Chinese refund hotel overcharge

Press, 19 June 1986, Page 1

Chinese refund hotel overcharge

PA Dunedin The Chinese authorities have apologised to a New Zealand tour group and refunded $3OOO overcharged by a Tibetan hotel.

The tour leader, Miss Patricia Graham, of Alexandra, said she was pleased with the result and would now be happy to lead another Otago University extension study tour.

At a hotel in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, Miss Graham’s tour group was told it would not be allowed to leave unless it paid an extra 4800 yuan ($3000). In Peking she could get no explanation from the China International Travel Service, which

runs tourism in China. She was told, however, that the matter would be investigated. In a letter to the “Otago Daily Times” newspaper, the Chinese Embassy in Wellington explained that the hotel was newer and more expensive than the type that had been arranged in advance. Local guides had checked the group into the hotel without checking with the travel service’s head office in Peking or asking the group if it wished to pay the higher tariff.

“Hence the guide’s demand for an extra 4800 yuan before the group checked out, to offset the hotel tariff difference,” the Embassy wrote.