City to ban rent by the hour hotels

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration will revoke the operating licenses of dozens of short-term-stay hotels in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, as part of its plan to clean up the area, an official said.

Head of the city public order office, Hadi Utomo, said that the Hotels' licenses would be revoked because they were a cause of the mushrooming prostitution there.

Hadi said hotels that offered rooms for rent by the hour had attracted a great number of prostitutes because it was cheaper for them and their clients to pay that way than to rent a room for a full day.

He said that the presence of the prostitutes in the area had attracted hoodlums and gamblers, who were the main cause of the disorder in Tanah Abang.

"If hotels continue to operate under the hourly rental system, the city will revoke their licenses," he said.

Tanah Abang is notorious as a den of hoodlums, prostitutes, illegal street vendors, gamblers and the like. (ind)