Two RWS hotels barred from making new bookings for a month
Two hotels at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) have been barred from accepting new bookings for a month after they failed to comply with safe management measures and allowed gatherings of 15 people or more.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said yesterday the Beach Villas and Equarius Hotel have been directed to suspend bookings from today to Jan 21.
The hotels will still be allowed to fulfil existing bookings.
Investigations found that at least 15 people had gathered in a two-storey villa at Beach Villas on Oct 10.
The hotel did not take steps to screen the group when they entered and did not implement SafeEntry to ensure they checked in for contact tracing.
Meanwhile, Equarius Hotel failed to prevent a gathering of 16 people in one of its guests rooms on Nov 17.
The hotel also failed to deploy staff at entry points to ensure the 16 people had their temperatures taken and checked in using SafeEntry.
STB said further investigations into the hotels and the individuals at the two gatherings are underway and enforcement action may be taken.
Those found guilty of breaching Covid-19 regulations can be fined up to $10,000, jailed for up to six months, or both.
The New Paper previously reported on two similar gatherings at RWS that were being probed by the authorities.
In the first case, a group of at least 10 people, mostly women, were seen drinking and dining together in a hotel suite. The alleged party was said to have occurred on Oct 10.
In the second incident, videos of a group of at least six women and a man were uploaded on social media on Nov 15, when they allegedly held a party to celebrate the 33rd week of pregnancy of one of the women.
STB said that to date, 10 hotels and hostels have been fined for breaching safe management measures. Following an increase in such breaches and in view of the upcoming festive season, additional measures for hotels were introduced on Dec 1.
This includes the need to obtain documented acknowledgement from guests that they were informed of group size limits and ensuring every visitor to a guest room is pre-registered.
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