The managements of the two resorts where MLAs had been sequestered for over a week moved quickly on Saturday posting “Under maintenance” sign on the gates as staff scrubbed clean the the last detail left by their most recent occupants.
The Village Retreat Concept Hotel, Poonthandalam, and Golden Bay Resorts, Koovathur, are separated by 14 km. It is estimated that around 30 MLAs supporting V.K. Sasikala stayed in the resort at Poonthandalam while the remaining, at Koovathur. . The resorts are not owned by the same company.
According to a member of the staff at The Village Retreat, they were not informed of the arrival of the MLAs. “We had all gone home for the night on February 8. We were asked to rush back and told that a guest had requested for 10 rooms,” he said.
Individuals connected to both resorts said the facilities would be closed at least for the next three days. “We need to let our staff go on leave — we have been on full service since the night of February 9. We also have to clean up the rooms as they could not be cleaned for the last 10 days,” said the staff of The Village Retreat.
Women of Koovathur, part of the room service staff at the resort, were relieved from duty around 6 p.m. They walked away with leftover food and empty water bottles. “There is so much work to do. The lawns need to be re-laid completely,” one of them said. An individual who had been inside the Golden Bay but not employed by it said on Saturday afternoon that the staff had moved quickly to clean the property. “I checked almost every room. They have done a good job servicing the rooms,” he said.
Entry to both resorts were restricted even after the AIADMK supporters started vacating them. “We had given them 20 of our 23 rooms. We are a strictly vegetarian hotel. Non-vegetarian dishes and alcohol are not served here. That is probably one of the reasons why the MLAs were not here all the time,” said the staff member at The Village Retreat. Unlike Golden Bay, where cooks from Zamin Endathur were brought in, the staff of The Village Resort did their own cooking.
“Dinner was idli, dosa, chapathi and kurma...I cannot provide an estimate of how many individuals were served each time,” said the staffer.
The Village Retreat, on five acres, is a smaller property than the backwaters-adjacent Golden Bay. Staff at the former were not given leave and asked to work from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day to take care of the MLAs. “We had some Indonesian guests at the time of the MLAs’ arrival. They left on the morning of February 12 and we have not accepted reservations since then,” he said.
Online reservations at The Village Retreat are available from February 22 a ₹4,500 per night.
The Golden Bay Resorts accepts online reservations from February 19 — at ₹5,500 per night. Though several Ministers and MLAs insisted that they paid for the trip out of their own pockets, there has been no communication from managements at both resorts.
On Saturday evening, waste was burnt outside the Golden Bay . Two youngsters from Chennai, on their way to Puducherry for the weekend, drove up to the gate on a bike and photographed each other in front of the now-famous resort. “We thought we should check out what the fuss was all about,” said one of them.
