A local official on the Vietnamese island of Co To rejected on Thursday allegations that one of the local hotels had kicked out a group of guests during harsh weather conditions that have left over 1,000 tourists stuck since last weekend.

The island, off the northern province of Quang Ninh, which is home to the UNESCO-recognized Ha Long Bay, has been hit by the heaviest rainfall in four decades since Saturday.

A group of visitors from Hanoi, who stayed at the Thai Ha Hotel, have complained that they were asked to leave the facility on Sunday, despite the lashing rain outside.

“We wanted to extend the booking because it was raining very heavily and no boats were available to take us to shore,” The Anh, one of the visitors, told Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.

“But the hotel insisted we leave, saying they needed to clean the rooms to receive new guests.”

The visitors thus had to “walk in the rain” in search of a new hotel, and managed to find one.

But they were not able to return to shore until Thursday, when a naval ship was sent to bring the stranded tourists to the mainland.

“We will never tolerate what Thai Ha Hotel has done to us,” Anh said. “Perhaps we will never return to Co To.”

Hotels and homestay facilities on Co To Island reportedly cut, or even waived, room rates to assist the stranded visitors.

On Friday, Nguyen Cong Hung, an official in charge of culture and information on the island, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that there is a “misunderstanding” in the incident.

“There was inadequate information exchange between the hotel attendants and the tour guide of the tourists,” he said.

Hung said The Anh was among 40 guests who were brought to Co To by VP Tour, a travel agency.

The tourist group booked ten rooms at Thai Ha, and the contract expired on Sunday.

“The hotel told the tourists to leave so the rooms could be cleaned to receive new groups of guests,” Hung said.

“The facility also said if new visitors did not arrive, these tourists could continue staying there, while the room rates would be cut by 30 percent.”

But the tour guide, only known as Thanh, refused to continue staying at Thai Ha and brought his tourists to another lodging facility, Hung added.

“We have tried to reach Thanh but he would not pick up the phone,” the official said.

The navel ship, coded 634, which belongs to Naval Brigade 170, finished its first rescue mission late Thursday, bringing ashore 254, mostly children and the elderly, of nearly 1,500 tourists stranded on the island since last weekend.

The vessel, specializing in search and rescue efforts at sea, has a load capacity of 450 metric tons and is capable of carrying 300 to 500 people at a time, depending on weather and sea conditions.

It takes the ship around five hours to sail to the island and return to shore.

The ship will continue sailing to and from Co To Island to bring all the tourists back to the mainland today, July 31.

The remaining tourists, who were disappointed by not being able to be on the first journey back, are allowed to stay at hotels for free to wait for the ship, according to Co To chairman Hoang Ba Nam.

These visitors have been on the island for five to six days.    

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