Yesterday morning Reykjavík Police closed down several rooms in a downtown hotel, Hotel Adam. According to the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RÚV the hotel had a permit to operate nine rooms, but had been renting out as many as twenty rooms. Police sealed nine rooms at the hotel yesterday. Three additional rooms will be sealed after their current occupants, who are all foreign travellers, have checked out.
Read more: Downtown hotel advises guest against drinking tap water, charges 4 USD for own bottled water
The local news site visir.is reports that the Reykjavík Fire code enforcement also came to inspect the hotel, noting that it had not completed the most fire code inspection, but gave the hotel time to get up to code. The health inspector has also opened its own inquiry into the business practices of the hotel, including specially marked bottled water the hotel sells to its customers. Finally, the hotel has also come under fire for paying its employees, who are mostly foreign workers, wages which are significantly below the minimum wage.
A reporter sent by visir.is to stay at the hotel was baffled by the conditions of his room and the shared bathroom. A burned out wall socket, a five years old phonebook, a room key which didn’t open the door it was supposed to open, a smoke detector which had been covered by an old plastic glove and an old paint bucket serving as a trashcan.
Read more: Hotel warning guests not drink tap water, instead buy bottled water, faces an avalanche of criticism
The hotel has been in the news lately after a guest shared photographs showing the hotel was encouraging its guests not to drink the tap water, but instead purchase bottled water. The photographs sparked an avalanche of angry criticism from Icelanders who felt these kinds of business practices were an example of the worst kind of greed many had feared would be let loose by the booming tourism industry.
Yesterday morning Reykjavík Police closed down several rooms in a downtown hotel, Hotel Adam. According to the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RÚV the hotel had a permit to operate nine rooms, but had been renting out as many as twenty rooms. Police sealed nine rooms at the hotel yesterday. Three additional rooms will be sealed after their current occupants, who are all foreign travellers, have checked out.
Read more: Downtown hotel advises guest against drinking tap water, charges 4 USD for own bottled water
The local news site visir.is reports that the Reykjavík Fire code enforcement also came to inspect the hotel, noting that it had not completed the most fire code inspection, but gave the hotel time to get up to code. The health inspector has also opened its own inquiry into the business practices of the hotel, including specially marked bottled water the hotel sells to its customers. Finally, the hotel has also come under fire for paying its employees, who are mostly foreign workers, wages which are significantly below the minimum wage.
A reporter sent by visir.is to stay at the hotel was baffled by the conditions of his room and the shared bathroom. A burned out wall socket, a five years old phonebook, a room key which didn’t open the door it was supposed to open, a smoke detector which had been covered by an old plastic glove and an old paint bucket serving as a trashcan.
Read more: Hotel warning guests not drink tap water, instead buy bottled water, faces an avalanche of criticism
The hotel has been in the news lately after a guest shared photographs showing the hotel was encouraging its guests not to drink the tap water, but instead purchase bottled water. The photographs sparked an avalanche of angry criticism from Icelanders who felt these kinds of business practices were an example of the worst kind of greed many had feared would be let loose by the booming tourism industry.
