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Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Dr Patrick Ho, in the Legislative Council today (June 29):
Question:
With the upturn of the global economy and the implementation of the Individual Visit Scheme in the Mainland, the number of inbound tourists has been increasing. In order to cope with the continuous growth in the number of tourists in future, many commercial and factory buildings have been converted into hotels/guesthouses, whilst some small guesthouses are operating in private buildings and even hourly hotels also receive tourists. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the measures to monitor these small and medium-sized hotels/guesthouses;
(b) of the number of applications for conversion of commercial and factory buildings into hotels received over the past three years, and the number of hotel rooms involved; and
(c) whether it will consider requiring all hotels to be registered with creditable organisations, such as the Hong Kong Hotels Association, before they can operate, so as to safeguard the rights and benefits of tourists and travel agents?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance (HAGAO) was enacted in 1991 to provide for the control and safety of hotel and guesthouse accommodation and for connected purposes. It mainly seeks to ensure that hotels and guesthouses comply with the prevailing requirements on fire safety, structural safety and sanitation by way of a licensing scheme. For premises, irrespective of their size, that are let for periods of less than 28 consecutive days and fall within the definition of "hotel" and "guesthouse" contained in the HAGAO, an application must be made to the Office of the Licensing Authority (OLA) of the Home Affairs Department for a hotel/guesthouse licence in accordance with the HAGAO.
In addition, according to the interpretation in Section 2 of the Buildings Ordinance (Cap.123), a "domestic building" means a building constructed or intended to be used for habitation and the expression "domestic purposes" should be construed accordingly. Under the HAGAO, hotels/guesthouses mean any premises that provide sleeping accommodation, which fall within the definition of "domestic purposes". Therefore, in processing a licence application, the OLA will advise the applicant to choose, for use as a hotel/guesthouse, premises designated for domestic purposes in the building plans approved by the Building Authority. If the chosen premises have been designated for "non-domestic purposes" in the approved building plans, the applicant must obtain written consent from the Building Authority to change the use of the premises from "non-domestic purposes" to "domestic purposes" under the Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123) before converting the premises into a hotel/guesthouse. Otherwise, the OLA will refuse the application.
On receipt of an application, the OLA will conduct a site inspection and then issue to the applicant a list of upgrading requirements. Upon completion of the works and submission of a "Report of Completion" form by the applicant, the OLA will arrange another inspection of the premises. The Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Authority (the Authority) will issue a licence to the applicant under Section 8 of the HAGAO only after it has been confirmed that all the licensing requirements have been met. For the safety of the patrons of hotels and guesthouses as well as other occupants of the buildings, the processing procedures and criteria for granting approval have been drawn up strictly according to the provisions of the HAGAO.
(b) For safety reasons, no licence will be issued under the HAGAO for hotels/guesthouses in factory buildings. Therefore, there are currently no licensed hotels/guesthouses operating in factory buildings. As for applications involving conversion of commercial buildings into hotels/guesthouses, the OLA has, since July 2003, referred applications which involve changing the use of the premises from "non-domestic purposes" to "domestic purposes" to the Director of Buildings for consideration under Section 23A of the Building (Planning) Regulations. The relevant statistics are as follows:
No. of Licences
Issued2
No. of (approved no. No. of Applications
Year Applications1 of Rooms) being Processed
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July 2003 to 70 17 2
June 2004 (573)
July 2004 to 19 1 2
June 2005 (15)
(as at 21 June)
Note 1: Figures only include those applications which involve changing the use of the premises from "non-domestic purposes" to "domestic purposes".
Note 2: The remaining applications were either rejected by OLA on the advice of Buildings Department or withdrawn by the applicants.
(c) As mentioned in (a) above, the main purpose of enacting the HAGAO is to provide for a licensing scheme to ensure that hotels and guesthouses comply with licensing requirements on fire safety, structural safety and sanitation, so as to protect the safety of tourists.
Except for those requirements on fire safety, structural safety and sanitation, the HAGAO does not empower the Authority to impose other requirements, such as registration with any organisation. Therefore, the OLA cannot refuse an application for such a reason. Our policy objective is to endeavour to ensure the safety of the patrons of hotels and guesthouses and, at the same time, keep the necessary legislative and regulatory measures to a minimum, so as to lessen the burden of the operators in complying with licensing requirements.
Ends/Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Issued at HKT 15:22
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