Tour ops cry foul as hotels overbook rooms

SOME hotels in Cape
Town are overbooking
rooms, bumping tour
groups at the last minute who
then have to find alternative
accommodation.
One tour operator, who
asked to remain anonymous,
recently had a group bumped
because the hotel was
overbooked for a conference.
The operator said that while
tour groups were usually
re-accommodated in another
equally graded hotel, these
types of incidents were
damaging, as inconvenienced
clients believed the error was
the fault of the tour operator.
Another operator, whose
clients were also bumped
from a hotel, said it had to
re-accommodate guests at
its own expense. The tour
operator said this was a
growing trend among the hotel
groups in Cape Town and
suggested that hotels were
carrying out this practice to
increase profits.
It’s fraud
According to the Consumer
Protection Act (CPA), hotels
that overbook could face
legal action, says Advocate
Louis Nel.
Louis says tour operators
who have pre-paid tour
groups bumped from hotels
must examine the terms and
conditions when they paid
for the rooms. He says the
terms and conditions might
state that guests could be
bumped from rooms even if
payment had been made, if
the hotel was overbooked. If it
did not state this, Louis says
the hotel could be held liable
for fraud.
The CPA states that a
supplier, in this case the hotel,
must not accept payment
or other consideration for
any goods or services if the
supplier has no reasonable
basis to assert an intention
to supply those goods or
provide those services; or
intends to supply goods or
services that are materially
different from the goods or
services in respect of which
the payment or consideration
was accepted.
The CPA also states that if a
supplier makes a commitment
or accepts a reservation to
supply goods or services on a
specified date or at a specified
time and, on the date and at
the time contemplated in the
commitment or reservation,
fails because of insufficient
stock or capacity to supply
those goods or services, or
similar or comparable goods
or services of the same or
better quality, class or nature,
the supplier must —
(a) refund to the consumer
the amount, if any, paid in
respect of that commitment
or reservation, together with
interest at the prescribed rate
from the date on which the
amount was paid until the
date of reimbursement; and
(b) in addition, compensate
the consumer for costs directly
incidental to the supplier’s
breach of the contract, except
to the extent that subsection
(5) provides otherwise.