Riga is full of semi-legal 5-euro hostels

For 5 euros we will put you to bed, give you tea and a croissant wrapped in plastic wrap, and burn you to death behind a steel door. Eight people have died using the illegal services of the hospitality industry in Riga. Maybe some of the people suffering from burns will die too. Booking.com and other reservation portals show that there are enough accommodations in Riga to stay overnight even in the price range of under 5 euros.

If some curtains are accidentally left open, the windows of Riga apartment buildings sometimes show visible bunk beds, and they are not meant for kids. Packed like sardines in a can, one on top of each other, the nights there are spent by adults. Different ages, different skin colors. Mostly they are employees of supermarket chains who travel from the countryside to work in the capital. And citizens of various third countries, for whom such a dormitory, student status on paper, and work in Wolt or Bolt, are the first stop to the promised land of happiness in the European Union. Those who perished were also foreigners.

The police must now investigate the circumstances of this tragic fire and, together with other state and municipal authorities, find out how the hostel was allowed to operate at all during the pandemic. The authorities have long known that illegal hospitality is practiced there, intoxicants are regularly used, and firefighters have not been let in to do the fire safety inspection. It is now known that one apartment was split into more than 30(!) Rooms, with a steel door in front, so that foreigners would not meet with all kinds of undesirable authorities. That also became their trap.

And a croissant as a bonus

Riga Mayor Mārtiņš Staķis and Minister of the Interior Sandis Ģirģens have now agreed to form an inter-institutional working group to prevent the recurrence of similar tragedies. Probably the specialists involved will have fancier data in which to look for places of hospitality that are illegal or semi-legal or legal, but dangerous for the residents. However, accommodation booking portals offer an excellent basis for research. All that remains is to limit the range of prices, and the potential breaches of business, fire safety and epidemiology can be seen in their full disgusting view.

Booking.com in Riga offers many accommodations in the price range of up to 10 euros per night. There are also some for 4 and 5 euros, including in various buildings on Merķeļa Street. In dormitories with six, eight, ten or more beds. Neatkarīgā spoke anonymously to a knowledgeable hospitality industry representative. He concludes - there is no doubt that these offers violate the rules. First of all, due to the pandemic, strangers are currently not allowed to spend time together, not even speaking of spending the night in the same room. However, as far as the price of 5 euros per night is concerned, this is by no means an indicator of illegal business. If a whole bunch of people are staying in one room, the profit can be quite decent. Bed linen is not included in the hostels, the breakfast included in the price is actually one teabag and one croissant wrapped in plastic wrap for 20 cents.

Hospitality without a sign

If people are willing to live in such spartan, not to say revolting, conditions, it is their choice. There are very unflattering reviews about the hostel offers - stinks of urine, dirty common areas, but quite symptomatic of many hostels is this review by an Indonesian: "It was so hard to find the hostel, there were no signs and no reception." Apartment hostel owners do not want to be noticed by the surveillance offices with their 5 euro business. Most likely, because they do not pay taxes to the state. In Latvia, landlords do not have to register as merchants.

And that's why the hostel can be found in Booking.com, but not in the Lursoft database at the specific address. Because it is simply not a company and is not controlled accordingly. But even if it is, as it was in the case of Merķeļa Street, a steel door with a code works great. As long as the house is not burning and the walls are not collapsing, the supervisory institutions do not go inside. At the press conference of the responsible officials, when the agency LETA asked who is entitled to go and stop such illegal and socially dangerous hospitality services, to physically throw everyone outside and even nail the doors shut, there was a long silence. The authorities do not have this right.

Next Level on Merķeļa Street

In recent months, police and medics have come to the house on Merķeļa Street 8, where the illegal Japanese Style Centrum hostel was located on the top floor, almost as frequently as going to work - dozens of times, because the hostel residents used drugs, smoked in the stairwell, were loud and disturbed other residents. The day before the fire, one addict was found dead from an overdose. There were many signs that this hospitality business would not lead to a good end.

Reservations on Booking.com were no longer accepted at the Japanese Style Centrum yesterday afternoon. However, right next to it, on Merķeļa Street 1, on the 4th floor, there were beds available in the Next Level hostel. For 5 euros, plus a croissant wrapped in plastic film and a teabag as a bonus. In the photo gallery, there is a swarm of smiling and drinking foreigners. In the Lursoft database, one hospitality company Yellow Hostel, SIA can be found at this address, which owes the state 24 thousand euros in taxes.

Perhaps it would be useful for the Staķis/Ģirģens working group on "Combating the recurrence of similar incidents" to start with a visit to this hospitality institution. Before something bad happens.

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