The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday said a survey found that 11 of 14 hotels’ New Year’s Eve packages have cancelation policies that contravene regulations.
The survey found that four of the 11 hotels did not allow for cancelation or rescheduling.
Foundation chairman Yu Kai-hsiung (游開雄) said that according to the Mandatory Provisions and Prohibitory Provisions to Be Included in the Standard Form Contract for direct hotel bookings by individual travelers, the prepayment of a hotel reservation cannot exceed 30 percent of the total price, or more than 50 percent if the reserved date falls within a holiday of three days or more.
However, “many hotels arbitrarily enforced strict cancelation policies that are clearly against regulations,” Yu said.
For example, Shangri La’s Far Eastern Plaza Hotel Taipei (台北遠東國際大飯店), Grand Hyatt Taipei (台北君悅大飯店) and AT Boutique Hotel (晶璽商旅) all asked people to prepay the total price when making a reservation, while requiring that any cancelation or rescheduling be done before Dec. 1, otherwise they would be charged one night’s stay or the total price of their reservation, he said.
Hotels can only charge the full price when people cancel a reservation less than three days from their scheduled check-in date, he said, citing regulations.
The survey also found that some hotels cooperated with travel agencies to promote their New Year’s Eve packages, but the travel agencies’ Web sites said that people would be required to pay the full price in advance and would not be able to cancel or reschedule bookings.
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