Hotel Equatorial Penang to shut down effective March 31

GEORGE TOWN: The five-star Hotel Equatorial Penang will shut down effective March 31, according to an internal memo that has gone viral on social media.

The hotel will be the latest to close after three hotels shut down last year in Penang due to the Covid-19 situation.

The memo, signed by its general manager Alan HC Ong, said staff would receive severance payments despite huge losses suffered by the hotel.

The 662-room hotel in Bukit Jambul was the first five-star hotel in the south of Penang island with conference capacity for more than 2,000 people when it opened more than three decades ago.