Tinian reps leave hotel without paying bill

More than 10 Tinian representatives to the recent annual Flame Tree Festival stayed for three nights at the Chalan Kanoa Beach Hotel, but left without paying their $880 bill.

The hotel’s management told [I]Saipan Tribune[/I] yesterday that Tinian Sen. Jude Hofschneider had promised to settle the account of the Tinian representatives led by Eric Reyes last June 20, but no payment has been provided until now.

In his July 5, 2011, email to the hotel, Hofschneider asked for a meeting with the management to discuss the matter.

“I want to understand what really happened that this amount was generated and they were able to escape the place unbeknownst to you,” Hofschneider said, adding that he was available on July 7 for a meeting from 12pm to 3pm.

Noel Roque, the hotel’s restaurant manager/assistant general manager, said that Hofschneider and another Tinian senator, Henry San Nicolas, showed up at the July 7 meeting at the hotel’s restaurant.

Roque said that it was former Tinian representative Edwin Aldan who made the reservations for five rooms for the island’s representatives to the festival.

Reyes and more than 10 people, including a child, occupied only three rooms from June 9 to 12.

On June 12 at noon, Reyes told the hotel staff that he would just drop the group at the airport on their way back to Tinian. Reyes reportedly asked the staff to extend his stay for another day.

Roque said that Reyes never returned to the hotel and actually joined the group on their way to Tinian.

Roque said the hotel staff thought Reyes was still in the room because he left the lights and the air-conditioning unit on.

When the hotel contacted Reyes on Tinian, he apologized and assured that payment would be shouldered by Tinian lawmakers and that the amount would be given when the government’s check is released.

Roque said that in his phone conversation with Sen. Hofschneider on June 20, the lawmaker promised to take care of the problem and had asked for 30 days to do it.

After several emails and phone calls to Hofschneider and with still no payment, the hotel’s owner, Ken Mitsutsune, wrote to the senator on July 25 to resolve the matter amicably.

The owner stated that if payment is not possible, they have no choice but to bring legal action.