Beijing, April 4 (Reporter Yang Zhaokui) "On April 24, I booked a homestay in the scenic area of Changdao in Yantai, Shandong Province during the May Day period on an online travel platform, for 4 yuan a night. But not long after booking, the owner of the homestay called me to cancel the order, saying that if I want to stay, I must order three meals, and the same price for adults and children, 16 yuan per person per day. Today, Ms. Lu, a consumer in Beijing's Dongcheng District, told the "Workers' Daily" reporter that after booking a homestay, she encountered a "threatening" cut by the boss, and had no choice but to cancel the order.
"Because the itinerary has already been decided, we had to book other homestays at a higher price, but I didn't expect that the operation of homestays is so irregular now." Ms. Lu said that she wanted to take advantage of the May Day holiday to take her children out to play, but she didn't expect to encounter something bad before she went out.
Ms. Lu's experience is not unique, recently, many consumers reported to reporters that booking homestays and hotels were cut by merchants. On the Internet, many tourists also shared their experiences of encountering homestays and hotel refunds and contract violations, and the news of "'May Day' homestay price increase and contract destruction" rushed to the hot search.
For the reason for cutting the order, some merchants said that the boss changed, some said that it was renovated, and some did not even give any reason to cancel the order directly. In this regard, industry insiders pointed out that although there are many reasons for merchants to cut orders, it is mainly because of the enthusiasm of tourists traveling on May Day this year, which has led to the current price increase in hotel and homestay reservations. Some merchants did not have a high price some time ago, and felt that they were "losing", so they thought of cutting orders and then selling them at a high price.
On April 4, Ms. Chen, a consumer in Beijing's Chaoyang District, booked a homestay in Datong, Shanxi Province during the May Day period through a platform. On April 20, the platform's customer service contacted Ms. Chen by phone, saying that the owner of the homestay wanted to increase the price and hoped that Ms. Chen would cancel the order. In desperation, Ms. Chen canceled the order and rebooked the hotel. Later, she found that the price of the homestay she had booked had increased by more than 4 yuan per night.
In response to the situation of merchants cutting orders, lawyers from the China Consumers Association's legal group pointed out that the cancellation of consumer orders that have been paid for by merchants is an act of cutting orders clearly regulated by the E-commerce Law, which infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and disrupts the normal online consumption environment. Merchants shall comply with the provisions of the Civil Code, the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, and the E-Commerce Law on the protection of consumers' lawful rights and interests, and perform contractual obligations in accordance with law. If the person fails to perform the contractual obligations, he shall bear the liability for breach of contract according to law.
Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Chinese Minmin University, believes that the frequent problem of cutting orders in the field of homestays and hotels is mainly due to the low cost and high return of contract destruction. This kind of behavior is too ugly, and it also infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, once this unscrupulous operation method becomes a common practice, it is not conducive to the development of the entire tourism industry. Relevant online travel platforms apply big data to analyze and judge, strengthen supervision and management of merchants in accordance with legal provisions and platform rules, and may criticize and warn dishonest merchants, deduct credit points, fines, publicize them, and even clear up the platform. Relevant departments can dispel the idea of merchants cutting orders from the root cause by issuing relevant administrative rules and other means.
Yang Zhaokui
Daily Worker