It's sad news for The Park Hotel in Sliema, which will be forced to bid farewell to its guests as The Malta Tourism Authority was granted the right by the courts to enforce its closure, after giving it several chances to improve.

Last month, the MTA issued an enforcement notice warning the hotel owner that action would be taken, but the owner filed an injunction to stop the closure.

The owner of The Park said that works costing half a million euro were carried out to upgrade the hotel, and that it was allowed to operate with subsequent inspections finding minor deficiencies. The MTA, however, said that The Park was given the chance to meet four-star hotel standards after an enforcement notice was issued due to the bad state it was found to be in. Yikes!

The hotel had several problems which caused a number of complaints from visiting tourists, some of which were even shared on the popular travel site TripAdvisor. The Court had stern words for the hotel, deeming it unworthy of a rating. The MTA are now free to enforce the notice and close the hotel.