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DOT urges hotels to impose proper payment procedures
By Ding Cervantes
May 24, 2010
ANGELES CITY – The Department of Tourism (DOT) in Central Luzon has come out with guidelines to protect hotel owners from tourists who vanish without paying their bills.
“We have been receiving reports of fraudulent transactions involving hotel guests who fail to pay their hotel bills after staying for an extended period of time. In most instances, guests attempt to leave the premises in a huff outside the peering eye of management,” said DOT regional director Ronaldo Tiotuico.
To help hotels avoid this, Tiotuico said he issued an advisory to all DOT-accredited hotels and other lodging establishments, urging them “to exercise prudence and impose proper payment procedures in admitting guests into their premises.”
He said the advisory also listed “procedures” culled from a series of informal consultations with the members of the Hotels and Restaurants in Pampanga (HARP) led by its president Jim Dale of Hotel La Casa.
The advisory urged hotels and lodging facilities to “see to it that upon check-in, guests should be properly identified by showing their passport and logging in the details for future reference.”
“A photocopy of the passport should come in handy. Management should then ask the guest for his valid credit card for initial swiping on the processing machine for verification purposes only (no amount should be punched at this stage),” it said.
It also urged that guests be required to indicate the period of their stay.
“If the guest leaves and fails to pay his bills, the pre-verified credit account on the credit card processing machine may be used to order the full payment of the bills, even if no credit card has been presented by the guest as the guest has left the hotel premises without notifying the management. Record all transactions involving guests to ensure legal basis in case of complaints in the future,” the advisory said.
The advisory also said that “in cases wherein no credit card is available, hotel management should ask guests for a security deposit worth at least half the amount of the duration of stay of the guests” and that “refusal to pay security deposit should prompt management to refuse admittance of guest.”
“Intermittently, statements of account should be issued to the guest upon consumption of the said deposit to remind him of his balance of payment during his extended stay. If no payment is made, management either collects using legal procedures or prompts guest to check out so as not further aggravate his financial woes,” the advisory also said.
At the same time, Tiotuico urged hotels, tourist inns and other lodging establishments in Central Luzon “to file their accreditation with the tourism department by logging on to www.visitmyphilippines.com.
“Applicants need not go to the regional office to submit their application papers except when paying transaction fees, securing stickers and identification cards for employees,” he said.
“We have been receiving reports of fraudulent transactions involving hotel guests who fail to pay their hotel bills after staying for an extended period of time. In most instances, guests attempt to leave the premises in a huff outside the peering eye of management,” said DOT regional director Ronaldo Tiotuico.
To help hotels avoid this, Tiotuico said he issued an advisory to all DOT-accredited hotels and other lodging establishments, urging them “to exercise prudence and impose proper payment procedures in admitting guests into their premises.”
He said the advisory also listed “procedures” culled from a series of informal consultations with the members of the Hotels and Restaurants in Pampanga (HARP) led by its president Jim Dale of Hotel La Casa.
The advisory urged hotels and lodging facilities to “see to it that upon check-in, guests should be properly identified by showing their passport and logging in the details for future reference.”
“A photocopy of the passport should come in handy. Management should then ask the guest for his valid credit card for initial swiping on the processing machine for verification purposes only (no amount should be punched at this stage),” it said.
It also urged that guests be required to indicate the period of their stay.
“If the guest leaves and fails to pay his bills, the pre-verified credit account on the credit card processing machine may be used to order the full payment of the bills, even if no credit card has been presented by the guest as the guest has left the hotel premises without notifying the management. Record all transactions involving guests to ensure legal basis in case of complaints in the future,” the advisory said.
The advisory also said that “in cases wherein no credit card is available, hotel management should ask guests for a security deposit worth at least half the amount of the duration of stay of the guests” and that “refusal to pay security deposit should prompt management to refuse admittance of guest.”
“Intermittently, statements of account should be issued to the guest upon consumption of the said deposit to remind him of his balance of payment during his extended stay. If no payment is made, management either collects using legal procedures or prompts guest to check out so as not further aggravate his financial woes,” the advisory also said.
At the same time, Tiotuico urged hotels, tourist inns and other lodging establishments in Central Luzon “to file their accreditation with the tourism department by logging on to www.visitmyphilippines.com.
“Applicants need not go to the regional office to submit their application papers except when paying transaction fees, securing stickers and identification cards for employees,” he said.
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