Agents want to know in advance if hotels close

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Nov.24: Travel agents today demanded that they should be informed at least 15 days ahead if the hotels are going to be closed from December 11 next month due to the deadlock between hoteliers and their employees on the 10 per cent service charge issue.

"We need to know at least 15 days in advance about the closing down of the hotels so that we can inform our clients," said Bhola Thapa, President of Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA) during its special general meeting here today.

December 11 is the day the protesting unions of hotel employees have threatened to close down the hotels indefinitely if their demand to levy 10 per cent service charge on hotel clients is not met.

Employees of tourist rated hotels have been demanding the 10 per cent service charge as tips so that all the hotel staff could share the money.

Since the hoteliers and their employees have not yet reached any agreement on the issue, travel agents fear that the hotels may be closed down and they will have nowhere to take their clients to.

"Ultimately it is we who will be sandwiched between the row of the hoteliers and their employees," said Thapa. "We will have to receive the guests on their arrival and we will be in a fix if we will have no hotels to take them to."

Thapa said that the strong consumers' forums in the USA and Europe would first sue the travel agents if they have nowhere to stay here. "Since we will have to bear the brunt, we want to be in the safe side."

Going by what Narendra Bajracharya, President of Hotel Association Nepal, had to say at the meeting today, the tug of war between the hoteliers and their employees is there to remain. "There has to be a detailed study on the matter. It is not something that can be decided overnight."

He reiterated HAN's stand that tips should be voluntary and the guests should not be forced to pay the 10 per cent service charge compulsorily. "We are already over-burdened with the 10 per cent Value Added Tax and the two per cent Tourist Service Fee. Yet another 10 per cent addition in the tax is imply going to be unbearable."

Bajracharya's indication that the study on the issue may take time is something notwithstanding what the employees unions have been maintaining. After postponing their shut down strike for nearly a month some two weeks ago, the hotel workers have been adamant to close down the hotels on December 11 if their demand is not met.

"Enough studies have been done on the matter in the past. All that the government needs to do is take a decision in this regard," said Bishnu Lamsal, General Secretary of the Joint Action Committee of the Hotel employees' unions.

With both the sides sticking to their guns, travel agents are in the dilemma. "Since none of the sides are budging from their stands, we are left undecided," said Thapa. "That is why we need to know 15 days ahead of the scheduled date of the strike if the hotels would actually be closed down."

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