DOT Suspends City Garden Grand Hotel for Quarantine Violations

City Garden Grand Hotel in Makati made headlines in early January after 23-year-old flight attendant Christine Angelica Dacera was found unconscious in one of their rooms. Dacera was then brought to Makati Medical Center, where she was declared dead on arrival. The tragic incident happened after a night of partying on New Year's Eve, in which guests from rooms 2207 and 2209 were reportedly involved. Such a gathering inside a quarantine-accredited hotel raised a lot of red flags; and on January 14, the Department of Tourism found City Garden Grand Hotel (CGGH) in violation of its accreditation as a quarantine hotel and not a staycation hotel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CGGH is "liable for the offense of gross and evident bad faith in dealing with clients/fraudulent solicitation of business or making any false, deceptive, or misleading claims or statements for the purpose of soliciting business from clients ," a statement from the Department of Tourism said.

DOT Suspends City Garden

As of December 21, CGGH is listed as one of the "facilities suitable for stringent quarantine" as inspected and accredited by the Department of Health. The DOT previously ordered that hotels operating as quarantine facilities are prohibited from accepting guests for leisure purposes. The agency also found that the hotel's marketing packages are catered towards staycation guests and that they never indicated that they are still a quarantine hotel.

With these violations, CGGH is suspended from DOT accreditation for six months, their Certificate of Authority to Operate has been revoked, and they are required to pay a fine of P10,000. The hotel has not released any statement regarding the incident.

DOT also reiterated that they have only approved 15 Metro Manila hotels to accept guests for leisure purposes (a.k.a. staycation).

Also read: Here's a Complete List of Accredited Staycation Hotels in Manila

These are the accredited accommodation establishments with a "Certificate of Authority to Operate as Staycation" from the tourism agency as of January 14:

• Grand Hyatt Hotel
• Makati Shangri-La Hotel
• Okada Manila Hotel
• Shangri-La at the Fort
• Nobu Hotel
• Joy Nostalg Hotel and Suites Manila
• EDSA Shangri-La Manila
• Solaire Resort
• Hyatt Regency City of Dreams
• Nuwa Hotel City of Dreams
• The Peninsula Manila
• Aruga by Rockwell
• Sheraton Manila Hotel
• Hilton Manila
• Hotel Okura Manila

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This story originally appeared on Spot.ph.

* Minor edits have been made by the Realliving.com.ph editors.