MPHTJ president Sapiah Haron said the 70-year-old owner of the hotel had met council representatives yesterday to apologise and provide an explanation on the matter.

“The business licence of the hotel is suspended temporarily and will only be reinstated once it fully meets all the conditions given,” she was quoted by Berita Harian as saying.

She said the owner admitted that the promotional content on the accommodation’s website was the result of negligence on the part of the hotel’s management.

She added that a compound fine notice had been issued under the MPHTJ 2011 Hotel By-Laws, and the authorities will continue to enforce regulations fairly and prudently.

Further checks revealed that the hotel had also failed to register and pay the 2024 heritage fee and required additional licensing for several other activities.

“We have also directed the hotel owner to comply with the requirement of having at least one local employee at the counter at all times,” Sapiah added.

On Tuesday, the Melaka Islamic religious affairs department and the municipal council raided the hotel over claims that it was “gay friendly”, but found no breach of state shariah enactments.

Religious affairs executive councillor Rahmad Mariman had said the council seized the hotel’s business licence to facilitate investigations as the owner was not around.

The hotel was also ordered to close for a day while the owner was summoned to explain the “gay-friendly” allegations.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia had slammed the raid and closure of the hotel, raising concerns of enforcement action despite the authorities finding no breach of the Syariah Criminal Offences (State of Malacca) Enactment 1991.

It said the approach of taking enforcement action first based on viral claims on social media and justifying it later was disturbing and could harm businesses.