SINGAPORE, Dec 22 — For letting 15 to 16 guests gather in a room and other violations of safety regulations for Covid-19, two hotels on Sentosa Island have to suspend bookings for a month, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said.

In a media release yesterday, STB said that the two Resorts World Sentosa hotels — the Beach Villas and Equarius Hotel — will not be permitted to accept new bookings from December 22 to January 21.

They are, however, still allowed to fulfil bookings already made.

Further investigations into the two hotels and the people involved in the violations are underway and enforcement actions may be taken, STB added.

First-time offenders can be jailed up to six months or fined a maximum of S$10,000 (RM30,392), or both. Repeat offenders face harsher penalties.

What happened

Investigations by STB’s enforcement officers found that at least 15 people had gathered in a two-storey villa in Beach Villas on October 10 that had been booked by four of the group members.

These four were the only registered guests of the hotel.

Safe management regulations dictate that hotels must not allow more than five people in any one room, except when the gathering consists of people from the same household.

STB found that the hotel did not take steps to conduct entry screening of the 15 people and did not implement the digital SafeEntry system to ensure that they had checked in and out for contact tracing.

For Equarius Hotel, it had failed to prevent a gathering of 16 people that took place in one of its guest rooms on November 17.

The room was booked under the names of three of the 16 people present.

The hotel did not deploy staff members at entry points to ensure that guests used SafeEntry and had their temperature taken, and to ensure not more than five persons had gathered in the same guest room.

STB said that under the law, every guest or visitor entering hotels or hostels need to be screened, including having their temperature taken, before they enter the premises.

All businesses are also required to log the employees and visitors using SafeEntry for contact tracing.

10 hotels and hostels fined

To date, 10 hotels and hostels have been fined for breaching safe management regulations, STB said.

These include failing to conduct entry screening and recording the contact details of guests that enter their premises.STB said that it takes a serious view of any breaches and will not hesitate to take enforcement action for non-compliance.

Businesses and members of the public are required to adhere to prevailing regulations to prevent Covid-19 clusters from forming.

"The Government will also step up enforcement checks during this period to ensure compliance,” STB added.

Businesses and members of the public are reminded that the group size limit of five individuals will continue to apply until the third phase of Singapore reopening its economy takes effect from December 28.

"Strict enforcement action will be taken against errant businesses or individuals, which may include fines, temporary closure and prosecution to the full extent of the law,” STB said. — TODAY