Police seal doors of Benalmádena hotel with more than 200 guests for not being registered with Junta de Andalucía

The former Vistamar hotel, now called Vivemar, located in Benalmádena Costa, was sealed off on Tuesday morning by the town's Local Police force. The officers sealed the main door and closed off most of the entrances and exits of the hotel, despite the fact that at the time there were more than 200 guests staying at the premises, which was at 98 per cent occupancy.

The reason for this decision, as explained by the Benalmádena town hall councillor Raúl Campos, is due to the fact that after an inspection, the company that operates the hotel could not prove the entry in the register of tourist accommodation of the Junta de Andalucía, a key document for any tourist business to operate. "We have asked the regional tourism department and they tell us that this company is not in the register. We are not getting into any other matters; it's simply not appropriate to grant them the opening since their documentation is not in order," said the councillor, who stated that the notice of closure was communicated to the company managing the hotel "at the end of last March".

For his part, the hotel manager, Alberto Tusquellas, claimed that this situation is due to an "administrative loophole". He explained that the company Vive Resort Management SL took over the operation of this hotel a year ago through a sublease contract. "We were using the registration of the previous operator, but it appears that the regional government sent a request for documentation to the former manager and when it was not provided, it revoked the registration. We have already submitted our sublease contract, the responsible declaration, to the regional authority and to the town hall, along with the corresponding payment of fees".

Tusquellas criticised the "administrative management" of the town hall and argued that, since the hotel is being operated by a different company than the one that was deregistered by the regional government, and since they have already submitted the required documentation, they do have the right to continue operating, despite the hotel being sealed. Therefore, the manager stated that guests will remain in the accommodation as per their reservations, and although they will not be able to enter or exit through the usual access points, they will do so through the car park, which has not yet been sealed.

The company also pointed out that throughout the winter they have had a contract in force with the Spanish institution of social security (Imserso) and have accommodated 45,000 elderly people, and that they are providing employment to a staff of 45 workers.

This version of ownership is quite different to that of the hotel’s owner, María José García Vargas. She explained that it was in 2015 when they signed a contract with a company to lease the facilities, but two years later they realised that the company "had transferred the business to another". Faced with this, in 2018 they filed a complaint with the court and a civil judicial process began, "which we have won in the first and second instance and which is awaiting a definitive resolution from the supreme court, which we hope will happen in the next few days".

If the supreme court ultimately rules in their favour, it will conclude that the arrangement is not a sublease but a transfer of lease rights, as the property owner claims, and the contract will be terminated. In parallel, the owners have also initiated a criminal proceeding, which is currently at the opening stage. "Our former tenants are unaccounted for and those who are now here falsified a contract and with this false contract the town hall allowed them to open, despite not having authorisation from the Junta de Andalucía," said the owner, who also criticised the council for not having heeded their requests.