The Tourism Bureau yesterday hosted an exhibition at Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park to raise awareness about finding legal accommodation, after a slew of illegal daily rentals, hostels and hotels were uncovered in the first half of the year.
The event offered people participants the chance to win vouchers worth NT$10,000 (US$314) and other prizes, the bureau said.
The exhibition also featured augmented reality installations, enabling participants to experience the environments of select establishments by scanning a QR code.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
People tend to rely on Web sites to search for accommodation, but many illegal operators are active on the Internet, Department of Travel and Accommodations Director-General Tsao Yi-min (曹逸民) said.
The bureau also collaborated with illustrators Nipang and Ameow, commissioning illustrations that would help promote little-known facts about legal accommodation.
The easiest way to check whether accommodation is legal is to look up the establishment’s name on the Taiwan Stay Web site, the bureau said.
People who have stayed in illegal accommodation should provide proof of transactions, photographs of the establishment and recordings of phone calls with the establishment, it said.
They can also provide screenshots of their discussions with the establishment if they have contacted them via e-mail or a messaging app, it added.
The bureau said it found 989 illegal hotels in the first half of the year, down from 127 during the same period last year.
Owners of unlicensed hotels can be fined NT$100,000 to NT$500,000, the bureau said.
Taipei had the most offenders at 201. Taichung followed with 187, Yilan County had 131, Kaohsiung had 111 and Tainan had 110, it said.
The bureau also fined 656 illegal daily rental units a total of NT$51.50 million and 428 illegal hostels NT$10.68 million.
Illegal hostels and hotels that have advertised can be fined an additional NT$30,000 to NT$300,000, the bureau said.
The bureau said that known tourist spots, such as Taichung’s Fengchia Night Market (逢甲夜市), Kaohsiung’s 85 Sky Tower, and Taipei’s Qsquare building and Ximending area (西門町), are full of illegal accommodation, and warned people to be careful.
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