MANILA, Philippines — Century Park Hotel on Monday explained the story behind the recent viral photos of the Cambodian football team sleeping on the floor, following their arrival in the country for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
According to the hotel’s management, it agreed to house players and delegates from different countries for SEA Games from November 23 to December 11, 2019, and that under the agreement, teams were supposed to check-in at 2:00 p.m. on November 23.
“We were told that team members from Cambodia were coming in early on November 23, 2019 the night before. As much as we wanted to accommodate the request, it was not possible due to full occupancy,” the management said in a statement.
The hotel management also said that some players and delegates were allowed to check-in as early as 8:25 a.m. once rooms became available.
“As goodwill, we offered our function rooms to serve as their temporary holding area after their breakfast. We asked them if they needed more chairs but they declined, preferring the floors so they could lie down to rest,” they said, adding that lunch was also served to the delegates.
The statement was released following the circulation of photos of the Cambodian team sleeping on the floor, drawing flak from netizens.
Aside from the Cambodian team, delegates from other nations such as Thailand also encountered problems with their food and drinks on top of accommodation issues.
In a Facebook post from the Football Association of Thailand (FA Thailand), president Somyot Poompanmoung said their players were given the same food items for every meal at Century Park Hotel and that players are only given four bottles of drinking water a day.
The hotel’s management said that they are now coordinating with the organizers to address the problem since “part of the agreement with them is a cycle menu for the SEA Games delegation.”
“Rest assured that we continue to uphold our mission to provide a home away from home to all our guests. We will strive to make the SEA Games delegation’s stay a memorable one in the coming days,” it said.
The Philippine Sea Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) has also apologized to the teams for the transport and accommodation snafus.
“While Phisgoc strives to ensure proper coordination of the arrival details, airport welcome and transportation provisions of all international teams to their respective assigned hotels, we acknowledge our shortcomings in this particular incident and vow to do better,” it said.