Complaints to Hong Kong consumer watchdog over delays in refunds for shorter hotel quarantines
- Quarantine hotel guests outraged by long delays for refunds after mandatory isolation period cut from seven to three days
- Consumer Council tells hotels to be open about time frames for refunds as it fields 16 complaints since quarantine cut on Tuesday
About 9,800 people have left Covid-19 quarantine hotels in Hong Kong after the time frame was cut to three days from seven – but the reduction has sparked a string of complaints to the consumer watchdog about delays of up to six months for refunds on prepaid stays.
Andrea Grippi, a machine learning and artificial intelligence researcher, said the Ramada Hong Kong Harbour View told him that his refund would be processed between 150-180 business days after checkout.
The 29-year-old, who posted an image of the hotel’s response on social media on Wednesday, said the news was the “final straw”.
“I always comply with all the regulations and all the rules and everything, and this thing seemed to me a little bit excessive,” Grippi said.
“The fact that it is not only me, but the fact that they keep everyone else’s money … for months.
“I was pretty annoyed by that, so that’s why I decided to post it on Twitter.”
Grippi said he told the hotel he was considering filing a complaint with the Consumer Council and the refund period was cut to 40 business days.
