because its office is not currently considering extending the six-month deadline in July.
"We cannot say that there will be no other factors to make other considerations, but our current decision is not to extend the deadline," Fernandez told the newspaper.
The embattled hotel, home to the Greek Mythology Casino and formerly known as the New Century Hotel, is also facing a lawsuit from a travel agency group for selling more rooms than it can offer. A complaint filed with the prosecution's office earlier this week alleges the site had outstanding contracts for about 70,000 rooms at the time of the closure, with losses amounting to about $32.2 million.
Fernandez said the issue is not supervised by the Macau government's tourism agency because it is a "commercial conflict between various parties" and advised plaintiffs to seek compensation from the region's consumer commission.
The travel agencies said in a complaint that they sold the disputed rooms to more than 30 individuals and travel agencies from Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China, claiming that authorities are intervening and forcing compensation after face-to-face conversations.
"[The Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel] is supposed to offer only up to 599 hotel rooms a day, and we find that they are selling more rooms than they can offer," plaintiffs convenience company Wong Fai told Telefusao De Macao radio and television station. "I don't care if those rooms were previously booked by other customers and are charging much more than the 599 rooms per day that it can offer us."