A four-star hotel in Sliema has been told to shut its doors after a court found that it was so run-down that it was not suitable to host guests.
The Park Hotel was told by the Malta Tourism Authority to refuse any further bookings and shut down.
In a statement, the MTA said it has taken over the hotel’s operations until its final guest packs his or her bags and leaves. Guests currently at the hotel have been offered alternative accommodation.
However, when a Times of Malta journalist visited the hotel, none of the guests had heard about the closure.
A last-ditch attempt by the hotel owners to block the shutdown order failed on Monday, when a court of appeal threw out an injunction request filed by the hotel.
“Photos exhibited by inspectors speak for themselves,” the court said. “The shortcomings are so serious that they make the hotel unsuitable to host guests and offer them hotel services, for any category”.
The MTA had issued an enforcement notice ordering the hotel to close down in June, highlighting a series of serious shortcomings and saying the hotel fell well short of standards expected of a four-star establishment.
Hotel owners disagreed with that assessment, said failings were “minor” and arguing that it had spent around €500,000 on “extensive refurbishment” over the past year.
They also contested the MTA order on legal grounds, arguing that the enforcement order could not be put into action until their appeal against it had been concluded.
The court dismissed those claims.
It is the third time the tourism regulator has told the hotel that it must close for falling short of required standards: an initial enforcement notice issued in October 2016 was followed by a second one in June 2017.
“The hotel was allowed to continue operating despite these two enforcement notices,” the court noted, finding that the hotel owners failed to fall into line despite having almost three years to do so.
In a statement, Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi thanked the MTA for its work and said he hoped the Park Hotel property would be eventually be fixed and reopened as a luxury hotel.