News

With the reopening of borders and the impending school holidays, many people will be travelling. Amid the fun and excitement, it is important that people be wary of unscrupulous service providers, who may take advantage of unsuspecting and trusting travellers to make extra money. Take what happened to my friend and his family after a recent vacation in Brisbane. About a week after returning, he received a message from the hotel, with an accompanying photograph of a canister containing cigarette butts, accusing him of smoking in the room, which was disallowed, and causing the room to reek of cigarette smoke. The hotel claimed that the room had to be cleaned, and charged A$200 (S$181) to his credit card. Of course, my friend was flabbergasted, as he and his wife are non-smokers, and they were there with their two young children. Furthermore, had the room reeked of cigarette smoke, non-smokers like them would have noticed this after checking in and requested a change of room. Someone was obviously trying to take advantage of them. It is the hotel’s responsibility to check the room when guests check out, to ascertain if extra charges should be levied. This cannot be done after the customer has checked out and returned home, as he is not present to witness the claim. And if no extra charges are levied after guests have checked out, the credit card slip generated during check-in must be destroyed in the customer’s presence, to prevent fraudulent activities later, as in this case. The onus also lies with the customer to ensure that this is done, to safeguard himself from fraudulent acts.