Bachelors’ Inn Closed Amidst Tourism Board’s Crackdown on Hotel Standards

And while the operational hotels are booked this weekend, the Bachelors’ Inn will not be doing any business any time soon.  The inn was shut down by local authorities, joining the other hotels like Caribbean Gulf and Golden Tree.  The Belize Tourism Board has been doing its rounds ensuring that the standards and requirements are being met in order to remain open.

Reynaldo Malik, President, Belize Hotel Association: “Listen, every licensed establishment under Hotels in Belize there is a baseline of standards that need to be met. And if in the opinion of the BTB or the department of the BTB that oversees hotels there is a particular establishment that is not up to par, up to scratch, then it is certainly within their purview to close that establishment whether temporarily or permanently but I would want to think that in the first instance, it’s a temporary revocation of their license and then there is a plan. I know for a fact that there is a plan or a list that’s given to them that says these are the things that need to be updated or these are the things that need to be changed before you can get your license back. In some cases, I know in speaking with the registrar of hotels, Mr. Viar he has told me that there are instances where hotels have not been able to show that they’ve changed mattresses for 30 years, right? So it’s just, like I said, there is a basic set of standards that needs to be met and if there’s an individual property that is not up to par then the BTB will deal with that as they see fit.”

President Of the Belize Hotel Association, Reynaldo Malik says the Bachelors Inn is not a part of the association, and that should any of their members is not meeting the requirements they would have to take action.

Reynaldo Malik, President, Belize Hotel Association: “We would want to think that as a proactive organization that if we were to get wind that one of our members was being looked at very closely or under the microscope so to speak that we would obviously, yes, get into that conversation and see how we could assist the member, one with addressing the concerns of the examining body and two, also work with the examining body, in this case, the BTB to proactively help our members and any other hotel really to get up to standards. I mean, it’s not a success for one I said this in my speech at the AGM a few weeks ago, individual success and success of the entire industry are not mutually exclusive things they go hand in hand. You know the saying, we’re only as strong as the weakest link and if we have these hotels which are extremely subpar, then our industry is only as strong as those subpar hotels. So we can’t market ourselves as being a premium desirable destination when we have inventory that does not fit that description really well. So but yeah the answer to your question, if one of our members were to find themselves in the spotlight where standards are concerned, then yes the BHA would certainly play a very important role in making sure that we rectify or help our member to rectify the situation. In this case, Bachelor Inn is not a member of ours.”