The Astoria Hotel was given a clean bill of health by the Alberta Health Services (AHS), Oct. 13, less than two weeks after it was forced to close eight of its hotel rooms due to a bed bug infestation.
The news only recently came to light, after AHS failed to update its website for nearly two months.
“We inspected the Astoria on Oct. 13 and found no live bugs so we rescinded that closure order,” said Kerry Williamson, communications director for the AHS north zone, in a telephone interview on Dec. 2.
“Due to [our] staff being on vacation, there was a delay in the rescind notice being posted online. However, the closure order was removed from the doors of the impacted rooms, and was verbally rescinded, on Oct. 13,” he wrote in a follow up email.
According to George Andrew, owner of the hotel, the hotel has been forced to lay off nine employees since the story first broke in September.
“The damage from social media and news is far reaching and has permeated our local winter market. There is virtually no one booking rooms at the Astoria Hotel,” he said in an email.
Prior to issuing the executive order to close the rooms, in September AHS gave the hotel exactly two weeks to remediate the problem.
Upon re-inspection, AHS found the hotel was still in violation of the Public Health Act and on Oct. 2 forced the hotel to shut down eight hotel rooms until the problem was resolved.
Paul Clarke [email protected]
