Regulation of accommodation for tourists (2013/06/19) 

MR YIU SI-WING: President, it has been reported that recently an incident occurred in a licensed guesthouse in Chungking Mansions in which a guest was raped by a man who had sneaked into that guesthouse, and that a fire broke out at an unlicensed guesthouse in Mong Kok. On the other hand, some youth hostels were reported to have low occupancy rates. Some members of the tourism industry have pointed out that the above incidents show that the security of licensed guesthouses is poor, the authorities are ineffective in combating unlicensed guesthouses, and the accommodation resources of youth hostels are being wasted. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it has compiled statistics on the current number of unlicensed guesthouses; if it has, of the number; if not, the reasons for that; of the number of law-enforcement actions taken by the authorities against the operation of unlicensed guesthouses, as well as the respective numbers of prosecutions and convictions, in each of the past three years;

(b) whether the authorities have regulated the security arrangements of licensed guesthouses; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (c) whether it knows the names of the youth hostels which had an average occupancy rate below 60% last year, as well as their respective occupancy rates; regarding those youth hostels with low occupancy rates, whether the authorities will urge the operators concerned to boost their hostels' occupancy rates; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

SECRETARY FOR HOME AFFAIRS: President, operation of guesthouses in Hong Kong is regulated by the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance (the Ordinance) (Cap 349). The primary purpose of the Ordinance is to, through a licensing regime, to ensure that premises used as hotels and guesthouses meet the building and fire safety standards specified in the Buildings Ordinance (Cap 123) and the Fire Services Ordinance (Cap 95) to safeguard the tourists and public. In accordance with the Ordinance, any premises providing sleeping accommodation at a fee shall obtain a guesthouse licence unless all accommodation in the premises is provided with a tenancy period over 28 consecutive days for each letting. The Office of the Licensing Authority (OLA) under the Home Affairs Department is responsible for implementation of the Ordinance, including issuing guesthouse licences and carrying out relevant enforcement work.

My replies to Mr YIU's three-part question are as follows:

(a) The OLA is committed to combating unlicensed guesthouses. In recent years, the OLA has increased its manpower resources and adjusted its strategy with a view to boosting its enforcement efforts. Upon identification of a guesthouse suspected of unlicensed operation, the OLA will collect evidence through various means, such as conducting surprise inspections at different time, launching large-scale and targeted inter-departmental operations, or posing as clients (commonly known as "snaking"), having regard to the circumstances of individual case. Prosecution shall be instituted immediately if there is sufficient evidence that the premises concerned is involved in unlicensed guesthouse operation. The number of inspections to suspected unlicensed guesthouses by the OLA last year (2012) has increased by 1.5 times as compared with that of 2010; the number of prosecutions has increased from 38 in 2010 to 128 in 2012; the number of convictions has increased from 44 to 110. These figures fully demonstrate the strength and results of the enhanced enforcement efforts (enforcement figures of the past three years are tabulated at Annex).

Upon receipt of a report of suspected unlicensed guesthouse, the OLA will conduct an inspection within eight working days and, having regard to the circumstances of individual case, take appropriate follow-up actions. Prosecution shall be instituted if there is sufficient evidence. In this connection, the OLA has maintained the statistics of reports received, prosecution and conviction, but do not have any statistics of unlicensed guesthouses (the number of complaints received by the OLA against suspected unlicensed guesthouses is also provided in the Annex). 

(b) To safeguard the safety of tourist and public, guesthouses shall meet building and fire safety standards and the licensees concerned are required to comply with a requirement stipulated in the Ordinance and the licensing condition that the operation, management and control of the guesthouses shall be under their continuous and personal supervision. If an offence occurs in a licensed guesthouse, the OLA will require the licensee concerned to give an explanation pursuant to the licensing condition. Also, the OLA can, having regard to individual circumstances, cancel the licence or refuse to renew the licence by exercising the power conferred by the Ordinance.

(c) As mentioned above, the primary purpose of the Ordinance is to regulate the building and fire safety of guesthouses. Matters in relation to the daily operation and management of a guesthouse fall outside the ambit of the Ordinance. Therefore, guesthouse licensees are not required to provide information of occupancy rate or other operational details to the OLA. As regards youth hostel, their operation modes and marketing strategies are the matters of individual operating organizations. The Administration will not interfere. Since youth hostels issued with guesthouse licences are no different from ordinary licensed guesthouses, the OLA does not have any information of their occupancy rates.