Macau Legend pauses ops at two hotels at Fisherman’s Warf

Feb 10, 2020 Newsdesk Coronavirus Crisis, Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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Hong Kong-listed casino services firm Macau Legend Development Ltd has suspended operations at two of its three hotels at the waterfront entertainment complex Macau Fisherman’s Wharf, located on the Macau peninsula.

The two properties are casino hotel Legend Palace Hotel (pictured), and Rocks Hotel, located next to Babylon Casino. The information was disclosed on Saturday by the Macao Government Tourism Office. The bureau did not say until when would the suspension last.

Commercial decisions by management due to lack of guests have been cited by the tourism bureau as a factor for several of the city’s hotels and guesthouses to suspend operations since last week.

Hotels at casino resorts were not covered by a 15-day closure order – to prevent the spread of a novel coronavirus infection – applied to the city’s 39 active casino venues with effect from midnight on February 5. However, hotels around the city are facing a steep fall in guests as visitor arrivals to Macau have declined sharply due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis that originated in mainland China, and measures implemented to prevent the spread of the outbreak.

As of Sunday, at least six hotels located in complexes with casinos, had temporarily suspended operations, according to the Macao Government Tourism Office. One other non-gaming hotel and a total of 15 other accommodation providers – including 2-star hotels and guesthouses – had also suspended operations.

Casino hotel Altira Macau, run by Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, has not been mentioned directly by the bureau. But a notice in the property’s website stated that “Altira Macau will temporarily close from 10 February until further notice in order to curb the spread of the new strain of coronavirus”.

The notice added that hotel reservations “from now until 29 February 2020″ could be “rescheduled or refunded without any additional charge”.

Macau Legend posted a notice on the respective official online booking tool for Legend Palace Hotel stating that the property was “unavailable” from February 10 to 19.

The official online booking tool for Rocks Hotel also showed that the property is “unavailable” for booking from February 10 to 29.

The third hotel located at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf is the Harbourview Hotel. Its official online booking website showed normal operations regarding bookings.

A Friday afternoon Macau-government briefing on the city’s coronavirus situation had heard that one more local hotel – Sofitel Macau at the Ponte 16 casino complex at the Inner Harbour district on Macau peninsula – was temporarily closing, adding to three casino hotels at Sands China-promoted Cotai properties that shut temporarily from Friday.

A number of hotels located in casino complexes are also offering to reschedule or offer a no-penalty refund on any booking for their hotels for the rest of the month of February.

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