After a four-month exercise by the Chongqing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, 199 small unlicensed hotels have been closed, and another 914 operators that are not qualified to manage a hotel have been brought into the rental housing administration system by the public security organs.
The residential house rental and hotel industry has been developing rapidly in Chongqing over the last few years. Many of these family hotels and apartments are regarded by the authorities as posing risks to fire safety and public security as their hardware facilities are not qualified.
The two public security organs launched an initiative to punish unlicensed small hotels in March 2009. Altogether 2,451 unlicensed small hotels have been examined, of which 252 have been legally registered after the inspection and 199 have been ordered to close. Of the rest 395 unlicensed hotel operators have ceased operations, and 691 hotels remain to be dealt with.
(China Hospitality News July 29, 2009)
