MADURAI: The Madurai District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission recently ordered Hotel Le Castle to refund an additional room rent Rs 1,500 collected by the hotel from a couple in 2022, on charges that it deliberately withheld information about the checkout time.
The president of the commission M Piravi Perumal and member IP Shanmugapriya also directed the hotel to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to the couple for unfair trade and negligent service, and Rs 5,000 towards litigation expense.
According to the order, the complainant and her husband had checked-in at the hotel on July 12, 2022 at 11.50 pm and were informed that the room rent per day was Rs 1,500. They paid Rs 2,000 towards room rent and advance as demanded by the hotel management, and checked-out the next day at 7.30 pm.
But when they asked the staff to refund the advance amount of Rs 500, the management demanded them to pay an additional amount of Rs 1,000 (Rs 3,000 in total) as the second day's room rent, stating that it was past their check-out time which was 12 noon. Claiming that they suffered mental agony due to the excess collection of room rent, the couple moved the forum seeking compensation.
Since the hotel management failed to contest the case despite notice, the commission, based on the complaint and documentary evidence, concluded that the management had withheld vital information regarding its checkout time and collected an excess amount from the complainant. Holding that the management was therefore guilty of negligent service and unfair trade practice, the commission passed the above order.