再開してもガランとして人気のないホテルで
来ない客を虚しく待っているだけのスタッフ。
うっうっうっうっうっうっ（鼻チーーーーン）
広州から来た医者たった一人のために。
こんな目に遭ったのも皆「情報を隠さず開示」
した為なのである。ホテルは何一つ悪い事は
していない。当時同ホテルに泊まった日本人
観光客にも連絡が行ったそうです（涙）
正しい事をした人がひどい目に会い、隠して
シラばっくれてる野郎はのーのーとしている。
そんな不公平は腐りきった汚物党が一党独裁
する中国では日常茶飯事なのか。しかし香港
では許されない！怒れ香港の民よ。中共高官
に三角帽子かぶせて、引き回しの刑に処せ！
---
Why only the lonely are left at heartbreak hotel
---When the virus outbreak was traced to the Metropole, its trade died. Chow Chung-yan finds out how the hotel is coping
（South China Morning Post 2003.04.04 Pneumonia Outbreak）
CHOW CHUNG-YAN
The floor is polished. The tables are immaculately set. Waitresses stand attentively by. But there are no guests at the Metropole Hotel's gourmet restaurant, and no one to be seen in the lobby.
It is a landmark in the bustling Waterloo Road in the heart of Kowloon, but the 487-room hotel is now a shadow of its former self.
Staff work as usual and its bars and restaurants remain open, but the employees are playing to an empty house. Hotel shuttle buses, which normally set out every half-hour to pick up visitors or take them to tourist areas, stand idle.
Its problems are no secret. The Metropole Hotel was dealt a hammer blow last month when it emerged that a sickly medical professor from Guangzhou had stayed there on February 21 to attend a wedding. During his brief stay, he coughed and sneezed in the ninth-floor lift lobby and spread a virus to other guests that was to go around the world and stigmatise Hong Kong as the source of the global atypical pneumonia outbreak.
The 64-year-old doctor's condition worsened the next day and he was sent to Kwong Wah Hospital, where he died on March 4. But three Singaporeans, two Canadians, an American-Chinese businessman who flew on to Hanoi, and a 26-year old Hong Kong airport worker were infected by the deadly atypical pneumonia virus the man carried. They had all stayed or visited the ninth floor of the hotel where the doctor stayed.
The ninth floor has now re-opened after being disinfected and thoroughly cleaned. It stands deadly silent, however. There are no guests or staff in the corridor and a knock on any of the doors is answered with an empty echo.
Calls for cancellations flooded in immediately after the news broke on March 19 that the outbreak had started at the Metropole.
By pure bad luck it was turned into the loneliest hotel in Hong Kong almost overnight, even though the virus had checked out and moved on weeks before.
Since then, with little else to occupy their team, workers have cleaned the place over and over again. Front-desk managers put on their best smiles - behind their face masks. Business has been decimated and the situation has worsened as visitors shun Hong Kong.
"Yes, business has been badly affected," said a hotel employee who was unwilling to discuss the subject further.
American visitor Stanley Cheng and his family are among the few guests inside the otherwise deserted hotel. Mr Cheng said he made reservations well before the outbreak started and decided not to change his itinerary.
"It is not really their fault. They have cleaned things up and I think here is as safe as elsewhere," said Mr Cheng. "I made the booking before the outbreak. I was a bit taken aback when I read the news, but I don't believe the government would allow them to stay open if the virus was still around. So I didn't cancel."
Guests like Mr Cheng are a rarity. From morning to noon, there are almost no new guests arriving, only a handful of reporters - to the annoyance of the managers.
The Metropole may be one of the biggest losers in this disaster. But it is certainly not the only one. Across the territory, hotels of various sizes and standards have all suffered punishing losses of business in the wake of the outbreak.
A Grand Hyatt spokeswoman said business had dropped about 10 per cent. "The hotel industry is now facing a very difficult time. We have calls for cancellations, just like other hotels," she said.
Travel industry leaders have estimated that the number of arrivals would come down as much as 50 per cent. Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung Yao-chung said yesterday he feared that if the malaise could not be brought under control soon, visitors arriving for the May 1 public holiday would plummet.
The fear is that in addition to human casualties, the outbreak may also leave the jobs of thousands working in Hong Kong's tourism industry in grave danger.
来ない客を虚しく待っているだけのスタッフ。
うっうっうっうっうっうっ（鼻チーーーーン）
広州から来た医者たった一人のために。
こんな目に遭ったのも皆「情報を隠さず開示」
した為なのである。ホテルは何一つ悪い事は
していない。当時同ホテルに泊まった日本人
観光客にも連絡が行ったそうです（涙）
正しい事をした人がひどい目に会い、隠して
シラばっくれてる野郎はのーのーとしている。
そんな不公平は腐りきった汚物党が一党独裁
する中国では日常茶飯事なのか。しかし香港
では許されない！怒れ香港の民よ。中共高官
に三角帽子かぶせて、引き回しの刑に処せ！
---
Why only the lonely are left at heartbreak hotel
---When the virus outbreak was traced to the Metropole, its trade died. Chow Chung-yan finds out how the hotel is coping
（South China Morning Post 2003.04.04 Pneumonia Outbreak）
CHOW CHUNG-YAN
The floor is polished. The tables are immaculately set. Waitresses stand attentively by. But there are no guests at the Metropole Hotel's gourmet restaurant, and no one to be seen in the lobby.
It is a landmark in the bustling Waterloo Road in the heart of Kowloon, but the 487-room hotel is now a shadow of its former self.
Staff work as usual and its bars and restaurants remain open, but the employees are playing to an empty house. Hotel shuttle buses, which normally set out every half-hour to pick up visitors or take them to tourist areas, stand idle.
Its problems are no secret. The Metropole Hotel was dealt a hammer blow last month when it emerged that a sickly medical professor from Guangzhou had stayed there on February 21 to attend a wedding. During his brief stay, he coughed and sneezed in the ninth-floor lift lobby and spread a virus to other guests that was to go around the world and stigmatise Hong Kong as the source of the global atypical pneumonia outbreak.
The 64-year-old doctor's condition worsened the next day and he was sent to Kwong Wah Hospital, where he died on March 4. But three Singaporeans, two Canadians, an American-Chinese businessman who flew on to Hanoi, and a 26-year old Hong Kong airport worker were infected by the deadly atypical pneumonia virus the man carried. They had all stayed or visited the ninth floor of the hotel where the doctor stayed.
The ninth floor has now re-opened after being disinfected and thoroughly cleaned. It stands deadly silent, however. There are no guests or staff in the corridor and a knock on any of the doors is answered with an empty echo.
Calls for cancellations flooded in immediately after the news broke on March 19 that the outbreak had started at the Metropole.
By pure bad luck it was turned into the loneliest hotel in Hong Kong almost overnight, even though the virus had checked out and moved on weeks before.
Since then, with little else to occupy their team, workers have cleaned the place over and over again. Front-desk managers put on their best smiles - behind their face masks. Business has been decimated and the situation has worsened as visitors shun Hong Kong.
"Yes, business has been badly affected," said a hotel employee who was unwilling to discuss the subject further.
American visitor Stanley Cheng and his family are among the few guests inside the otherwise deserted hotel. Mr Cheng said he made reservations well before the outbreak started and decided not to change his itinerary.
"It is not really their fault. They have cleaned things up and I think here is as safe as elsewhere," said Mr Cheng. "I made the booking before the outbreak. I was a bit taken aback when I read the news, but I don't believe the government would allow them to stay open if the virus was still around. So I didn't cancel."
Guests like Mr Cheng are a rarity. From morning to noon, there are almost no new guests arriving, only a handful of reporters - to the annoyance of the managers.
The Metropole may be one of the biggest losers in this disaster. But it is certainly not the only one. Across the territory, hotels of various sizes and standards have all suffered punishing losses of business in the wake of the outbreak.
A Grand Hyatt spokeswoman said business had dropped about 10 per cent. "The hotel industry is now facing a very difficult time. We have calls for cancellations, just like other hotels," she said.
Travel industry leaders have estimated that the number of arrivals would come down as much as 50 per cent. Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung Yao-chung said yesterday he feared that if the malaise could not be brought under control soon, visitors arriving for the May 1 public holiday would plummet.
The fear is that in addition to human casualties, the outbreak may also leave the jobs of thousands working in Hong Kong's tourism industry in grave danger.
