The Public Security Police (PSP) have discovered Macau’s capsule hotel in Zape, believed by the police to be the first of its kind locally, and have caught two women allegedly involved in the operation of the illegal accommodation business, the Public Security Police said on Friday.

The police said in a statement said that they received a tip-off on Thursday that a residential flat in Rua de Pequim was suspected of being run as an illegal inn. Later that day, police officers went to the flat in investigate.

The police found three male and three female mainlanders at the flat, including two women in their forties and fifties who were allegedly involved in the underground hotel’s daily operation, and a male overstayer.

The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) later confirmed that the residential flat was run as an illegal inn, the statement said.

According to the police, there are four bedrooms and a living room in the flat. Four capsules were set up in the living room, with a daily rent of HK$300, while the bedrooms were rented separately. The police said that it was the first illegal capsule hotel to have been discovered in Macau.

The police have transferred the two women to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for further investigation.

The authorities have meanwhile sealed the flat, and on Friday the police were still looking for the person behind the illegal inn.

“A capsule hotel also known as a pod hotel, is a type of hotel developed in Japan that features a large number of extremely small ‘rooms’ (capsules) intended to provide cheap, basic overnight accommodation for guests who do not require or who cannot afford the services offered by more conventional hotels,” according to Wikipedia.

This handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) on Friday shows the illegal “capsule hotel’ in Rua de Pequim during Thursday’s police raid. 

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