HOTEL CHARGES

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26870, 24 October 1952, Page 2

HOTEL CHARGES

PRICE CONTROL TO • REMAIN STATEMENT BY MR WATTS (New Zealand Press Association) m WELLINGTON, October 23. The Government did not feel justified at this stage in removing either the licensed trade dr private hotels from price control, said the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr J. T. Watts) today. He was commenting on statements made by hotel proprietors in Auckland, who have been reported as saying that unless the Government acted soon the standard of service would inevitably deteriorate. Mr Watts said that the statement was often made that much higher tariffs were charged tourists overseas, but British and Australian experience showed that tourists wanted something more than high hotel tariffs. They wanted service as well. The Minister said that the standard procedure at present was that any proprietor wishing to give an improved service could put the facts before the price control authorities and be allowed higher tariff rates. That had been done in many cases. The licensed trade had granted in the last few months increases in house charges, lounge charges, and in bar spirits charges, and those higher charges had £een granted as soon as evidence was produced to show increased costs.

• Mr Watts said that the Price Tribunal and the Government were always concerned at suggestions that hotels or any other branch of trade were operating at a loss, but the position could only be rectified if accurate, properly authenticated information was given on which to base a decision on price increases. General statements were not enough. Delays about which complaints were made were usually the result of the price control authorities having to ask for further information—which should have been given in the first place, said Mr Watts. He suggested that recent discussions between the Price Tribunal and the chairman of the Auckland Hotel Proprietors’ Association would show that the Price Tribunal and the Government were interested in the private hotels’ position, and that that interest could be improved by closer collaboration.