Hotel fined for booking rooms for asylum seekers, not security staff during NATO Summit

The Holiday Inn Hotel in Voorburg was fined on Tuesday after its plans to have 125 rooms available for security staff that are working during the NATO Summit in June were changed due to a change in ownership. The court ruled on Tuesday that a fine was justified in the case.

The new owner of the hotel made a deal with the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) to shelter 200 asylum seekers in the hotel. In order to realize this, construction work will be done on the hotel during the summit, which has resulted in Worldmeetings, the company that booked the rooms, being told that there will only be 45 rooms available during the summit.

Worldmeetings wanted all the rooms or none of them, because the company thinks it is important that no third parties can enter the hotel during the guests' stay. The company also said that it is a lot more expensive to book rooms at the last moment.

The court agreed with Worldmeetings in court on Tuesday. It ruled that the hotel will have to pay back the whole booking fee to the company with an additional 150,000 euros.

It has been reported by Midvliet.nl that the Holiday Inn are considering launching an appeal.