Benalmádena town hall closes troubled hotel just 15 months after authorising its reopening
Police have evicted the guests and workers but several rooms are still occupied by people who used to live in the property
Benalmádena town hall has definitively executed the closure of Vistamar - the hotel operated under the name of Vivemar that, according to the Andalusian tourism law, has been "clandestine" for ten months. The town hall allowed the establishment to reopen at the end of June 2024, although the managing company did not have the right to operate and compliance with tourism regulations was not verified. Property owner Promociones Los Nadales has not received rent since 2019 and has never had any legal relationship with the operating company - Vive Resort Management.
The Local Police, the National Police and the fire brigade were mobilised for the closure operation in Benalmádena Costa. The officers made sure that no one was left inside the building. According to sources, between 20 and 25 rooms were occupied at that time.
What the authorities found out during the closure operation was that the company had rented out four rooms as permanent residences. The owners were informed at night, while the police were still at the premises, that five workers were living in the hotel and that there were also three other rooms occupied through long-term rentals, in addition to a guest who had not been able to be relocated.
The execution of the administrative closure of the hotel, dated 6 May, has nothing to do with the act executed on 17 June, when the hotel was sealed for the penultimate time. However, the sealing at the start of this past summer was no more than a mere closing of the main door. Guests were able to exit and enter through the garage and even new guests continued to come in.
The seal was eventually lifted, despite being endorsed by a judge, when the company presented a declaration to continue operating. The town hall rejected that declaration, without carrying out the closure. The Supreme Court has now finally declared the exploitation of the hotel illegal.
Conflicting reports
The town hall authorised the reopening after two court rulings had already warned that the establishment was being illegally ceded to third parties, usurping it from the company that owned it. The reopening took place in spite of the municipal expert's rejection through a 13-page report. The illegal operation of the hotel and the suspected collaboration of the Benalmádena council was the subject of a criminal complaint by the owners, which is being investigated by the courts of Torremolinos.
The closure comes ten months after the mandatory registration of the establishment in the Andalusian tourism registry was cancelled (3 December 2024) and eight months after the Malaga delegation of tourism informed the town hall of this on 5 February 2025.
