Quickly rectify motel business activities

(Baonghean) - Along with the hotel system, in the past ten years, motels have sprung up in our province like mushrooms. Not only meeting the needs of social life, motel business also creates jobs and income for many people. However, for profit, many motel owners are lax in complying with state regulations, creating loopholes for social evils and criminals to operate, causing insecurity and disorder and leaving behind many unfortunate consequences...

Motel transformation

According to Colonel Nguyen Xuan Hoa, Head of the Provincial Police Criminal Police Department, due to the pursuit of profit, lax management, and failure to comply with State regulations, motel owners unintentionally turned this place into a hiding place for criminals and other social evils. On November 15, 2014, a group of three young men led by Phan Trong Phuc (residing in Ben Thuy ward) took a student to Ngoc Bich 2 motel in Truong Thi ward (Vinh city) and illegally detained him to collect debt. The incident was only exposed when the victim wrote a petition and directly reported it to the police.

Last year, after committing a crime in Hai Duong province, a suspect hid in a motel in Ben Thuy ward until he was arrested. And incidents such as gathering to inject drugs, gamble, and fight at motels are not uncommon. Many motels are ideal "landing sites" for criminals, social evils, and moral violations.

Police inspect the stay at a motel (Illustration photo)

It is known that the recent inspection of hotels and motels in Vinh City showed that over 80% of motels violated the provisions of the Law on Residence and Decree 72/2009/ND-CP of the Government and Circular 33/TT-BCA of the Ministry of Public Security on the management of conditional business lines. In which, most of the cases violated the regulations on accommodation.

According to a motel employee in Dien Chau Town, only when a motel is "loose" about paperwork will guests stay for a long time. People only stay for a short time, but if you make things difficult for them, they will "never come back". One guest said: "The motel has never refused a guest without an ID card. If the receptionist asks for papers, it is just a formality. Having them is good, but not having them is also fine."

Need to rectify

Currently, in Nghe An, there are approximately 500 hotels and motels, of which Cua Lo Town accounts for nearly half, Vinh City has nearly 90 hotels and the same number of motels. The rapid urbanization process and the sharp increase in the number of tourists make it understandable that hotels and motels are developing rapidly. However, it is not difficult to see that there are quite a few motels springing up in an... unusual way. Many motels are located right in the middle of residential areas, not according to planning. The arrangement of motels is also arbitrary and messy. Some places such as Ha Huy Tap Ward, Hung Binh Ward, Truong Thi Ward... (Vinh City) have areas where motels are built close together. There are places like Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street, where within a radius of only a few dozen meters, there are up to 3 motels.

Along with the emergence of high-class hotels, the opening of accommodation facilities with affordable rental prices has actually met the needs of social life, contributing to solving the difficulty of accommodation for many low- and middle-income people staying at the centers such as: Workers needing to stay for a short time, relatives and patients going to see a doctor, parents and candidates in university and college entrance exams... The worrying thing now is that, due to lax management by motel owners, many criminals have come here to hide and commit crimes. Captain Nguyen Van Kha, Deputy Head of the Administrative Management - Social Order Team (Vinh City Police) said: When running a motel or boarding house, the issue of declaring temporary and staying guests is extremely important. When there are guests, according to regulations, the owner of the facility must immediately notify the People's Protection Committee, the Commune and Ward Police so that they can have a list of management and prevention. But, because this is an easy job to make money, and customers often come for improper purposes, many motel owners do not do it.

To effectively implement the Law on Residence, functional sectors and residential communities need to closely coordinate regularly in the management of accommodation and temporary residence. Thereby, promptly detecting and handling law violators, gradually contributing to maintaining security and order in the area. Localities need to have a plan to build a suitable motel system to serve the urbanization process, ensuring that the construction and operation of motels do not adversely affect the landscape environment, cultural and social environment, security and order do not adversely affect the activities of residential areas.

Viet Long